A Hangzhou-based artificial intelligence (AI) start-up specialising in enterprise AI agents has secured over 100 million yuan (US$14 million) from investors led by Alibaba Group Holding鈥檚 cloud unit, as Chinese companies strive to leverage the technology to raise business efficiency.
BetterYeah AI, a prominent player in China鈥檚 enterprise AI sector founded by former Alibaba executives, said on Wednesday it had completed its latest financing round with contributions from Alibaba Cloud and venture firms Maintrend Capital and Foresight Capital. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
It marked the 鈥渓argest single investment deal鈥 in the AI agent market, the start-up said.
AI agents are programs that are capable of autonomously performing tasks on behalf of a user or another system. Essentially, these agents create a plan of specific tasks and subtasks to complete a goal using available resources.
These AI applications are increasingly seen as the future of business automation. While many start-ups focus on consumer AI agents, BetterYeah AI develops enterprise AI agents that help streamline office operations and management, such as in online client services.
Alibaba is striving to become a leading provider of enterprise AI services in China, particularly for small businesses. It has pledged to invest US$53 billion in AI computing infrastructure over the next three years.
BetterYeah AI said it had served nearly 100,000 enterprise teams, with notable clients including personal computer giant Lenovo Group and home appliance maker Supor. The company plans to unveil a 鈥渘ew-generation corporate AI agent platform鈥 in the third quarter, aimed at creating 鈥渂etter digital colleagues鈥.
BetterYeah鈥檚 founder Zhang Yi was formerly a vice-president at Alibaba鈥檚 DingTalk enterprise communications platform. He was recognised for his contributions to the development of various 鈥渟mart human resources鈥 enterprise products during his tenure at DingTalk.
His co-founders 鈥 chief operating officer Huang Wen and chief technology officer Huang Zhongkun 鈥 also have backgrounds in DingTalk, according to the company鈥檚 profile.
Chinese companies are making rapid advances in the AI agent market. Major tech firms such as ByteDance and Baidu have introduced their own products, Coze and AgentBuilder, respectively.
In March, Chinese firm Butterfly Effect鈥檚 AI agent, Manus, drew global attention for its ability to execute complex tasks, making it one of the most promising AI start-ups to emerge from the country since DeepSeek.
The global AI agent market was valued at US$5.43 billion in 2024. It is projected to grow to about US$236 billion by 2034, from around US$8 billion in 2025, according to consulting firm Precedence Research.