MiniMax will acquire the AI video startup Avolution.ai. The two parties have already finalized their acquisition intention.
Exclusive insider information from multiple sources reveals that the AI video start-up ‘Avolution.ai will be acquired’ by MiniMaxThe two parties have already finalized their acquisition intention and the related process continues. MiniMax has yet to respond as of the publication date.
When Avolution.ai reached the angel investing stage in 2024, its valuation was not more than $20 million USD. This is approximately 100 million RMB.
According to insiders, Avolution.ai had been seeking a second round financing since last year. However, the process has not been easy. The team has some experience with AI video technology, and chose to work with MiniMax out of mutual benefit.
Avolution.ai, a platform for AI video creation based on self-developed LCM visual models, was founded in September of 2023. Avolution.ai finished angel investing in August 2024 with participation from LanchiVC, Redpoint China Ventures.
Avolution.ai launched YoYo, a two-dimensional AI video creation platform for anime in July 2024. Users can enter text descriptions or images for quick creation of high-quality animation content.
All members of the founding team at Avolution.ai have graduated from prestigious universities. Dr. Huang Zhaoyang, CEO and founder of Avolution.ai, graduated from Hong Kong Chinese University in Electronic Engineering with a Bachelor’s degree and earned his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees at Zhejiang University. He worked at SenseTime NVIDIA and Siemens before starting the company. Li Qian, COO/CFO, holds a Master of Financial Policy from the University of Chicago. He has worked for GP Capital Securities, China Galaxy Securities and Baidu Finance. CTO Wang Chaoqi has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Computer Science and worked previously at Google Brain Research Institute.
MiniMax’s layout has been greatly aided by the acquisition of Avolution.ai in the area of video generation models.
MINIMAX UNVEILS Open-Source AI models Featuring Lightning-Fast Attention for Ultra-Long-Contexts
Hai Luo AI has consistently ranked in the top of global traffic rankings since the launch of its video production function under MiniMax. Hai Luo Video is ranked 12th in a16z’s list of the Top 100 Generative AI applications for 2025. It leads domestic video AI rankings, and surpasses overseas products like Sora, Midjourney and Runway.
MiniMax is making continuous efforts in the video models field: In September 2024 MiniMax released Abab-video-1, its first AI high definition video generation model; In December 2024 it released I2V-01 Live, an image-to video model optimized for anime effects. MiniMax launched its S2V model in mid-January 2025. In March, the global rollout of the lens control function.
With open source and constant technological advancements, the competition in AI video will intensify.
