ModelBest
ModelBest (面壁智能) is a Beijing-based AI company, founded in 2022, that develops lightweight on-device large language, multimodal, and voice models (MiniCPM, MiniCPM-V, MiniCPM-o, VoxCPM) and licenses them to automotive OEMs, chip makers, consumer-electronics manufacturers, robotics firms, and government institutions including China's Supreme People's Court.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2022
- HeadquartersHaidian, China
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What ModelBest does
ModelBest (北京面壁智能科技有限责任公司) is a Beijing-based AI foundation-model company founded in 2022 that develops lightweight, high-performance large language and multimodal models optimized for on-device edge deployment. Its core product family is the MiniCPM series, which spans text LLMs (0.5B to 8B parameters), multimodal vision-language models (MiniCPM-V 2.0 through 4.5), the full-modal MiniCPM-o 2.6, and the VoxCPM voice generation model, all built on a proprietary theoretical framework the company calls the 'Knowledge Density Law' (面壁定律). The technology stack emphasizes sparse attention, int4 quantization, the CPM.cu inference framework, and chip-level co-optimization, enabling models to run on consumer-grade hardware with as little as 2GB of memory at up to 220x inference acceleration. The company open-sources its models through the OpenBMB community (100,000+ GitHub stars, 1M+ downloads) while commercializing through enterprise B2B licensing, OEM/chip integration, and bespoke solutions.
ModelBest monetizes primarily through model licensing and OEM integration fees (MiniCPM embedded in partners' products and platforms such as MediaTek mobile SoCs, Intel AI PC chips, and Baidu Cloud) and through professional services for customized industry solutions, including intelligent cabins, on-device AI assistants, and vertical-domain models (e.g., China's first judicial foundation model co-developed with the Supreme People's Court). Its go-to-market blends a product-led/open-source top-of-funnel with enterprise direct sales and chip-OEM channel partnerships targeting automotive OEMs (Geely, Changan, Great Wall Motors, Volkswagen, Huawei), consumer-electronics manufacturers, cloud platforms, robotics companies (Booster Robotics, Elephant Robot), and government/institutional buyers. The company has raised eight funding rounds between 2022 and April 2026, completed multiple Tier-1 automotive and chip OEM partnerships through 2025, and became the first LLM company in China to pass ASPICE L2 automotive-grade certification.
ModelBest firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- ModelBest
- Legal name
- 北京面壁智能科技有限责任公司
- Website
- https://modelbest.cn
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2022
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- ModelBest (面壁智能) is a Beijing-based AI company, founded in 2022, that develops lightweight on-device large language, multimodal, and voice models (MiniCPM, MiniCPM-V, MiniCPM-o, VoxCPM) and licenses them to automotive OEMs, chip makers, consumer-electronics manufacturers, robotics firms, and government institutions including China's Supreme People's Court.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
ModelBest industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Edge AI Foundation Models
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)
- akta.pro primary industry
- On-Device/Edge Foundation Models (Mobile/Embedded LLMs) (HDAAACAN)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Model Serving, Inference & Deployment Platforms (APIs, Edge/On-Prem) (HDAEANAC), Model Hosting, Serving & Inference Platforms (HDAAACAB), Fine-Tuning, Adaptation & Custom Model Training (PEFT/LoRA/RLHF) (HDAAACAC), MLOps/LLMOps & Model Lifecycle Management Services (BPAEAHAH)
Keywords
Where ModelBest is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Haidian
- HQ country
- China
- HQ region
- Asia
Offices1 record
Markets served
ModelBest business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Model Licensing and OEM Integration: License MiniCPM model series to enterprise customers including automotive OEMs, smartphone/PC manufacturers, and robotics companies. Models are integrated into partners' chips (MediaTek SoC), platforms (Intel AI PC, Baidu Cloud), and products. Revenue derived from technology licensing fees and per-unit royalties where applicable.
- Enterprise B2B Solutions: Provide customized AI solutions for specific industries such as judicial/legal systems (first judicial judgment vertical domain model in China), automotive (intelligent cabins), and consumer electronics. Revenue from solution development fees and ongoing support contracts.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels6 records
ModelBest product offering
Product offeringCore offering
ModelBest develops and licenses the MiniCPM series of lightweight, high-performance large language and multimodal AI foundation models optimized for on-device (edge) deployment. The portfolio includes text LLMs (MiniCPM 4.0/3.0/2.0/1.0), vision-language models (MiniCPM-V 4.5/2.6/2.5/2.0), full-modal models (MiniCPM-o 2.6), and voice generation (VoxCPM). Models are delivered via open-source community distribution, enterprise licensing to OEMs and chip makers, and integration into consumer electronics, automotive intelligent cabins, embodied robots and government systems.
Product overview
ModelBest is an edge AI company offering a comprehensive portfolio of efficient on-device large language models. The product suite centers on the MiniCPM series for text generation, MiniCPM-V for multimodal (image/video) understanding, MiniCPM-o for full-modal (audio/video/text/image) capabilities, and VoxCPM for voice generation. These models are deployed across consumer electronics (phones, PCs) via Pinea brand, automotive intelligent cabins, embodied robots, and wearable devices. The company pioneered the 'Knowledge Density Law' guiding efficient model development where parameter counts halve every 3.3 months for equivalent performance. Models support major inference frameworks (llama.cpp, ollama, vLLM) and are available through the OpenBMB open-source community.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- MiniCPM (小钢炮): World-leading lightweight and high-performance LLM series for edge devices including phones, PCs, AI cabins, and embodied robots.
- OpenBMB
- Pinea (松果派)
- Lantay (兰台令)
- VoxCPM
Products and services
- MiniCPM Series Lightweight, high-performance on-device large language model family in 8B, 4B, 2.4B, 1.2B and 0.5B variants that delivers ChatGPT- to GPT-4o-level text generation and long-context understanding (up to 512K+ tokens) at low memory and cost; intended for consumer electronics, automotive, robotics and enterprise AI developers.
- MiniCPM-V Multimodal Model Series
Quantifiable outcome
- MiniCPM 4.0 achieves performance on par with Qwen-3-8B and surpassing Gemma-3-12B with only 22% training cost
- +6 more outcomes
Companies that use ModelBest
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
ModelBest technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
AI capability12 records
Feature11 records
ModelBest partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- IntelcoreStrategic partnership with Intel for AI PC optimization. ModelBest's MiniCPM edge models are deeply adapted and accelerated on Intel's latest desktop flagship chips. Partnership provides significant market push and technical acceleration for AI PC applications.
- Baidu Cloud (百度智能云)coreStrategic cooperation signed October 30, 2025 to jointly build a large model cloud-edge coordination solution, accelerating model deployment in embodied intelligence, intelligent terminals, and edge computing applications. Partnership signed by CEO Li Dahu and COO Lei Shengtao.
- MediaTekcoreJoint optimization partnership with MediaTek for the next-generation mobile SoC. ModelBest collaborated with MediaTek to tune on-device AI capabilities for the new 3nm Tianji 9400 mobile chip.
- Great Wall Motors (长城汽车)coreStrategic cooperation agreement signed September 27, 2025 for deep collaboration on AI large model technology R&D in automotive. Partnership aims to integrate ModelBest's edge large model capabilities with Great Wall Motors' technology stacks across multiple areas including intelligent driving and user services.
- Huixi Technology (HUIXI)coreHUIXI and ModelBest signed strategic cooperation agreement on September 19, 2025 to advance edge AI innovation for automotive and embodied intelligence. The partnership combines HUIXI's high-compute AI chips with ModelBest's MiniCPM large-model series through joint optimization, co-debugging, deployment validation, and co-development. Targets applications in cars, smartphones, PCs, and embodied intelligence systems.
- Booster Robotics (加速进化机器人)corePartnership at 2024 World Robot Conference to create a complete 'embodied intelligence' pioneer solution. Industry's first efficient edge model running on humanoid robot demonstration for understanding, reasoning, and physical world interaction.
- Elephant Robot (大象机器人)minorCollaboration to bring super realistic, emotionally nuanced robot pets. Partnership combines cloud and edge models for differentiated robotic product experiences.
- Tsinghua University NLP LabcoreOngoing research collaboration with Tsinghua University's NLP laboratory. Joint development of UltraEval-Audio framework, research publications in Nature Communications, and academic沙龙 activities.
- Zhihu (知乎)coreZhihu partnered with ModelBest to develop zhida.ai, an AI-driven Q&A feature providing users with summarized and detailed responses. ModelBest provided its Zhihaitu AI model for the new Q&A feature deployment.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
ModelBest competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- DeepSeek:
- Zhipu AI (Z.ai): Chinese foundation model developer behind the GLM series. Z.ai co-invested in ModelBest's seed and Series A rounds alongside Zhihu, indicating close competitive and ecosystem overlap in the Chinese LLM market. Both compete for Chinese enterprise, automotive, and government AI deployments.
Broad incumbents
- Alibaba Qwen Team: Developer of the Qwen family of LLMs and multimodal models including on-device variants (Qwen2.5-VL). As a hyperscaler-backed effort with massive compute budget, Qwen is a direct competitor in Chinese edge and cloud AI, and was specifically benchmarked against by ModelBest's MiniCPM-V 4.5.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
ModelBest social profiles
Digital presenceModelBest compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
ModelBest financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
ModelBest leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
ModelBest funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds11 records
Investors28 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
ModelBest M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments1 record
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about ModelBest
What does ModelBest do?
ModelBest develops and licenses the MiniCPM series of lightweight, high-performance large language and multimodal AI foundation models optimized for on-device (edge) deployment. The portfolio includes text LLMs (MiniCPM 4.0/3.0/2.0/1.0), vision-language models (MiniCPM-V 4.5/2.6/2.5/2.0), full-modal models (MiniCPM-o 2.6), and voice generation (VoxCPM). Models are delivered via open-source community distribution, enterprise licensing to OEMs and chip makers, and integration into consumer electronics, automotive intelligent cabins, embodied robots and government systems.
Is ModelBest a public or private company?
ModelBest is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was ModelBest founded?
ModelBest was founded in 2022. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is ModelBest based?
ModelBest is headquartered in Haidian, China, in the Asia region.
How does ModelBest make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Model Licensing and OEM Integration is the primary driver. The others are enterprise B2B Solutions.
Who are ModelBest's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are DeepSeek and Zhipu AI (Z.ai). Alibaba Qwen Team is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does ModelBest have an API?
No public API is recorded for ModelBest.
What industry is ModelBest in?
ModelBest's product category is Edge AI Foundation Models. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAACAN, On-Device/Edge Foundation Models (Mobile/Embedded LLMs), with a secondary code of HDAEANAC, Model Serving, Inference & Deployment Platforms (APIs, Edge/On-Prem). Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7372.