Asia Tech Wire (Aug 9) -- Chinese AI startup Meta Sota recently closed a new round of funding of over 100 million yuan ($14 million) led by Ant Group and followed by Lightspeed China Partners, according to LatePost.

LatePost said Meta Sota has a valuation of $150 million after closing the round.

The startup has previously received investments from Future Capital, Cheetah Mobile and AMINO Capital, among others.

Sources said that major Chinese tech companies such as Baidu and Tencent had also approached Meta Sota during the funding round, and Ant eventually struck a deal with the AI startup.

Since last year, Ant Group has invested in at least six companies in the AI sector, including large model firms Zhipu AI and Moonshot AI, video generation firms AIsphere and Shengshu AI , AI chip company Moffett AI and Meta Sota.

Founded in April 2018, Meta Sota is an AI-focused company that develops products such as AI search, AI writing, and legal translation.

In March, the startup launched its AI search product, Metaso AI, with more than 7 million website visits that month.