TMTPOST -- Chinese artificial intelligence startup ChatExcel has raised tens of millions of yuan in its latest Pre-A and Series A funding rounds, backed by Koala Fund and Heding Capital, as it steps up investment in product development and overseas expansion.

The company said the fresh capital would be used mainly to enhance its products and broaden its market reach. It previously raised money from Shanghai Changlei Capital and Wuhan Donghu Angel Fund, and the latest transaction marks ChatExcel’s third fundraising round in 2025.

Founded by a team from Peking University on the eve of the large language model boom, ChatExcel focuses on so-called “AI for Data” — applying artificial intelligence to help users collect, process and analyse large volumes of structured and unstructured information. Its two PhD co-founders began by combining traditional machine learning with spreadsheet tools before shifting to transformer-based models that underpin its current products.

Industry researchers at InData Labs forecast the global big data analytics market will grow from about $348 billion in 2024 to more than $924 billion by 2032, but companies still struggle to locate, integrate and use data scattered across websites, documents, images, audio and video.

“Vast amounts of data are trapped in unstructured formats. An AI DataAgent must be able to turn that into structured outputs and then combine it with industry knowledge to generate productivity,” founder Pang Dawei said in an interview.

ChatExcel has built a multimodal data platform covering data collection, processing, querying, business intelligence, reporting and a marketplace for data products and AI agents. Its tools allow users to analyse spreadsheets and databases through natural-language queries rather than complex formulas or code.

The company said its products have been used more than 10 million times and that it has commercial partnerships with firms including Apple, Lenovo, Huawei and HP, often deploying its software locally on devices to address data privacy and speed concerns.

Pang said ChatExcel’s strategy for the second half of 2025 would focus on agent-based AI services, intelligent agents and on-device AI software, while global expansion would be the main growth driver in 2026. The company has already launched an overseas version of its platform.

“As the product matures, our battlefield is no longer just refining models, but bringing them to users worldwide,” Pang said.