AI-powered platform AIVA gets seed funding from China's tech giant NetEase

By Emmanuel Legrand

Luxembourg-based start-up AIVA Technologies has raised €1.5m in seed funding from Chinese entertainment, gaming and digital platform NetEase. AIVA operates an artificial intelligence-powered platform which composes soundtracks for video games and films.

  AIVA was co-founded in 2016 by Denis Shtefan (CTO), Pierre Barreau (CEO) and Vincent Barreau (COO), with the goal to provide an Artificial Intelligence service "capable of composing emotional soundtracks for films, video games, commercials and any type of entertainment content."

  AIVA said the funds will be used for engineer recruitment, international expansion, and the development of dedicated solutions for NetEase in the Chinese market, in particular working with NetEase's video games subsidiary NetEase Games.

Collaboration on NetEase's games

  “We started discussions with NetEase in December 2019,” AIVA CEO Pierre Barreau told news platform Silicon Luxembourg. "Their teams contacted us to discuss a collaboration for one of their new products in China and coincidentally, the discussion led to them investing in our company."

  Based in Luxembourg, AIVA is among the tech companies that have received funding from the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union. It also received initial backing from Kima Ventures and the government of Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg.

  The site allows users to pick the genre of music they are searching for and then lets the users compose music pieces with the support of AIVA, using preset styles or influences. The company offers three plans: a Free Plan, where users can use tracks that are created for non-commercial purposes, with the copyright of the tracks created owned by AIVA; a Standard Plan (€14 p/month), which is similar to the Free Plan apply, except that users do not need to give AIVA credit and own the copyright of the tracks they created; and a Pro Plan (€39 p/month), where all of the pieces created under a Free or Standard plan will have their licenses upgrade to "Full Copyright."