Funding

Jerry Ye Co-founded Whale Scores $40M to Grow Enterprise AI Business

Jul 17, 2026 | By Devin Jacobs

Whale, a San Francisco, CA-based enterprise AI company building the AI operating system for enterprise operations, has raised $40 million in a Series C3 extension funding round led by CMB International and SMBC Asia Rising Fund.

SUMMARY

Whale has raised $40 million in a Series C3 extension funding round led by CMB International and SMBC Asia Rising Fund.
The company develops an AI operating system that helps businesses automate and improve their operations.
The funding will support global expansion, product development, and broader enterprise AI deployments.

The round also saw participation from Krungsri Finnovate, Singtel Innov8, Hyundai Motor Group, Charisma Partners, Bosch Ventures, MTR Lab, MDI Ventures, Gentree Fund, and Linear Capital.

The company will use the funding to expand its operations and continue developing its products and technology.

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Whale develops an AI Operating System (AIOS) that helps businesses connect digital and real-world operations. Its proprietary Business World Model (BWM) uses data from cameras, sensors, and audio to understand real-world activities, similar to how large language models process text.

The company serves more than 1,600 businesses in over 45 countries across industries such as retail, automotive, food and beverage, manufacturing, and financial services. With more than 600,000 AI edge devices deployed worldwide, Whale helps companies improve compliance, service quality and operational efficiency.

“This new funding is not about starting from scratch. It’s about building on what we have already achieved,” said Jerry Ye, Founder, and CEO of Whale. “We are growing our global team strengthening enterprise partnerships, and expanding our platforms integration with local infrastructure.”

Strategic investors see the same inflection point. "We have witnessed retail digitization undergo a fundamental shift, from tool integration to AI-native operations, and see the AI-driven efficiency trend as irreversible," said Zheng Xiang, VP of Charisma Partners. "Whale's perception-cognition-execution loop reshapes the operational foundation for enterprises, and we believe Whale is poised to lead the next generation of enterprise AI infrastructure."

About Whale

Founded in 2017 by Jerry (Shengxuan) Ye, Whale is an enterprise AI company that helps businesses improve their operations with artificial intelligence. Its AI Operating System includes products such as SpaceSight, Echo, Lume, Alivia, Harbor, and Novus. These tools are powered by Whale's proprietary Business World Model (BWM), an AI model designed to understand real-world environments using data from cameras, sensors, and audio.