Header image source: 51World.
51World, a Beijing-based digital twin technology company, has raised RMB 200 million (USD 28 million) in a pre-IPO funding round, according to 36Kr. This latest investment marks a significant milestone for the company, which has previously attracted backing from notable investors such as Lightspeed China, Sky9 Capital, Star VC, Guohe Capital, SenseTime, and individual investor Ge Weidong. Nanning Huaxin Capital, a state-owned investment platform launched in December 2023 by the city of Nanning, led the round with an initial registered capital of RMB 3 billion (USD 420 million).
According to insiders, 51World is working closely with two leading securities firms as joint sponsors for its anticipated listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s main board under Chapter 18C. This newly introduced listing framework, rolled out in March 2023, is specifically designed for specialized technology companies. To date, only three firms—XtalPi, Black Sesame Technologies, and Dobot—have applied to list under this chapter.
Founded in 2015, 51World has gained recognition for its innovative work in digital twin technology, despite being a relatively small enterprise. The company provides comprehensive solutions powered by cutting-edge 3D graphics, physical simulation, and artificial intelligence technologies.
One of 51World’s most ambitious projects, launched in 2017, is its Earth cloning initiative, which aims to replicate the planet within a virtual environment, creating a vast simulation emulator. This initiative mirrors the “Earth-2” endeavor by Nvidia, first announced by CEO Jensen Huang at the company’s GTC 2024 event, which is also designed to model and forecast changes using a digital twin of the Earth.
Digital twin technology involves creating virtual replicas of physical objects, systems, or processes by integrating data and models. This approach allows for simulation, verification, prediction, and control throughout the lifecycle of physical entities, enabling a closed loop of intelligent decision-making.
As the digital economy accelerates, digital twin technology has become essential for industrial digitalization, driven by advancements in smart sensors, cloud computing, big data, and AI. Its applications are rapidly expanding across industries such as manufacturing, urban management, intelligent driving, and architectural design.
In the manufacturing sector, digital twins enhance every stage of the industrial lifecycle—from product design and quality management to supply chain operations and maintenance—reducing design cycles and improving efficiency. In transportation, digital twin tools visualize 3D traffic flows, simulate road network planning, and validate traffic management strategies, significantly lowering costs.
According to Mordor Intelligence, the global digital twin market is projected to reach USD 26.2 billion by 2024 and could grow at a compound annual rate (CAGR) of 37.9%, potentially exceeding USD 90 billion within five years.
51World’s core competencies in computer graphics and simulation fuel three flagship products: the 51Aes digital twin platform, the 51Sim data simulation platform, and the 51Earth digital Earth platform.
The 51Aes platform delivers digital twin solutions through five key stages: visual presentation, data integration, data-driven insights, simulation, and intelligent decision-making. For example, in smart emergency management, the 51Aes platform provides comprehensive safety monitoring, detects environmental changes, and issues intelligent early warnings. It supports multi-departmental collaboration during emergencies, facilitating monitoring, regulatory enforcement, command decisions, rescue operations, and social mobilization.
To address the long project cycles and high costs typically associated with digital twin initiatives, 51World introduced the WDP digital twin platform, which offers development tools and open APIs to support multi-source data integration. This lowers the barriers to adoption and provides out-of-the-box functionality.
In emerging fields like smart driving, embodied intelligence, and the low-altitude economy, 51World developed the 51Sim platform in 2017. Leveraging core technologies such as data-driven simulation, distributed cloud simulation, end-to-end simulation, and generative simulation, 51Sim provides intelligent driving simulation tests and synthetic data solutions for AI system training. The platform has been commercialized and now serves hundreds of industry clients.
In March, 51World launched the 51Earth real-time online creation and publishing platform aimed at the consumer market. The platform offers free access to 3D city assets, a builder tool, and a developer kit, enabling 3D creators, 2D designers, and everyday users to reduce costs, simplify 3D content creation, and improve application development efficiency.
Today, 51World’s three major products are widely used by over a thousand medium and large enterprises across more than 200 cities worldwide. The company’s clientele includes China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), China Railway Group (CREC), China National Building Material Group (CNBM), China South-to-North Water Diversion Corporation, Huawei, BMW, Surbana Jurong, NTT Data, and Sampas.
Notable projects undertaken by 51World include a building information modeling (BIM) platform for the Xiong’an New Area, the Haidian City Brain Intelligent Operation and Command Centre (IOCC) in Beijing, and a digital twin for BMW’s Tiexi factory, among others.
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Huang Nan for 36Kr.