SAN FRANCISCO — Whale, a Singapore-based enterprise AI company, has secured a $40 million Series C extension. The company’s total Series C is now $100 million, The round was led by CMB International and SMBC Asia Rising Fund (SARF, the corporate venture capital fund of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation), with participation from Krungsri Finnovate (CVC arm of Krungsri / Bank of Ayudhya, part of MUFG), Singtel Innov8, Hyundai Motor Group, and Charisma Partners. Earlier Series C participants include Bosch Ventures, MTR Lab, MDI Ventures, Gentree Fund, and Linear Capital.
Whale builds the AI Operating System (AIOS) for enterprise operations, connecting digital and real-world workflows through its proprietary Business World Model (BWM) — an AI model designed to interpret signals from cameras, sensors, and audio the way large language models process text. Headquartered in Singapore, with a growing base in North America, Whale leads enterprise AI adoption across Asia-Pacific — including Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and beyond. The company serves more than 1,600 enterprises in 45+ countries across retail, automotive, F&B, manufacturing, financial services, and more. Managing 600,000+ edge AI nodes globally, its solutions help businesses tackle challenges from compliance auditing and service quality to operational efficiency.
This Series C3 extends Whale’s reach across North America and APAC, with MENA and Europe on the horizon. “This new funding isn’t about starting from scratch. It’s about advancing what we’ve built here,” said Jerry Ye, Founder and CEO of Whale. “We’re scaling our teams globally, deepening enterprise partnerships, and expanding our platform integrations with local infrastructure. Enterprises across regions are grappling with rising operational costs, and the urgent need to turn unstructured operational data into decision-ready intelligence, and we’re already delivering that today.”
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.”
Enterprises don’t need more software; they need an operating system that connects online data with physical environments — turning every store, showroom, and facility into an intelligent, responsive operation. Whale’s flagship vision and voice products are the primary entry points for operational transformation. SpaceSight converts cameras and IoT sensors across stores, showrooms, and commercial facilities into real-time intelligence, measuring foot traffic, dwell time, engagement, and operational compliance, so businesses can optimize performance without adding headcount. Echo analyzes frontline sales conversations to identify what top performers do differently, turning those insights into scalable coaching programs that address the high-turnover challenge facing businesses today.
Both are powered by the BWM, giving enterprises a continuously updated model of how their operations run and generating direct, executable actions at scale. SpaceSight and Echo feed into the rest of Whale’s platform — Lume for AI-powered content distribution, Alivia for workflow automation and intelligent agents, Harbor for knowledge management and compliance, and Novus for AI infrastructure and governance — together forming a full-stack AI OS for enterprise operations.
“Whale’s ability to unlock and structure data from physical environments — enabling enterprises to turn real-world activities into actionable intelligence — is particularly compelling. By combining Whale’s technology with SMBC Group’s global client network and industry expertise, we look forward to delivering value across industries and regions,” said Mayoran Rajendra, Managing Director and Head of AI Transformation Office, SMBC Group.
