Xi'an Digital Monster Technology Co., Ltd. has officially secured a multi-million yuan strategic investment from Xi'an High-Tech Venture Capital Co., Ltd. This transaction pairs a local studio that played a major role in producing the hit domestic animation film series Nezha with a state-owned venture capital firm managing over 22 billion yuan in assets and a track record of backing more than a hundred tech startups.

The Xi'an-based studio previously spearheaded the creation of a digital animation industry base, which has been established at the 3TCOM AI Industrial Community in the Xi'an High-Tech Zone. The goal is to accelerate industrial clustering. The investment from XHTVC suggests a bet not just on an animation production company, but on an entire industrial ecosystem and supply chain.

Founded in 2017, Digital Monster is a full-process visual creation company headquartered in Xi'an with branch offices in Chengdu and Shanghai, offering global services. The company rose to public prominence through the explosive success of the Nezha film series. In 2025, Nezha: The Demon Child's Havoc in the Sea topped China's all-time box office chart with 15.446 billion yuan in domestic ticket sales, sparking unprecedented industry interest in its behind-the-scenes production network. As the only special effects company from Northwest China involved in the film, Digital Monster began work on Nezha 2 in October 2022, completing over 200 special effects elements and directing iconic scenes like the collapse of the underwater Dragon Palace and the environmental effects for Chentang Pass. Founder Shi Chaoqun served as the film's visual effects supervisor, overseeing the dynamic design guidance, quality control, and final output of the film's 3D special effects, while also providing technical solutions and problem-solving strategies. Earlier, during the production of Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child, Shi Chaoqun had already acted as the visual effects director, leading his team to complete tens of thousands of frames of special effects in three months, covering key sequences such as Nezha's birth, the sealing of the Demon Pill, Taiyi Zhenren, and the Dragon Palace and Dragon King in the second post-credits scene.

The weight of this resume must be understood within the broader context of China's animation industry. With 1,948 special effects shots, Nezha 2 pushed the visual boundaries of the country's film industry, a feat made possible by the combined efforts of 138 animation companies nationwide. In Shi Chaoqun's view, Nezha 2, which brought together so many excellent animation production teams from across the country, represents the industry's true 'Ten Thousand Scales Armor'. Digital Monster's status as the sole representative from Northwest China is a testament to its technical prowess and industry standing.

Beyond the Nezha series, Digital Monster's portfolio also includes visual effects work for animated films such as The Wind Guardians, Legend of Deification, Deep Sea, and Oh My School!, as well as for popular games like Game for Peace, Identity V, and Party Animals. However, participation in top-tier projects alone does not fully define Digital Monster. Its business map centers on theatrical animated films, CG shorts, TV commercials, and digital visual effects, while also extending horizontally into areas like digital cultural tourism and original IP incubation. For instance, the company collaborated with the Xi'an City Wall scenic area to create the city's cultural tourism IP 'Sheng Tang Tian Tuan', using modern digital art to revitalize historical elements.

Why did XHTVC invest in Digital Monster? As a directly managed state-owned professional venture capital platform of the Xi'an High-Tech Zone and one of the first batch of nationally dual-registered state-owned venture capital institutions, XHTVC has witnessed the entire cycle of China's venture capital industry from its infancy to vigorous development. It is an unavoidable name on the venture capital map of Shaanxi and the broader Western region. In terms of investment focus, XHTVC concentrates on strategic emerging and future industries such as integrated circuits, semiconductors, optoelectronics, intelligent manufacturing, new energy, and new materials. According to official data, it manages approximately 24 funds with a total scale exceeding 22 billion yuan. It has cumulatively invested in and incubated over 280 hard-tech enterprises and technology service platforms, nurturing a host of listed companies and star enterprises including Bright Laser Technologies, Paraytec, Moso Power, Focuslight Technologies, NovaStar, Xi'an Epi, LandSpace, Unisplendour Guoxin, and Huayi Microelectronics.

In the venture capital community, XHTVC is a practitioner of the GVC concept, which means it aims not only for capital appreciation but also carries the mission of implementing industrial policy. Deconstructing two of XHTVC's classic past investments reveals the trajectory of this logic. In 2019, under the leadership of the Xi'an High-Tech Financial Holding Group, the Shaanxi Integrated Circuit Fund and the Gaoxin Shoushan Fund, managed by XHTVC, invested over 3.5 billion yuan to support Xi'an Epi in building a 12-inch silicon wafer production line. At that time, Xi'an Epi was still an early-stage company facing enormous technological and market uncertainty. Seven years later, Xi'an Epi has risen to become a leader in the domestic semiconductor silicon materials sector and has successfully entered the supply chain of ChangXin Memory Technologies. Beyond generating substantial financial returns, this investment's more critical achievement was establishing an entire industrial chain for a key semiconductor material within Xi'an. Another story involves NovaStar. In 2015, XHTVC invested in the NovaStar team, which had just left university. The team possessed core LED display control technology but lacked funds. After XHTVC's capital injection and long-term support, the company successfully listed on the ChiNext board in February 2024. In a conventional narrative, the venture capital would have fulfilled its role in accompanying the company's growth at this point. However, the story took a new turn. In 2025, NovaStar announced its intention to act as a limited partner, contributing 35 million yuan to establish a venture capital fund with XHTVC, which would in turn invest in LandSpace. After the invested company grew into a leader, this long-term trust transformed into deeper industrial synergy, ultimately nourishing the regional capital ecosystem.

The same logic applies to Digital Monster. XHTVC's multi-million yuan bet is not just on its current production capabilities as an animation company, but on its future potential to become the 'chain leader' enterprise for the regional digital cultural and creative industry. For a long time, China's animation industry has exhibited a clear pattern of 'strong East, weak West'. Cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Chengdu have gathered a large number of animation companies and talent, while the industrial foundation in the Northwest has been relatively weak. Digital Monster's emergence is an attempt to shift this dynamic. However, the power of a single company is limited, and Shi Chaoqun is well aware of this. In February 2025, during an interview, he revealed that he was in talks to build a digital animation industry cluster in Xi'an, aiming to bring together the city's existing high-quality enterprises and, with the support of government policies, allow them to focus on animation creation. 'Only with a quantitative accumulation can we trigger a qualitative change, and I hope there will be an explosive breakthrough in the future.' In June 2025, Digital Monster signed a project agreement for the Digital Animation Industry Base at the Xi'an High-Tech Zone National New Generation AI Industrial Park. In early 2026, the digital animation industry base, spearheaded by Digital Monster, officially settled in the 3TCOM AI Industrial Community managed by Gaoxin Peitao. Leveraging this project, Digital Monster will deeply integrate upstream and downstream industry chain resources, building a full-chain industrial ecosystem covering animated film creation, original IP development, art design, 3D production, theatrical distribution, derivative development, and the integration of animation IP with cultural tourism, accelerating the formation of a clustering effect. According to base director Han Han, the space integrates technology R&D, content creation, distribution derivatives, and overseas expansion, solving the pain points for enterprises 'finding technology, finding partners, and finding sales channels'. More critically, the base promotes the industry's shift from contract manufacturing and outsourcing to original independent R&D, focusing on cultivating 'local IP'. Simultaneously, it leverages hard-core technologies like AI computing power and motion capture rendering to achieve a dual-engine drive of 'hard tech + soft culture'. The High-Tech Zone has taken the lead in investing in and constructing public facilities such as high-precision motion capture studios, cloud rendering farms, and AIGC creation computing server rooms. Enterprises based there can apply to use these facilities at cost or even for free, reducing equipment costs that were previously in the millions to an affordable level for startup teams. Currently, the base has attracted nearly 20 companies, including Digital Monster, Cangqiong Zhijing, Xiaren Culture, and Luyanming. 'This includes both technology-focused companies specializing in theatrical animation and top-tier game CG, as well as original teams focused on incubating local Shaanxi IP. Industrial chain collaboration has already been preliminarily established,' Han added. Notably, the base has officially signaled the construction of a 'Government-Enterprise-Finance' triangular empowerment system. The Xi'an High-Tech Zone provides physical space and policy benefits, Digital Monster, as the leading enterprise, sets technical standards and project resources, and XHTVC plans to establish a special fund to support technology R&D and IP commercialization in the High-Tech Zone's animation and gaming sectors. The combined force of these three creates a gear system to drive cluster growth.

The digital content industry is not only a trillion-yuan market itself but also a crucial application scenario and industrialization outlet for cutting-edge technologies like AI, rendering, and interaction technology. This multi-million yuan strategic investment represents state capital handing an oar to a future 'chain leader'. According to public information, this round of investment will be primarily used for Digital Monster's original IP development, animation technology R&D, talent team building, and business upgrades, further enhancing the company's innovation capability and development strength in the digital cultural and creative field.