AI companion studio Nature Select (自然选择) has closed a fresh funding round of more than $30 million, reported exclusively by Chinese tech outlet Waves (暗涌) and surfacing across Tiger Securities, SegmentFault and Taptap on 10 October 2026. The round was led by Alibaba and Ant Group, with Qiming Venture Partners, 5Y Capital, CCVC and Yunshi Capital also investing; StarHansa Capital acted as exclusive financial adviser.
Nature Select's core product is EVE, pitched as a 'world's first 3D AI companion app' — an emotional-companion experience built around a proactive AI with its own initiative, 3D visuals and game-like interaction. The team pairs an in-house post-training group with a games background, and has published an emotional model (Echo-N1) plus a graphRAG-based long-term memory system meant to recall and forget the way a person would.
The raise lands as China's companion market contends with the July 2026 Interim Measures on anthropomorphic interactive services and the September CAC draft that would bar minors from virtual companions. See our 2026 industry report for how the funding climate is shifting across the category.