AI technical service provider SenseTime receives USD 410 million for Series B
SenseTime
Founder: Xu Li
Founded in: 2014
Financing status: RMB 2.8 billion (USD 410 million) Series B round in 2017
AI technical service provider SenseTime on Tuesday received USD 410 million for its Series B financing round to expand its AI technology to the self-driving industry.
SenseTime is an AI technical service provider that provides its partners with artificial intelligence applications and big data analysis services based on harnessing deep learning. It mainly develops AI technology in face recognition, text, and vehicle and image recognition. These technology can also be applied to several industries including finance, mobile Internet, as well as security and surveillance. Some of its partners using its AI technologies include ChinaMobile, NVIDIA and Xiaomi.
Founded in 2014 in Beijing, it has subsidiary offices in Beijing, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. It has partnerships with more than 400 companies, providing them with AI technical services. According to information on its website, its face recognition technology has an error rate below 1/100,000.
SenseTime previously received financing funds from IDG Capital, StarVC and so on. This Series B financing round was led by CDH Investments, with more than 20 venture capitals such as Sailing Capital and China Everbright Limited participating as investors. In addition, this USD 410 million Series B financing is the world’s largest single financing round in the field of artificial intelligence. The capital will be used to invest on the research and development of new AI technologies, expand its AI technologies to the self-driving industry, and to expand its business abroad to acquire more partners.
Gift e-commerce platform GiftTalk receives undisclosed Series B+ in millions of USD
GiftTalk
Founder: Wen Chenghui
Founded in: 2014
Financing status: 2017 Series B+ round amounting to tens of millions in RMB (a few million USD)
Gift e-commerce platform GiftTalk on Wednesday received an undisclosed Series B+ financing round in millions of USD to open 100 physical stores in 100 days.
GiftTalk is a gift e-commerce platform that provides customers with the most complete gift category selection. It has more than 100 employees to select gifts from all over the world, and sell them on its e-commerce platform. Users can communicate with other users on its platform, and users can share their experience on picking suitable gifts for others and recommend good gifts to other users.
Founded in 2014 in Beijing, it started out by only selling gifts on its online platform. According to GiftTalk, there are more than 10,000 selected gifts available on its platform for sale, with more than 10 million users picking and recommending gifts. It also claimed that even friendships are formed through its platform.
In order to expand its business, it launched physical stores in June 2016 and sells the latest gifts at its stores based on data from its online e-commerce platform.
This Series B+ financing round was from Guangqu Capital. GiftTalk plans to use the fund to open 100 physical stores in 100 days to boost its gift business, as well as introduce new commodities to its online e-commerce platform and stores.
(Top photo from 58pic.com)
