Facial recognition firm Face++ receives USD 460M for Series C
Face++
Founder: Yin Qi
Founded in: 2011
Financing status: RMB 3 billion (USD 460 million) for Series C financing in 2017
Facial recognition firm, Face++, received USD 460 million for Series C on November 1st to develop artificial intelligence superpower for global expansion.
Face++ is a facial recognition firm that offers artificial intelligence products and industry solutions to enterprise customers based on its deep learning algorithm, Brain++ engine, and IOT technology. Its enterprise customers are mainly from five industries, including financial security, city security, mobile phone AR, business networking, industrial robots. Though AI technologies require massive data to learn and form algorithms, Face++ benefits from training its algorithms on China’s vast pool of cheap data by cooperating with public security departments and other partners.
Founded in 2011 in Beijing, the company has established independent research institutes in Beijing, Seattle, and Nanjing, and has set up branches in more than ten core cities across the world. Previously, it secured financing funding from Alibaba Group, and now Face++ is pioneering technologies that are used by mobile payment giant, Alipay in China, which enables customers to pay by scanning their face. It is also expanding its software and industry solutions to banks.
This new financing round was led by China State-owned Venture Capital Fund, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd affiliate, Ant Financial, and Foxconn. The capital will be used to invest in the research and development of new artificial intelligence products and solutions, as well as expand its business to more more scenes.
Car trading service provider Dasouche receives USD 335M for Series E led by Alibaba Group
Dasouche
Founder: Yao Junhong
Founded in: 2012
Financing status: RMB 2.2 billion (USD 335 million) for Series E financing in 2017
Car trading service provider, Dasouche, received USD 335 million for Series E led by Alibaba Group on November 1st to improve its services by working with Alibaba’s financial branch, Ant Financial, for innovative financial products.
Dasouche is a car trading service provider that operates an O2O (Online to Offline) car trading platform based on Dasouche’s offline resource in the car trading industry, and online resource backed by Alibaba. It aims to improve car trading efficiency via the Internet and big data technology. Currently, Dasouche’s car trading businesses are connected to Tmall and Alipay.
Besides its O2O car trading platform, Dasouche also operates car trading oriented financial services to enable customers to purchase cars with installment payments. Additionally, it also supports used car trading and insurance services.
Founded in 2012 in Beijing, it has formed partnerships with 60% of car dealers in China, which amounts to more than 110,000 partners. Meanwhile, its financial product backed by Ant Financial covers over 200 cities in China, with more than 1700 car dealers integrated with its financial services.
Dasouche has existing investors, including Sequoia Capital, Ant Financial, Warburg Pincus, and so on. This Series E financing round was led by Alibaba Group, with Warburg Pincus, Primavera Capital, and CMB International participating. The company plans to use the funds to promote its financial products based on Ant Financial’s big data and risk control support, as well as improve its service efficiency.
(Top photo from 699pic.com)
