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在线翻译:
szdaily -> Business -> 
AI startup Megvii raising US$500 million
    2018-12-11  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) provider Megvii Inc., commonly known as Face++, is targeting to raise US$500 million in a new funding round that pegs the current valuation of the firm at US$3.5 billion, sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Bank of China Group Investment Ltd., the State bank’s private equity (PE) arm, is looking to lead the fundraising with US$200 million, two of the sources said. Terms of the fundraising have not been finalized, the sources added.

Megvii’s latest fundraising comes amid China’s plans to build a ubiquitous closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance network and become an international leader in AI, a technology that is increasingly becoming key to various sectors.

Chinese and some foreign investors are pouring money into startup firms that specialize in AI given China’s emphasis on the technology. Investments in the sector surged to nearly US$2 billion this year via 75 deals, more than four times the total value in the previous two years, according to Refinitiv data.

The technology has grabbed the attention of businesses from health care to financial services looking to use algorithms to comb through large troves of data to recognize patterns and solve problems. It is also set to spread to driverless cars and service robots in the future.

Megvii’s rival SenseTime Group Ltd. raised US$620 million in May at a valuation of over US$4.5 billion, after a US$600 million round in April led by Alibaba.

SenseTime, which became profitable in 2017, said it would invest further in research and development and in securing talented researchers.

Earlier this year, Alibaba also invested US$327 million in Megvii, the startup behind the e-commerce giant’s online payment arm Alipay’s “scan your face to pay” function, a fundraising document shows.

In 2017, Megvii raised US$460 million from investors including China State-owned Capital Venture Investment Fund, Ant Financial and Foxconn Technology.

Founded in 2011 by Yin Qi and his two friends from Tsinghua University’s prestigious pilot computer science program, Megvii provides facial recognition and other AI technology to businesses and governments.

Megvii counts Alibaba, Ant Financial, Lenovo Group and Huawei Technologies as key clients and serves government entities and State-owned firms, its website shows.(SD-Agencies)

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