China Merchants unit commits $13m to AI fund

CMCDI will account for 14.95% of the RMB602 million corpus for Iflytek Venture Capital, which was established in December 2015 and has a term of 7-9 years, according to a filing. Other LPs include Anhui Iflytek Industrial Investment, a unit of domestic voice recognition technology specialist Iflytek, and an investment arm of the Anhui provincial government.

The fund will focus on Chinese enterprises in areas such as education, healthcare, tourism, motor vehicles, the internet of things, smart hardware, information security, e-commerce, interactive entertainment, smart toys, robotics, and internet advertising. It will be managed by Wuhu Iflytek Investment Management.

"With the technologies of Chinese enterprises related to AI attaining high rankings in multiple international competitions, AI technologies are becoming mature and will gradually become more common in the applications in different industries. The company considers that there will be promising development prospects for the industry of AI in the future," CMCI said in a statement.

CMCDI was established in 1993 with initial capital of $100 million. Net assets were $635.3 million as of December 2015, with net profit for the year coming in at $46.24 million, down from $148.6 million in 2014. Two thirds of these assets are in financial services.

In addition to financial services, CMCDI invests across culture and media, manufacturing, energy and resources, IT, healthcare and education. The portfolio includes China Merchants Bank, Industrial Bank, JIC Leasing, China Reinsurance Group, NBA China, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media, Xi'an Jinpower Electrical, Nanjing Sanhome Pharmaceutical, and Guangxi Xinhua Preschool Education Investment Corp.

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