State-owned funds back Series B for Chinese AI start-up

This round was led by China Reform Holdings, Shanghai Atlas Capital, Bohai Industrial Investment Fund Management, Sfund, and Technology Financial Group. Shanghai Atlas is owned by Chinese Academy of Sciences Holdings (CAS Holdings), Sfund and Technology Financial Group are both backed by the Guangdong provincial government, and Bohai Industrial has several government stakeholders.

Other participants included Suzhou Industrial Park, Oriza Yuandian Venture Capital Management, and Guangzhou-based Yuexiu Financial Holdings.

Cloudwalk did not reveal how much it had raised, but the company has received RMB3.5 billion ($505.6 million) since inception and is considering an IPO, 36Kr reported. The proceeds from the latest round will be used to expand the Cloudwalk’s AI platform, enhance its big data R&D effort on big data, and recruit additional talent, according to a company statement.

Founded in 2015, Cloudwalk is primarily focused on facial and object recognition technology. It divides its business into three areas: intelligent hardware such as vending machines that could be accessed through facial recognition; customized AI-powered surveillance platforms; and AI software and control systems.

The company works with 400 commercial banks, including Bank of China, while China’s police force and civil aviation administration are also major clients. As of March, Cloudwalk products had been installed in 29 Chinese cities and provinces, helping police departments solve over 4,000 cases.

Several Chinese AI developers have received substantial private funding. SenseTime closed its Series C-plus round at $620 million in May – the largest amount raised by an AI start-up globally at the time. The post-deal valuation was more than $4.5 billion. Meanwhile, Face++ raised $460 million in a Series C round led by China State-owned Venture Capital Fund in October last year.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Technology
• China
• Venture
• artificial intelligence