UK strategic acquires China's VC-backed Yimian Data

Ascential is taking 100% of the start-up for an upfront payment of GBP19.5 million ($24.5 million) and has agreed to a four-year revenue-linked earn-out provision that is estimated to result in an additional GBP5-10 million in compensation. The size of the deal has been capped at GBP70 million. 

ZhenFund and Legend invested a combined RMB14 million ($2 million) in Yimian in 2016, according to AVCJ Research. The company has also received investment from Tencent AI Accelerator and a government-linked fund in Shenzhen. It is said to have received Series A funding from DT Capital Partners and Z Capital. 

Yimian specializes in artificial intelligence-enabled data analysis for the Chinese e-commerce market, including language processing capabilities. Ascential is integrating the company with its existing digital commerce advisory unit, with a view to bridging its trend discovery and customer targeting capacities across the US, Europe and Asia.

“The newly integrated business generates an exciting new proposition for companies looking to grow their digital commerce business, whether they are looking to tap into the growth of China, across Asia Pacific or all global markets,” Duncan Painter, CEO of Ascential, said in a statement. “We are privileged to add the strength of China's excellent homegrown innovation to our arsenal.”

The venture investment opportunity in China’s consumer internet space is seen as increasingly giving way to related enterprise-facing services, which are seen globally as having more exit-ready models. China’s enterprise-level software-as-a-service market was worth RMB24.3 billion in 2018, a 48% year-on-year increase on 2017. IResearch Consulting projects it will reach RMB65.4 billion by 2021.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Trade sale
• Exits
• Technology
• China
• ZhenFund
• e-commerce
• artificial intelligence