China AI start-up Aibee joins unicorn club

Prior to these investments, Aibee was collaborating with Xiaomi and China Merchants Group (CMG).

The company supported digital upgrades of 300 Xiaomi stores within two months. Aibee and Xiaomi have further agreed to promote digitalisation and smart retail across 10,000 stores. Aibee also provided smart business-related solutions for use in CMG's shopping malls in Shenzhen and in China Merchants Bank.

Co-founded in 2017 by Yuanqing Lin, formerly head of research at Baidu, the company helps corporate clients implement AI technologies such as computer vision, speech recognition, natural language processing, big data analytics, and robotics. Recruits include Shenghuo Zhu, previously head of Alibaba Group's AI-backed decision intelligence lab, who leads machine learning.

Aibee claims to be the first AI solution provider in China to work on offline retail applications. It has partnered with 17 of the country's 30 largest commercial real estate developers and with more than 20 retail brands, including jewellery retailer Chow Tai Fook and furniture mall operator Red Star Macalline.

Other activities include deploying AI solutions in transport scenarios with airports in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, and launching smart park entry and passenger flow solutions at 350 leading domestic scenic spots.

Aibee raised strategic funding from China Resources Capital via Runcheng Industry Leading Fund last year. This following a USD 60m Series A in 2018 led by Sequoia Capital China and Red Star Macalline and a CNY 522m (USD 74m) extended Series A round in 2019 led by ClearVue Partners and Singularity Power Capital.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Technology
• China
• Xiaomi
• China Merchants Capital
• artificial intelligence
• Growth capital