State-linked investors back Series D for China's DataCanvas

Its backers include China Electronics Smart Fund, a vehicle established by China Electronics Corporation, People Capital, an investment arm of China Taiping Insurance, and Oriental Jiafu. Financial investors such as ZY Capital also took part.

The switch in emphasis from independent to state-linked investors has become commonplace among China’s AI start-ups. The likes of Redpoint China Ventures, Qianhai FoF, Xianghe Capital, and Delta Capital all featured in early rounds for DataCanvas. Advantech Partners and SAIF Partners led a CNY 300m Series C for the company as recently as May 2021.

A Series C extension in September 2022 included contributions from Delta as well as Lingfeng Capital Management, Beijing Zhongguancun Longmen Investment, and Zhongguancun Development.

Founded by Lei Fang in 2013, DataCanvas allows companies to leverage its machine-learning capabilities to apply algorithms to different aspects of their business, essentially using AI to create in-house solutions for analysing big data. Most customers come from the financial services sector, including banks, brokers, and fund managers.

For example, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank became the first Chinese lender to monitor and analyse all daily transactions – which exceed 600m – after using DataCanvas to build its big data centre. This system runs over 50 models simultaneously in real-time that check for abnormal payments and money laundering, coordinate compliance, and even recommend products to private bank customers.

However, Fang told AVCJ in 2020 – after closing the CNY 120m Series C – that he wanted the products to reman opensource with all algorithms publicly available. “We open up the code of all algorithms to our customers, so they can customize their own algorithms. We are not recommending a specific or optimized algorithm to customers,” he said, contrasting the approach to that of local rival 4Paradigm.

In June, DataCanvas launched its own AI foundation software, comprising a large language model (LLM) and a multi-mode vector database. The database facilitates the creation of customised vector oceans capable of analysing structured and unstructured data with a single structured query language (SQL). This was accompanied by a data architecture tool that leverages LLMs to enable intelligent and fully automated data modelling.

Fang said in a statement that under the “cloud within the cloud” strategy, DataCanvas would continue to embed AI capabilities into the cloud ecosystem of thousands of industries, using its accessible AI basic software. Near-term plans include accelerating the implementation of a multi-modal LLM.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Technology
• China
• cloud computing
• enterprise software
• Fintech
• artificial intelligence