Horizon Robotics, a leading maker of artificial intelligence chips in China, will soon close north of USD 600 million in Series B funding round that will value the company at USD 3 billion, according to Che Dong Xi.
Jan 14, 2019/EqualOcean- Horizon Robotics (地平线机器人), a leading maker of artificial intelligence chips in China, will soon close north of USD 600 million in Series B funding round that will value the company at USD 3 billion, according to people familiar with this matter, reported by Che Dong Xi. Another Chinese AI Chip company Cambricon Technology (寒武纪科技) is valued at around USD 2.5 billion after its latest series B round of funding. If the disclosed number is true, it shall be a record-setting amount in the autonomous driving industry since Pony.AI raised an A+ round funding of USD 200 million in July 2018.
It is reported that a PowerPoint presented by YU Kai, the founder of Horizon Robotics, showed the company will soon close its Series B round of funding soon, which is led by leading players in automotive and semiconductor industries at the opening ceremony of its research institution in Silicon Valley.
The company was said to raise up to USD 1 billion in the new funding round which will push the company's valuation up from USD 3 billion to USD 4 billion in Nov 2018.
The Intel-backed company once claimed the lead investor shall be an Intel-level company, while insist on releasing more details when the announcement is ready in an interview.
Founded in 2015, the company is growing at a stunning rate. We’ve introduced the company’s strategy of “Android of Robotics” and Embedded AI Processor and Processor+ Algorithm+ Cloud Platform, its vision across many AI scenarios from smart city, smart retail and the most eye-catching one, autonomous driving. Its star backers include Hill House Capital, Sequoia Capital, Sinovation Ventures, and Yuri Milner, the founder of Digital Sky Technologies who participated in investments in Facebook, Twitter, and Xiaomi.
Horizon Robotics has a luxury team, as well. Ph.D. YU Kai (余凯), a former Head of Baidu Institute of Deep Learning and an early developer of Baidu’s autonomous driving program, laid out the largest scale deep learning accelerator based on FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). Ph.D. HUANG Chang (黄畅), Co-Founder and Vice President of Algorithm of Horizon Robotics, has over 4,400 citations and owns 6 US patents. The face recognition system he developed was adopted by a wide range of digital cameras (80% of the market) and image management applications including Apple’s iPhoto. Ph.D. WU Qiang (吴强), VP Of Engineering at Horizon Robotics, formerly an engineering lead at Facebook, working on deep learning infrastructure/platform and very large-scale neural network training and inference.
Horizon Robotics has branched in Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing, its employees have reached 400 people in 2018. The company expanded in Silicon Valley now.