On April 11th, the artificial intelligence company, Pensees (澎思科技), announced the completion of CNY 150 million
On April 11th, the artificial intelligence company, Pensees Technology (澎思科技), announced the completion of CNY 150 million in A round of financing, the round of financing was led by 360 (奇虎360), Foxconn and other industrial capital investors.
The company said that this round of funding will mainly be used to continue strengthening algorithms, hardware and software product development, creating a richer product line and offering a full range of product layouts for vertical industries. At the same time, it will strengthen its technical reserves through the Beijing and Singapore Research Institutes to tap more AI technology into the landing points of various vertical industry scenarios.
The artificial intelligence company, which specializes in computer vision and the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, provides integrated application solutions for the industry. It has completed its angel and Pre-A round of financing in September 2018 and January 2019 respectively. Pensees raised CNY 10 million in the angel round led by Hongtai capital and the Pre-A round’s exact financing amount wasn’t revealed but is believed to be in tens of millions yuan. The pre-A round was led by IDG capital, ECC capital and previous investor Hongtai capital.
This round of financing is the first time that industrial capital has invested in Pensees Technology. The company's emphasis on the development path and business model of the AI technology industry. The development path and business model have been recognized and supported by the industry.
奇虎360, leading the investment said, “The focus of 360’s investment is the application of AI technology in the vertical industry. The founding team and the newly appointed chief scientist of the company SHEN Shengmei are very focused on the technology in the industry. The application has strong industrial-grade R&D and delivery capabilities. This not only helps the company achieve rapid growth in the AI security industry but also has a large potential for development and imagination in many industries. In the future, 360 will focus on helping Pensees technology to expand more AI technology to the vertical industry, and in return Pensees technology will also help 360 in making cities safer."
The graph below will give us an idea about the number of AI companies being invested in by giants in China.
MA Yuan, the CEO and founder of Pensees Technology, said regarding the round of investment, “We will increase investment in research and development of AI technology and products, continue to consolidate algorithms, software and hardware product development, and create a richer product line for smart Vertical industries such as security and smart manufacturing.”
At the same time, Pensees Technology will continue to explore cutting-edge technologies from a global perspective and make technical reserves for the company to develop artificial intelligence and explore new businesses.
The traditional industry is in a new era of intelligent transformation. More and more industries are increasingly demanding AI technology. At the same time, they also put forward higher requirements and challenges for AI enterprise technology innovation and product service.
“Every technological innovation will go through a long process of evolution. Artificial intelligence technology as an application technology is also undergoing such an evolutionary process.” MA Yuan CEO and founder of Pensees Technology.
Since its establishment, the company's various industry solutions have successfully landed in more than 50 cities across the country, serving more than 100 clients. Dynamic face recognition points were deployed in many places across the country, and nearly 2,000 escaped personnel were arrested.
Under the premise of consolidating the AI security main channel business and having sufficient AI technology reserves, the company will find suitable scenes to cut into other vertical industries.