AInnovation Completes Series A and A+ Financing Round - Raises Over US$60 Million

BEIJING, Jan. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On January 24, 2019, Chinese AI solutions provider AInnovation announced the closing of a Series A and A+ financing round of more than RMB 400 million (approx. US$60 million), led by CICC ALPHA, with participation from existing investors including Sinovation Ventures and Chengwei Capital.

AInnovation, Sinovation Ventures' artificial intelligence (AI) subsidiary focused on an "AI+" B2B enterprise service model, has differentiated itself from a number of AI commercialization solutions providers with a unique two-pronged approach that merges technology & product with landing business scenarios. Established in March 2018, AInnovation has dedicated itself to delivering mature AI-related products and business solutions to customers in the retail, manufacturing and finance sectors, thanks to strong AI expert support from the Sinovation Ventures AI Institute. In addition to generating total contract revenue exceeding RMB 100 million in the first ten months of 2018, AInnovation has received strong support from investors, raising over RMB 500 million from seed, Series A, and A+ financing rounds. The latest investment rounds will help AInnovation enhance its corporate prowess and expand its AI commercialization roadmap.

Joseph Liang, Chairman of CICC ALPHA and AInnovation's Series A and Series A+ lead investor, said: "AI is in the early stages of moving from the laboratory to the market; the competitive landscape now tilts toward commercialization. Firms with the knowledge of how to transform AI technologies into competitive products will be the ultimate winners. With a strong team of technology experts, a culture of product commercialization and a deep understanding of business scenarios, AInnovation's products and solutions have received enthusiastic acceptance by the market. We believe AInnovation will grow faster and stronger following the new round of investment." Maxwell Zhou, Senior Vice President of CICC ALPHA, added: "The AI to B enterprise service market has rosy prospects. Higher labor costs in China have led businesses across traditional and technology-driven industries to increasingly seek upgrades through AI technologies, and increasingly willing to pay for AI solutions. The market urgently needs commercialized AI technologies boasting lower costs and higher efficiency. We are optimistic that the AInnovation team, leading with cutting-edge technologies and strong commercialization abilities, will help fill that niche."

Kai-Fu Lee, Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures and one of AInnovation's seed and Series A investors, said: "Based on our prediction of the development of AI unfolding across four waves, AInnovation's businesses are focused on the second and third waves –Commercial Data and Digitalizing Real World. AI firms, which are capable of providing users with commercialization-ready AI solutions due to their commercialization and engineering competencies, will establish themselves during the second and third waves. We are glad that AInnovation is such a firm." Tina Tao, President of Sinovation Ventures, noted: "Further development of AI requires generation of tangible value for the business in addition to the economic benefits. We pay particular attention to an investment target's commercialization ability as well as its founding team's business awareness and experience when we select AI investment targets. We believe AInnovation has the elements of becoming a successful AI startup."

Richard Gu , Partner at Chengwei Capital, another early investor in AInnovation at both the seed and Series A stage, said: "The combination of AI and the evolving business landscape is the next trend. AInnovation provides end-to-end solutions to customers by combining AI technologies with business scenarios, solving the difficulties surrounding AI commercialization. We believe AI firms, which empower traditional firms and help them reduce costs and enhance efficiency, are valuable."

Hocking Xu, CEO of AInnovation, said: "Since the foundation of our firm, we have grown at an incredibly fast rate. With a team of almost 300 employees and a product mix that is constantly refined, we had an extraordinary year in 2018. Looking forward, we plan to enhance our efforts in retail, manufacturing and finance based on Innovation, Collaboration and Execution, while creating market entry barriers; accelerate localization efforts at our regional offices to empower, serve, and stick close to our customers; enhance our financial results via commercialization, making our firm faster, bigger and stronger."

AInnovation is committed to providing companies with AI-based products and business solutions powered by cutting-edge AI technologies, which empower corporate customers and partners to improve their business efficiency and value as well as accelerate their digital transformation. The company's customers include Mars, Outlets, Carlsberg, Nestle, Hon Hai Technology Group, Postal Savings Bank of China and CPIC Allianz, among other leading firms across a wide spectrum of industries and sectors.

As part of its efforts to accelerate the application of its offerings, AInnovation has created an industry-leading AI technology stack. With a focus on the three key elements of AI - data, algorithms and computing power, the firm has set its focus on three major AI technologies - computer vision, machine learning platform and natural language processing, with the aim of delivering high-performance, easy-to-extend, flexible and efficient solutions for intelligent perception, cognition and decision-making analysis applications.

In the era of AI, application is king. To solve the challenges facing AI technology implementation, AInnovation has designed a product-driven view of AI and transformed AI into an easy-to-use application. The company has created a wide range of standardized and reproducible products and solutions, delivered as an integrated hardware and software package. In addition to providing companies with easy-to-use solutions, AInnovation's innovations are also helping accelerate the last-mile implementation of AI technologies.

AInnovation has been cited by leading industry organizations as one of top 50 "Most Likely Unicorns" firms in China and among China's top ten early-stage AI companies.

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