Megvii, the China-based facial recognition technology developer also known as Face++, has secured about $460m in a round featuring diversified conglomerate SK Group and contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn, Bloomberg reported yesterday.
Russia-China Investment Fund, the private equity fund backed by the governments of each of those countries, led the round, which also featured Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate of e-commerce group Alibaba, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Megvii supplies facial scanning and recognition technology to electronics and internet companies including Ant Financial, and its systems draw on identification files the Chinese government holds on its citizens.
Foxconn invested $20m in the company in November 2016, in a round that also featured CCB International Holdings, part of financial services group China Construction Bank Corporation, and which had reached $100m by the following month. It is unclear whether that formed the first tranche of the latest round.
Legend Star, a subsidiary of conglomerate Legend Holdings, provided an undisclosed amount of seed capital for Megvii, before the company raised a seven-figure dollar amount in a 2013 series A round featuring Innovation Works.
Megvii received $22m in a 2014 series B round backed by Innovation Works and Qiming Venture Partners, before adding $25m in a series B+ round featuring the same investors.