Mobvoi, a China-based artificial intelligence developer backed by internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet and carmaker Volkswagen, is seeking $100m in funding at a $1bn valuation, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
The funding is expected to come ahead of a planned initial public offering on a board that the Shanghai Stock Exchange has proposed for technology companies.
Founded in 2012, Mobvoi initially developed voice-based search technology but has since expanded into other products such as smart speakers and designer smartwatches. The technology has also been integrated into Google’s smartwatch operating system, Wear.
Volkswagen provided $180m of financing for Mobvoi in April 2017 in connection with a joint venture involving the development of artificial intelligence technologies for the automotive industry.
Google, which has since been restructured into the Alphabet umbrella company, led a funding round of undisclosed size for Mobvoi in 2015 that valued it at approximately $300m, and which which brought the company’s total funding at that point to $75m.
Quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group backed a $10m series B round for the company in 2014, after venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and ZhenFund had supplied $1.6m in funding two years earlier.
