China-based artificial intelligence technology provider SenseTime closed a series C+ round featuring Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venture capital subsidiary of mobile semiconductor technology producer Qualcomm, at $620m today.
Investment and financial services group Fidelity International also participated in the round, along with Hopu Capital, Silver Lake, Tiger Global Management and unnamed investment firms and strategic backers. It valued SenseTime at more than $4.5bn.
SenseTime produces AI technologies such as facial and image recognition, augmented reality, autonomous driving and driver monitoring software.
The company said that it achieved profitability in 2017 and has grown 400% year on year, over the past three years. It will put the series C+ funds toward recruitment and research and development.
The round boosted SenseTime’s overall funding to more than $1.6bn, and the new funding comes just weeks after it raised $600m in a series C round led by e-commerce group Alibaba and backed by retailer Suning and Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek.
Qualcomm’s China Venture Fund invested an undisclosed amount in the company in November 2017, and property development group Dalian Wanda was among the investors in a series B round for the company that closed at $410m in July 2017 at a $1.5bn valuation.
CDH Investments, IDG Capital, StarVC, Sailing Capital International, China International Capital, Co-Stone Capital, China Merchants Securities International, Morningside Venture Capital, Everbright-IDG Industrial Fund, Advantech Capital, Zhongping Guoyu Asset Management, Huarong International Financial Holdings, TCL Capital and Infore Group also backed the series B.
IDG Capital had reportedly provided SenseTime with series A funding, though this has not been confirmed by the company.