SenseTime Group, the China-based artificial intelligence (AI) technology developer backed by property-focused conglomerate Dalian Wanda, is looking to raise $500m in funding, the New York Times reported today.
The company will seek a $2bn valuation in the forthcoming series C round and Singaporean government-owned investment firm Temasek is among the prospective investors, people familiar with the move told the NYT.
SenseTime is working on deep learning technology that facilitates the more precise recognition and image processing of human faces and bodies, objects, vehicles, text and characters, primarily for customers in the internet, mobile and finance sectors.
The company is reportedly in the process of raising a fund in partnership with asset manager CDH Investments with a RMB3bn ($453m) target that will invest in AI developers.
Wanda and CDH both took part in SenseTime’s last round, a $410m series B round closed in July this year that valued it at about $1.5bn, and which followed an undisclosed amount of series A funding from IDG Capital, a venture capital group also backed the series B.
The series B round also featured StarVC, 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, Infore Group and Sailing Capital.
News of SenseTime’s fundraising intentions follows a report earlier this week that another China-based, AI-focused image recognition technology provider, Megvii, has raised $460m in its latest funding round.