The overall financing environment of the AI track is not optimistic! According to IT Orange data, as of November 20, 2023, the total number of financing events in China's AI track in the primary market was 530, a decrease of 26% compared with the same period last year; The total financing transaction value is estimated at 63.1 billion yuan, down 38% compared to the same period last year.
However, the financing of representative companies in some AI subdivisions has not been affected, but has obtained a lot of "bullets" in the contrarian trend. Just yesterday (January 29, 2024), Al Native marketing company, Altron Lightyear, announced the closing of a $15 million Series A+ funding round. Recently, the AR eyewear brand Xreal also announced on a number of investor platforms that it has completed a new round of strategic financing of $60 million.
Regarding whether the popularity of AI can be sustained in the first year of the new year, Hou Xudong, a senior investment banker, said that if each industry is compared to an arena or racetrack, and the startups in it are compared to competitors and horse racing, it is obvious that the AI field is more lively than other tracks, there will be more onlookers, and the probability of investors betting is relatively large, so I think it is difficult for the overall heat of AI to cool down, and even unicorns and super unicorns will run in some subdivisions.
From the financing list of Ultron Lightyear and Xreal, we can see financial investment institutions such as Sequoia and Hillhouse, as well as strategic investments such as Alibaba, CICC, and Shunwei Capital, and the entry of star institutions also indicates the direction of mainstream capital on the track. The following are the specific financing of the two companies:
On January 29, Mogic AI, an AI full-link marketing company, announced that it had received $15 million in Series A+ financing. This round of financing was co-led by Meitu and Cathay**, followed by Binfu Capital and Wanwu Venture Capital, with China Renaissance Capital as the exclusive financial advisor. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time that Ultron Lightyear disclosed its A round of 10 million US dollars in August 2023, and announced a new round of financing in less than half a year.
Yang Hai, co-founder and COO of Altran Lightyear, said that this round of financing will be mainly used for investment in AI models and product research and development, and Altron Lightyear will continue to deepen the marketing track in the future, expand more abundant AI marketing application scenarios, and provide users with comprehensive and upgraded brand communication solutions.
Founded in 2021, the team has launched products such as the SAGA content generation model and the Mogic Content AI Studio (CAS) full-link marketing platform, providing enterprise customers with AI full-link marketing solutions from content insight (CAD), marketing decision-making, content generation (CMP), intelligent streaming to content management (DAM).
At present, Altron Lightyear has gradually penetrated from focusing on beauty, food, medical and other fields to more industry scenarios such as mobile phones, digital, small household appliances, finance, clothing, culture, etc., and has continuously trained domain models in various industries and continuously enriched AI capabilities to cover more core application scenarios for users, thereby promoting the continuous improvement of the company's product commercialization capabilities and market space.
Commenting on this round of financing, Meitu (HKG: 1357) Yan Jinliang said: "We firmly believe that AI can change the production paradigm of human work, and now Meitu has gradually completed the evolution from life scenarios to productivity scenarios with AIGC as its core. In just over two years since its establishment, its AI marketing generation has reached a very mature commercial-level level, and a more three-dimensional marketing productivity platform has been formed simultaneously, which has been recognized by the majority of leading brands and e-commerce platforms around the world. ”
Recently, Xreal, the world's leading AR eyewear brand, announced that it has completed a new round of strategic financing of $60 million. This round of financing will be used for product development and the expansion of the optical engine production base, which means that Xreal can further increase the production capacity of AR glassesIt is expected to reach production scale of 2 million units by 2025 to help Xreal become more of an industry leader in the upcoming era of spatial computing.
xReal's investment roster is a luxury line-up, with major investors including Shunwei Capital, Alibaba, Kuaishou, NIO Capital, Yunfeng**, Sequoia China, Gentle Monster, Hillhouse, Hongtai, CICC Capital, Gimpo Investment, CPE Yuanfeng, China Growth Capital and iQiyi. According to industry analysts, Xreal is currently valued at more than $1 billion.
Founded in 2017 in Beijing, China, by former employees from Magic Leap, Google and AMD, Xreal has more than 600 employees, 70% of whom are R&D personnel. Xreal has entered many countries and markets in China, the United States, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and other countries, and has now become the world's leading R&D, design and manufacturing company for consumer AR glasses. Xreal has pioneered a number of industry-core innovations in exploring consumer-grade AR, including the world's leading self-developed spatial perception algorithm and optical engine. Xreal pioneered the concept of connecting AR glasses with existing smart devices (such as smartphones, game consoles, PCs, smart cars, etc.). It is also the first AR eyewear company to introduce an ultra-light and fashionable design that consumers can wear every day.
Xreal also provides users with the core technology experience of AR - Xreal Spatial Screen, which is a transformative technology that defines the future of consumer-grade AR experience. In addition to its consumer-facing offerings, Xreal offers software development kits for developers and has created a vibrant developer community.
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