Work With Us; Portfolio ; … Team. SenseTime became the world’s most valuable AI startup after it raised about $2.5 billion in 2018. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Masayoshi Son is leading SoftBank Group Work With Us; Portfolio; Team; Building a great company takes time. It currently has teams in Seoul, Beijing, San Francisco, and Tel Aviv. SenseTime is at the vanguard of a rising crop of Chinese players that have benefited from the country’s rapid adoption of facial recognition technology and AI across a plethora of sectors. Have a confidential tip for our reporters? SoftBank in talks to invest over US$1 billion in SenseTime (China). SoftBank Group and its portfolio companies also make early-stage investments. Read more about how SenseTime is in the crossfires of the U.S. and China. SenseTime created a new experience to play this ancient musical instrument with the application of advanced and highly accurate AR and AI algorithms. Portfolio. SoftBank’s Vision Fund is said to be looking to plow capital into the four-year old startup. SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp has expanded its appetite for early-stage startups, with a venture capital unit set to launch its biggest fund for early investments as it opens new offices in Asia. (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp’s Vision Fund is seeking to invest almost $1 billion in SenseTime Group Ltd, a Chinese facial recognition technology developer, Bloomberg reported on Friday. The startup has said it experienced exponential growth in past years as it expanded into more industries, from cameras in retailer Suning.com Co.’s stores to driverless cars for Honda Motor Co. Read more about China’s $1.4 trillion plan to surpass the U.S. in tech, — With assistance by Lulu Yilun Chen, and Dong Cao, The U.S.-sanctioned firm seeks funding at $8.5 billion value, SenseTime prefers dual listing in Hong Kong, China: Sources. Around half of its investments have been early stage. Many investors are big names in corporate funds and VC funds such as Qualcomm, Alibaba, Softbank, Tiger Global, IDG Capital, etc. Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Three months later, SoftBank Ventures Korea was relaunched as SoftBank Ventures Asia and it now plans to open offices and hire investment managers in Singapore and Shanghai. In keeping with Son’s practice of promoting ties between portfolio companies to boost their growth, Lee said Singapore-based used car trading platform Carro, which the unit has a stake in, had been introduced to SoftBank portfolio company Grab for potential collaboration. Son provides guidance while individual investment decisions are made by Lee and his team, Lee said. Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul and Sam Nussey in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Julie Zhu in Hong Kong; Editing by Edwina Gibbs. SenseTime Group Ltd., China’s largest artificial intelligence company, is exploring a dual listing in Hong Kong and China as it closes in on $1.5 billion of pre-IPO financing, according to people familiar with the matter. The new fund, called the SoftBank Acceleration Fund, follows the launch of a $300 million China-focused fund in September.

The system … The unit declined to comment on how many new people may be hired.

Many of these are not disclosed by SoftBank and lack of clarity on their valuations complicate investors’ efforts to quantify SoftBank’s worth, said Dan Baker, an analyst at Morningstar. It was valued at more than $7.5 billion, drawing investors including SoftBank and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte., people familiar with the deal said at the time. We believe that the AI revolution is here. Tasked by Son to explain why the SoftBank should keep investing in early-stage startups, Lee on a visit to the group’s Tokyo offices invoked the words of Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma: “small guys become big guys”. In doing so, he harkened back to Son’s most spectacular startup jackpot - his 2000 investment of $20 million in the Chinese e-commerce firm.

SenseTime in May raised $620 million in a round of funding from Fidelity International, Hopu Capital, Silver Lake and Tiger Global, and $600 million in April led by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. A SenseTime spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter. A pedestrian stands in front of the Exchange Square complex in Hong Kong. The SoftBank Group Corp.-backed company is seeking a pre-funding valuation of about $8.5 billion before kicking off an initial public offering, the people said, requesting not to be named because the matter is private. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. The unit was born in 2000 at a boom time for South Korean startups, expanding its focus beyond that country in 2011.

Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru and Sijia Jiang in Hong Kong; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier. The fund and SenseTime are finalizing the terms of the deal and the details could still change, Bloomberg reported here citing sources. Defeat for Trump Would Mean Some Other Leaders Also Lose Out, Goldman Poised to Pay More Than $2 Billion in DOJ’s 1MDB Probe, U.S. Stocks Drop With Spending-Aid Deal Elusive: Markets Wrap, U.S. Stocks Rise on Stimulus Bets; Google Slumps: Markets Wrap, An Obscure American Automaker Now Has the World’s Fastest Car. Wide-ranging experience, global connections, and a collective drive to help founders build market-leading companies. It’s now considering tapping markets in Hong Kong and mainland China simultaneously, betting on a recent resurgence of investor interest in new listings.

Its IPO plans are preliminary and subject to change, they added. Softbank, based in Japan, has amassed a $100 Billion investment fund, with many international investors including Saudi Arabia’s sovereign investment fund and other global sources of capital. The firm, which competes with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.-backed Megvii Technology, specializes in systems that analyze faces and images on an enormous scale and works with policing bodies, retailers and health-care researchers across China and internationally. The global fund from newly rebranded Seoul-based SoftBank Ventures Asia will be worth as much as $500 million and could launch next month, its CEO JP Lee told Reuters in an interview. By contrast, the average size of similar funds raised last year was just over $100 million, according to data provider Preqin. Work With Us. SenseTime has raised nine rounds of financing, making a total of USD 3 billion. To date, the unit has taken stakes in over 250 companies across 10 countries, including South Korean gaming company Nexon Co, which listed in Japan in 2011, and Indonesian e-commerce firm Tokopedia. And another company it has invested in, camera app operator Snow China, is using technology from artificial intelligence firm SenseTime. It currently concentrates on firms involved in artificial intelligence, connected devices and robotics. “It’s an important signal within the SoftBank Group that SoftBank thinks early-stage investments are important and will make continued efforts on them,” said Lee. The move comes as SoftBank rapidly transforms beyond telecoms into a tech investing giant. SoftBank, South Korea’s National Pension Service as well as other companies and asset management firms will provide funding, Lee said, declining to provide further details on investors. SenseTime declined to comment. In addition to the $100 billion Saudi-backed SoftBank Vision Fund that has made big investments in firms like Uber, SoftBank said on Thursday it was launching a $5 billion fund focused on Latin America. The bigger remit for SoftBank Ventures Asia, which describes itself as the group’s global arm for early-stage investing, came after a successful presentation to SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son last October, Lee said. Museum visitors can now listen to the sound of the chime bells simply by pointing a camera-equipped mobile device at the real exhibit or images of it and tap on the virtual instrument projected on their smartphone screens to produce sound.

The latest financing series created a record in the industry, USD 1 billion for a single round. SoftBank and its Vision Fund have invested more than $600 million in SenseTime, valuing it in the most recent round at $7.6 billion, a source familiar with the matter said, declining to be identified because the information is not public. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. A representative for SenseTime declined to comment. SenseTime became the world’s most valuable AI startup after it raised about $2.5 billion in 2018. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Our portfolio companies are leading the way.

The unit, which has $1.1 billion under management, had until then focused on funds worth under $200 million. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Updates with SenseTime revenue figure in sixth paragraph.
Sensetime is leaning toward a dual listing in Hong Kong and China though it hasn’t finalized a timeline, the people said. SoftBank’s current Alibaba stake is worth around $130 billion.


We're here to support the journey. The startup is kickstarting plans for an IPO that had been waylaid by pandemic-induced market volatility as well as a U.S. blacklisting that threatens to curtail its access to vital American technology. The global fund from newly rebranded Seoul-based SoftBank Ventures Asia will be worth as much as $500 million and could launch next month, its CEO JP Lee told Reuters in an interview. Its revenue grew 147% to 5 billion yuan ($720 million) in 2019, the company said.