China-Backed AI Startup Aibee Seek New Funds

Aibee, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, is planning a funding round to raise about $100 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Sequoia Capital China-backed firm could seek an initial public offering after the fundraising, however no final decision has been made, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public.

Details of the offering are preliminary and could still change, the people said. A representative for Aibee declined to comment.

Aibee focuses on developing technologies such as speech recognition, computer vision, natural language understanding and big data analysis, according to its website.

Since its establishment in November 2017, Aibee has raised over $200 million from investors including Sequoia Capital China, Hong Kong billionaire Adrian Cheng’s K11, CR Capital Management and Lenovo Group Ltd., its website shows.

The firm works with commercial real estate brands, bank outlets and retail chains to apply digital and intelligent AI. It also has partnerships with some of China’s main airports in Beijing and Shanghai.