Chinese artificial intelligence (AI)-powered robot developer CloudMinds has raised over 1 billion yuan ($138.1 million) in a Series C round of financing as the firm is said to be weighing an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong.
The Shanghai-based startup closed the latest round from three investors including China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment & Development, a 50-50 joint venture (JV) between Singapore’s CapitaLand and the local authority in Guangzhou City.
Shanghai Guosheng Group, a state capital investor, and Beijing-based private equity (PE) investment firm Watere Capital also joined the deal.
Everest Venture Capital, an existing shareholder of CloudMinds, announced the fundraising update on its official WeChat account on Friday.
CloudMinds, which also goes by the name ‘Dataa Robotics’ in English, was reportedly considering a Hong Kong IPO to raise as much as $500 million. Sources told Bloomberg in early March that the startup was working with China International Capital Corp (CICC) and Haitong International Securities Group on preparations for the public listing that could happen as early as this year.
The IPO could create an exit opportunity for CloudMinds’ shareholders including SoftBank’s Vision Fund and FIH Mobile, the Hong Kong-listed unit of Apple Inc supplier Foxconn Technology Group.
Investors in China’s tech upstarts have been caught in the middle of an ongoing technology war between the US and China in the past years.
CloudMinds had filed for a US share sale in July 2019 and listed Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and UBS Group AG as the arrangers. But it eventually shelved the plan when its efforts to woo international investors were hit by US restrictions that blocked its US unit from sharing US-origin technology, even software bugs, with its offices in China without licences.
CloudMinds was founded in 2015 and led by its chief executive officer Bill Huang, who was previously a research whiz at the state-owned telecom giant China Mobile. It develops cloud-based robots powered by AI to handle tasks such as cleaning, patrolling, delivering, and fully-automated product vending in restaurants, hotels, schools, supermarkets, shopping malls, as well as industrial parks.
With headquarters in Shanghai, the firm also operates branch offices in cities like Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Zhuhai.
As one of the latest to consider a Hong Kong listing, CloudMinds may join an expanding group of domestic deep tech peers like Tencent-backed robot maker Ubtech Robotics Corp and Mobvoi, a Google-backed developer of AI and smart devices, both of which filed for a listing in the city earlier this year.
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