Yitu Looking to Go Public

According to an Allied Market Research report, the global AI market is expected to grow at CAGR 55% to $169.4 billion by the year 2025 from $4.1 billion in 2016. China-based Yitu Technology is an AI unicorn from the industry that is rumored to list soon.

Yitu Technology’s Offerings

Yitu Technology was set up in 2012 by Lin Chenxi and Zhu Long. Prior to setting up Yitu, Dr. Zhu Long had completed his PhD in Statistics from the University of California. While at UCLA, he worked under Professor Alan Yuille and specialized in statistical modeling of computer vision and artificial intelligence. He then worked with Professor Bill Freeman at MIT in his AI laboratory and then as a research fellow with Yann Lecun, the founder of deep learning. Co-founder Lin Chenxi was a senior expert at Alibaba Cloud where he built and led a team of senior engineers to build the Apsara operating system, China’s largest proprietary distributed cloud computing OS.

Together these two experts worked together to build Yitu as a platform that integrated AI technologies with industrial applications and helped build a safer world. Yitu has a strong R&D team that focuses on AI breakthroughs in computer vision, natural language understanding, voice recognition, knowledge reasoning, and robotics. Yitu got its big break when the local police appointed Yitu to analyze surveillance videos to help identify people and cars. Since then, Yitu has come a long way. Its products are deployed in sectors such as security, healthcare, finance, parks, and retail. It is also helping digitize data such as traffic patterns, energy supply information and infrastructure development.

Its use cases include security solutions that use face, image, and voice recognition technology for security services at airports, bus stations and residential complexes. Within the banking sector, Yitu’s technology uses facial recognition for consumers and within the healthcare sector, it claims to have built the world’s first AI-based cancer screening solution.

Yitu Technology’s Financials

Yitu Technology is privately held and has raised $381.8 million from investors including China Industrial Asset Management, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, GC Capital, Gaocheng Capital, ZhenFund, China Industrial Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), YF Capital, Gaorong Capital, and Sequoia Capital China. Its last round of funding was held in July 2018 when it raised $100 million led by CIBC at a valuation of $2.4 billion. Recent reports suggest that the company is evaluating the possibility of a listing.

Yitu is not the only Chinese AI player. Rivals include Megvii Technology Ltd., Sensetime, and Cloudwalk. Megvii and Cloudwalk have similar unicorn valuations and are also looking to go public. But these players are currently facing severe public and federal scrutiny as well. Earlier last year, US Department of Commerce added some of these companies on to the Entity List. US companies wanting to do business with those listed on the list need to get permission prior to doing so. SenseTime, Megvii, and Yitu were added to the list as the Department cited human rights violations in their technology being used for mass surveillance and persecution of minority groups within China. The blacklisting will make
not only consumer markets but also capital markets difficult for these companies to access.