Highest-Valued AI Startup to Launch China Domestic IPO This Year, Founder Says

DUAN QIANQIAN

(Yicai Global) Feb. 21 — Artificial intelligence and robot developer UBTECH Robotics will stage an initial public offering in China this year, it announced at a public event yesterday, ten months after it became the world’s most valuable AI startup.

Formed in 2012, the Shenzhen-based firm develops and sells AI, android robots and platform software.

The company has begun to profit from its successful commercialization of automatons, Xiong Youjun, its chief technical officer, told Yicai Global in an exclusive interview at the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas, Nevada in January.

“We’ve always had a plan for an IPO. Outsiders have many guesses about us … but one thing’s for sure: we will list domestically,” the firm’s founder Zhou Jian told Yicai Global in an interview.

The company seeks to “bring a robot into every home, and truly integrate intelligent robots into the daily lives of everyone creating a more intelligent way of life,” Zhou told online tech news portal Synced.

It completed its C-round of funding of USD820 million in May, boosting its market valuation to USD5 billion. Tencent Holdings led with USD120 million, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Haier Group and Minsheng Securities followed, with Australia’s largest telecom operator Telstrar and several others also chipping in.

B-round leader CDH Investments also anted up in that session.

Editor: Ben Armour