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China's SenseTime raises $620M in 2nd funding round; valuation tops $4.5B

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China's SenseTime raises $620M in 2nd funding round; valuation tops $4.5B

Chinese artificial intelligence startup SenseTime Group Ltd. has raised $620 million during a second funding round in two months, increasing its valuation to more than $4.5 billion, the company said May 31.

The Beijing-based startup, which specializes in facial recognition technology and provides a deep learning supercomputing platform, said it closed its series C+ funding round May 31. The round was led by investment firms including Fidelity International Co. Ltd., Hopu Capital, Silver Lake and Tiger Global Group Ltd., and included previous investor Qualcomm Inc.

As a result of the fresh capital SenseTime's valuation has soared by roughly 50% from $3 billion, according to the report.

In April, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. led a $600 million series C funding round for the company, making it the world's highest-valued AI startup. Other investors included Temasek Holdings and Suning.

SenseTime, which is planning an IPO and wants to open a U.S. research and development center later in 2018, has struck a number of partnerships with a range of companies, including Qualcomm and Honda, mainly for algorithm integration on smartphones and devices, and autonomous driving technologies, respectively.

Most recently, the Chinese company teamed up with Hong Kong Science and Technology Park Corp. to set up an AI hub in Hong Kong. The lab will be a nonprofit accelerator program and will be financed by Alibaba's $130 million entrepreneurship fund in Hong Kong, TechCrunch reported May 21.

SenseTime signed an agreement with the municipal government of Shanghai in 2017 to help the city on AI-related plans, such as smart city, smart traffic, autonomous driving and smart finance initiatives.