China VC Weekly: AI and Hony Capital’s New Fund

AI startup Emotibot raises 200 million Series C round

Chinese AI startup Emotibot has raised 200 million yuan in its C round of financing. The round was led by Bank of China International. Existing investors Bank of Communications International and Lingfeng Capital also contributed.

As of October 2020, the company boasted six major product lines, providing a complete set of solutions for multiple industries including finance, medical care, education, and smart terminals.

The company has serviced hundreds of financial benchmark customers, including Bank of Communications, China UnionPay, Sunshine Insurance, Sumitomo Mitsui, Zhonghong Insurance, Huatai Securities, Bank of Beijing, etc. The AI startup also cooperates with corporate services giants including Huawei , Ubisoft, Changhong TV, BMW, Sanofi, Vanke, Evergrande Real Estate, China Mobile, Tianyi Video, China General Nuclear Power, Hainan Nuclear Power.

About Emotibot

Founded in 2015, Emotibot develops dialogue robots with emotion recognition capabilities based on AI technologies such as natural language processing, deep learning, and knowledge engineering, and provides one-stop enterprise services for emotional artificial intelligence open platforms.

Self-driving truck startup Inceptio Technology completes $120 million funding round

Chinese self-driving truck startup Inceptio Technology made public on Monday that it had raised $120 million in its latest funding round led by top Chinese electric vehicle battery maker CATL.

CATL, which is among suppliers of such companies as Volkswagen and Tesla, is working with truck makers to develop a business model for electric trucks using its battery-swapping technologies.

The funding came six months after a $100 million funding round the company completed in April. Logistics firm GLP, Inceptio’s key strategic investor G7 and Nio Capital also partook in the new funding round, according to Inceptio’s statement. The company’s valuation, however, has not been disclosed.

Inceptio is currently focusing on Level 3 autonomous driving technologies, which should allow drivers to turn their attention away from most driving tasks but still require them to respond immediately in some scenarios.

About Inceptio Technology

Inceptio Technology was founded in April 2018, with an aim to build a nation-wide freight network using autonomous driving trucks. The company focuses on the transformation of line-haul logistics by providing a more secure, efficient, and economical Transportation-As-A-Service (TaaS) to logistic customers.

SEE ALSO: China VC Weekly: Biotech, Autonomous Driving and AI

Hony Capital bags $130 million for a new fund

Beijing-based private equity firm Hony Capital, which is part of Chinese investment holding company Legend Holdings, has raised $130 million for its maiden USD-denominated sub-fund to support mid-staged investments.

According to DealStreetAsia, Hony Capital initiated fundraising talks in July this year. The fund is said to be aiming to invest in digitally-driven consumer brands, and new retail platforms, among others. It also has plans to tap the business-to-business segment.

With about 80 billion yuan ($12 billion) in assets under management, Hony Capital currently operates businesses spanning private equity, real estate, mutual fund and hedge fund, and has made innovation investments.

About Hony Capital

Since its inception in 2003, Hony has invested in over 100 startups across sectors such as healthcare, consumer products, media and entertainment, environmental protection, new energy, and advanced manufacturing, among others. Some of its portfolio companies are ByteDance, UK’s PizzaExpress, China International Marine Containers, among others.