Megvii is an eight-year-old Chinese AI company, founded by three Tsinghua University graduates, best known for its Face++ facial recognition and computer-vision platform. It provides computer-vision solutions across use cases including public security and mobile payment and competes with peers such as SenseTime and Yitu. Alibaba has been a backer of the company. Megvii raised $750 million in a Series D that lifts its valuation to just north of $4 billion as it gears up for an IPO later in the year. The company says the fresh proceeds will be used for commercialization of its AI services, recruitment, and global expansion. Its technology and partnerships have drawn scrutiny: Human Rights Watch listed Megvii as a provider to the IJOP police app in Xinjiang, a link the company has denied. Face++ offers facial-recognition technology via an API, SDK and custom cloud services that customers integrate into payment, photography and entertainment apps. Its technology is used by Ant Financial/Alipay — including Alipay’s “smile to pay” authentication — and is integrated in apps such as Camera360 and the Ukrainian dating service Flinch. Over 30,000 developers have used Face++’s tools, and traditional banks have approached the company about partnerships following its high-profile deals. The company will use its Series B funding to develop a new commercial application, with a product launch planned for this year. Market context cited in the article notes the global biometrics market expanding substantially, which includes facial-recognition tech like Face++’s. The company is based in Beijing and claims notable enterprise traction. Face++ is a cloud-based face recognition technology provider that offers face detection, analysis, recognition and large-scale search technologies via a face-related API, an offline SDK, and customized cloud services. Formed in 2012 by three Tsinghua University alumni and based in Beijing, the company serves both developers and enterprises. It reports integration into more than 14,000 apps and coverage of over 40 million mobile devices per month. Face++ plans to accelerate commercial applications of its technology, with explicit focus on financial services (biometric logins with partners such as Ant Financial/Alipay and several commercial banks). It is also pursuing camera-data use cases combined with IFTTT-style triggers to enable actions such as VIP detection in retail. The company counts partners including Alibaba, Qihoo360, Weibo, Momo, Meitu, Camera360, and Jiayuan.

Total raised

$797M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series D

Latest activity

May 2019