Widely recognized as one of the “AI four dragons” – the other three being SenseTime, Megvii and Yitu – Cloudwalk is in need of fresh funding from China’s public market to fuel its development
China's securities watchdog has approved tech giant Cloudwalk's application for an IPO on China's Nasdaq-style STAR market, its official website says on April 7.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission said Cloudwalk's application was accepted on July 20, 2021. According to its prospectus, Cloudwalk seeks to raise CNY 3.75 billion (USD 589.5 million) to upgrade its human-machine collaborative operating system upgrade, build its proprietary “Qingzhou” KaaS (kernel as a service) ecosystem, offer AI solution comprehensive service and supplement working capital.
According to the prospectus, Cloudwalk generated CNY 484 million, CNY 807 million and CNY 755 million in revenue in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively; the corresponding net loss was CNY 200 million, CNY 1.763 billion and CNY 720 million.
Founded in 2015, Cloudwalk focuses on AI research and application. Using its core technology, the company seeks to build a human-machine collaborative system and provide AI solutions for applications ranging from smart finance and intelligent governance to smart mobility and intelligent commerce.
Together with SenseTime, Megvii and Yitu, Cloudwalk was dubbed one of “China’s four computer vision dragons.” As of press time, Cloudwalk has completed 11 rounds of financing, with the latest one, which garnered CNY 1.8 billion, taking place in May 2020, according to Tianyancha, a business registration information provider.