AI Chipmaker Black Sesame closed series C fundraising led by Xiaomi, now values...

AI Chipmaker Black Sesame closed series C fundraising led by Xiaomi, now values near $2 billion- PingWest

AI Chipmaker Black Sesame closed series C fundraising led by Xiaomi, now values near $2 billion

September 22, 2021 6:53 pm

According to a news release published on Black Sesame Technologies’ WeChat account, the Chinese AI company has completed the strategic round and C round of financing, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The company has become a unicorn with a valuation of near $2 billion, and “the C+round funding is also in progress”. 

Details:

Yangtze River Xiaomi Industry Fund and FulScience Automotive Electronics led the strategic round funding. The C-round funding was led again by the Yangtze River Xiaomi Industry Fund, and other investors included Wingtech, Summitview Capital, FutureX Capital, etc.

Founded in 2016, Black Sesame is mainly based in Shanghai. Its businesses cover image processing, perception algorithm, system-on-a-chip design, and vehicle-road collaboration technologies.

The financing of the two rounds will support the company’s development in high-performance, high computing power auto-driving platforms and help it expand the market, team, and realize commercialization.


Context:

The investments in Black Sesame marked Chinese mobile giant Xiaomi’s first action after announcing its interest in car building in March when it released plans to launch an electric vehicle business and invest $10 billion over the next 10 years.

However, the world has seen a shortage of auto chips recently. The Covid-19 pandemic is the leading cause of the shortage. Besides, demand spiked for computers and other electronic devices because people needed work and entertainment. When auto factories got rolling again, auto chip manufacturers could not keep up with the surging demand.

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