Yitu Joins Megvii, CloudWalk in Chinese Computer Vision Firms' Rare IPO Dreams
Zhang Yushuo
DATE:  Sep 16 2020
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Yitu Joins Megvii, CloudWalk in Chinese Computer Vision Firms' Rare IPO Dreams Yitu Joins Megvii, CloudWalk in Chinese Computer Vision Firms' Rare IPO Dreams

(Yicai Global) Sept. 16 -- Yitu Technology has joined other Chinese computer vision companies Megvii and CloudWalk Technology in an uncommon pursuit of going public.

Yitu signed an initial public offering advisor agreement with Guotai Junan Securities on Sept. 9 to issue shares on China's mainland, the Shanghai bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission disclosed on its website.

Alibaba-backed Megvii, which was blacklisted in the US last October, filed its prospectus in Hong Kong on Aug. 25, 2019. The deadline to issue shares has already passed but the firm's CEO told Yicai Global in July that the company is actively considering both Shanghai's Nasdaq-style Star Market and the Hong Kong bourse for its IPO.

CloudWalk has registered for pre-listing tutoring and is likely to become the first AI startup to list on the Star Market by the end of this year, the Paper reported on Aug. 20, citing a source close to the firm.

Founded in 2012, Yitu makes smart monitoring systems used in the fields of security, medicine, and finance. Some of its clients include the Ministry of Public Security, China Merchants Bank, and JD Digits.

The tech firm has completed five rounds of financing and its institutional investors include Sequoia Capital, Gaorong Capital, Yunfeng Fund, and Shanghai Technology Innovation Center Equity Investment Fund Management. After Yitu completed the Series C round of financing in June 2018, its valuation reached CNY15 billion (USD2.2 billion).

Yitu's Chief Executive Leo Zhu worked as a postdoctoral researcher at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory before joining Lin Chenxi, former technology director at Alibaba Cloud, to establish the computer vision company.

Editor: Emmi Laine

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Keywords:   Yitu,AI,IPO,Facial Recognition,Hikvision,Computer Vision