Editor's note: This article is from the original of Chuangyebang, image source: Photo Network, author: Ai Luen, editor: Xinling, without the authorization of Chuangbang, may not be reproduced.
The most beautiful boy in the field of artificial intelligence is finally going to IPO.
SenseTime is about to land the news of its IPO through the hearing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Asia's highest-revenue AI unicorn has completed 10 rounds of funding with a total of $5.2 billion and a valuation of $13 billion.
SenseTime's pre-IPO financing performance far exceeded that of its peers. In its star-studded investor lineup, nearly 40 investment institutions participated, and there was no shortage of leading institutions such as SoftBank, Ali, IDG, Temasek, Tiger Fund and Silver Lake Capital. However, the highest-paid AI unicorn in the investment, investors must be able to enjoy a collective exit feast?
The first to discover SenseTime was IDG Capital.
In November 2014, IDG Capital became an angel investor in SenseTime, investing tens of millions of dollars and participating in a Series B funding round in 2016.
In 2016, StarVC invested in Tang's Series A and B. Also including B-round investors are Wanda Group and CDH Investments.
In 2017, AI companies ushered in the capital outlet. SenseTime completed three rounds of financing that year, involving 17 well-known institutions. In 2018, during the cold winter of capital, But SenseTime's attractiveness to investors did not diminish, and it completed three rounds of financing again, of which the C round was led by Alibaba and the D round was raised by the SoftBank Vision Fund for $1 billion. More than a dozen international institutions, including Temasek, Tiger Fund and Silver Lake Capital, intervened.
At the end of December 2020, SenseTime completed the Pre-IPO round of fundraising. Investors are not publicly disclosed. According to publicly available information, SenseTime is valued at about $13 billion.
Whether it is the financing scale from the perspective of capital or the actual market share, revenue growth and other operating data, SenseTime is the industry leader. From 2018 to 2020, SenseTime's revenue continued to grow, reaching 1.85 billion yuan, 3.03 billion yuan and 3.45 billion yuan, respectively. In the first half of this year, SenseTime's revenue reached 1.65 billion yuan, an increase of 91.8% over the same period last year. Such a leader took the lead in rushing into the secondary market, which is a very "supporting façade" investment for any investment institution. Chuangbang calculated a small account based on the valuation of the last round, and the results were as follows:
The first round of investors who entered in 2014 earned a return multiple of nearly 20 times;
Investors who entered the second round in 2016 returned nearly 5 times;
Investors returned diminishingly after the third round, and after the 8th round, the multiple of returns was less than 1. However, for the primary market, with the growth of investment rounds, the decreasing return on investment is also the general consensus of the industry, and as SenseTime has gained more recognition from the market, its market value has also grown rapidly in the past few years, making this more prominent in the return on investment of sensetime. On the other hand, there are also some companies that do not buy in the secondary market after listing, and even cause the valuation of the primary and secondary markets to be inverted, and the investors of the Pre-IPO will sit on the needle during the lock-up period.
According to public information, SenseTime founder Tang Xiaoou is the largest shareholder, with a shareholding ratio of 21.73%. Among institutional investors, the second largest shareholding ratio is Taobao China, holding 7.59%, and the highest is the SoftBank Vision Fund, holding 14.88%. Primavera Capital and Silver Lake Capital hold 3.08% and 3.05% of the shares, respectively. IDG Capital holds 1.42% of the shares.
For senseTime's valuation, there are indeed many institutions that believe that the valuation is too high. Some institutions even use the addition of the SoftBank Vision Fund as a "reverse indicator". A PE agency told Chuangbang: "Companies that take SoftBank money will have a valuation that is twice as high as the market price." Of course, in the long run, the decisive factor is whether SenseTime is a good company or not? If the answer is yes, then investors who can afford to wait lose only time. This is not only a problem of SenseTime, but a problem faced by AI unicorns.