AI startup ADVANCE.AI raises US$80m in Series C funding

LOCAL artificial intelligence startup ADVANCE.AI has raised US$80 million in Series C funds led by Gaorong Capital and Pavilion Capital to drive its expansion in Asia, the startup announced in a press release on Friday.

Other investors in the round include Unicorn Venture, eGarden Ventures and the startup's existing investors GSR Ventures and Vision Plus Capital. The chief executive and co-founder of ADVANCE.AI, Jefferson Chen, is also a partner at GSR Ventures.

ADVANCE.AI's flagship product is ADVANCE Guardian, which uses AI to assist banks and other businesses in e-KYC (know your customer), fraud detection and credit scoring. The startup says that it has over 300 enterprise customers in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and India.

"Today, our AI-based computer vision, fraud detection and credit-scoring technologies deliver some of the best results... We strive to invest more heavily into R&D and innovations in the coming years to better serve our customers' needs and grow together with them," Mr Chen said in the release.

Roland Ang, an investment committee member at Pavilion Capital, said: "We are privileged to be able to support Jefferson and the ADVANCE.AI team. They bring deep experiences and a compelling vision to building the next-generation data analytics and artificial intelligence business in credit scoring and financial inclusion."

Zhen Zhang, managing partner of Gaorong Capital, said: "Gaorong believes that ADVANCE.AI can continue to help regional clients transform their traditional businesses in the AI era, and deliver more value to consumers in these emerging markets, with the capabilities and core technologies it has firmly established."