IP analytics provider PatSnap now a unicorn, after US$300m fundraise
PATENT analytics company PatSnap has raised US$300 million in Series E funding round that values it at over US$1 billion.
The round was led by new investors such as SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Tencent Investment, CPE Industrial Fund and Vertex Growth. Other existing investors who participated were Sequoia China, Shun Wei Capital and Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India (VVSEAI). (see Amendment note)
The new funds will be channelled towards scaling up its intelligence platform, speeding up product development and gaining additional domain expertise in industries where research and development (R&D) and intellectual property (IP) teams adopt its technology.
The company will also use the funds to invest in talent development and explore sales presence with SoftBank Japan. This will support PatSnap's plans to work with local clients and hire local talent for its teams.
Jeffery Tiong, chief executive officer and founder of PatSnap, said: "Our global footprint, leadership and strategic position in the innovation economy have enabled us to attract top investors, customers and talent. Adding Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Tencent to our notable roster of investors will solidify PatSnap as the industry standard for innovation intelligence."
PatSnap offers its machine-learning and artificial-intelligence technology to innovation teams at universities, companies and research institutions to enable them to access market and patent intelligence necessary for their products.
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Said Eric Chen, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers: "We believe AI is radically changing industries, and PatSnap is a technology leader using AI to enable companies to innovate faster using IP data and R&D analytics."
Levin Yao, managing partner at Tencent Investment, said: "PatSnap is the clear leader in the connected innovation intelligence category. Its impressive portfolio of customer use cases reinforces its role in enabling companies to significantly improve their ability to identify business opportunities and threats across multiple domains and industries."
PatSnap now has more than 700 employees globally and is headquartered in Singapore, London and Toronto and Suzhou. It has more than 10,000 customers worldwide.
Amendment note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that PatSnap raised S$300 million. It is in fact US$300million. This story also incorrectly said that Vertex Growth and Vertex Ventures South-east Asia and CPE Industrial Fund were existing investors. Vertex Ventures has clarified that CPE Industrial Fund and Vertex Growth were new investors, and Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India was the new investor.
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