Singaporean artificial intelligence (AI) startup Advance.ai has raised $80 million in a Series C funding round led by Gaorong Capital and Pavilion Capital, the corporate announced in an official statement on Friday.
Other investors who joined the round included Unicorn Venture, eGarden Ventures, and existing investors equivalent to GSR Ventures and Vision Plus Capital.
According to him, the brand new capital will probably be used for the corporate’s regional expansion in Asia KrAsia.
Founded in 2015, Advance.ai uses AI to assist businesses grow by reducing fraud risk and improving operational efficiency, serving sectors equivalent to fintech, banking, retail and more. The company also provides credit scoring systems for the underbanked in developing markets.
The company has over 300 corporate clients in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and India.
“There has historically been a lack of attention and resources dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence, such as computer vision and natural language processing, in Southeast Asia,” Jefferson Chen, co-founder and CEO of Advance.ai, said in an announcement to Shore market.
“We have focused on this… bringing together the best talent from different fields to meet the needs of this part of the world.”
Singapore has introduced policies to spice up innovation and technology, and its status as a regional financial center has also helped it attract enterprise capital. In a recent report published by Google, Singapore was ranked the second smartest city within the Asia-Pacific region after Tokyo, and Hong Kong was ranked third, based on the perceptions of Hong Kong residents.
Meanwhile, in Singapore, a national artificial intelligence program, aptly named AI Singapore, was established on the National University of Singapore to encourage private firms and research institutions to develop a synthetic intelligence ecosystem.
“Today, many opportunities are opening up in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, especially in consumer finance and retail,” Zhang Zhen, founder and managing partner of Gaorong Capital, said in an announcement.
