AI Startup Advance.ai Plans Aggressive Asian Push After Scoring Hefty Funding

The round was led by Chinese VC firm Gaorong Capital and Singapore-based Pavilion Capital, with significant contributions coming from GSR Ventures, Unicorn Venture, Vision Plus Capital, and eGarden Ventures. The overwhelming success of the Series-C round comes as a big boost to Advance.ai’s ongoing efforts to go global.

New Funds Will Boost R&D and International Expansion

Founded in 2015, Advance.ai has so far focused mainly on strengthening its grip on the burgeoning fintech market on its home turf, as well as a few neighboring countries. The company’s AI-based fintech solutions help businesses effectively tackle fraud risks while simultaneously boosting operational efficiency. Advance.ai seems to have made a good rapport with its formidable clientele that includes banking and fintech companies, telcos, and retail platforms. Additionally, the company also specializes in technologies that help financial institutions expand the scope of their credit scoring systems in emerging markets. The startup claims to have more than 300 enterprise customers, most of them from Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and India. However, that list could soon expand as the company plans on using a big chunk of its newly raised capital in expanding to more Asian markets. Commenting on the success of the Series-C fund, Advance.ai co-founder and CEO Jefferson Chen said that it will also help the company strengthening its R&D and innovation. Chen stated that Advance.ai aims to expand the scope of AI development encompassing computer vision and natural language processing in Southeast Asia, which he says is currently lacking in the region.

Singapore-based https://t.co/HN6xqwidK2 raises US$80 mil in funding round to spur expansion across Asia – SCMP https://t.co/wk0Jawb13N

— The Edge Malaysia (@theedgemalaysia) September 20, 2019

Singapore’s AI Roadmap

In its Report of the Committee on the Future Economy (2017), the government of Singapore vowed to prepare the country with an adequate technological infrastructure to tap in on the rapid socioeconomic opportunities AI is expected to bring along. The government also rolled out a roadmap to encourage and promote AI infrastructure development with a national AI program dubbed AI Singapore. It was a part of the country’s ongoing efforts to emerge a leading hub of technological innovation in Asia and worldwide. Singapore has made big strides towards achieving that objective since, which is evident from a recent Google report that named the country the second most prolific smart city in the Asia-Pacific region, lagging behind only Tokyo. Would you urge your government to take a leaf out of Singapore’s national AI policy and come up with a policy framework that helps accelerate the growth of AI innovation and infrastructure? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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