Top 50 AI Industry Financing Events in the First Half of 2024

Source: Flintstone Industry Data Center

【Financing Overview】In the first half of the year, there were a total of 265 financing events in the national AI field (excluding proposed acquisitions, acquisitions, private placements, and listings), with a cumulative disclosed financing amount of 30.244 billion yuan.

Figure 1: Financing Situation in the Past Six Months Source: Flintstone Industry Data Center

【Distribution of Financing Rounds】From the perspective of financing rounds, the financing events in the AI industry in the first half of the year were mainly distributed in strategic financing and angel rounds, with 43 and 34 projects receiving investments, respectively. In terms of financing amount, Series A financing received the highest amount of 9.025 billion yuan, accounting for 29.84% of the total financing amount; followed by Series B, which also received a relatively high amount of 3.739 billion yuan, accounting for 12.36% of the total financing amount.

Figure 2: Number and Amount of Financing by Round

Source: Flintstone Industry Data Center

【Geographical Distribution of Financing】The financing projects in the first half of the year were mainly distributed in Beijing and Guangdong Province, with 61 projects receiving investments in each region. In terms of financing amount, Beijing stood out the most with a financing amount of up to 11.904 billion yuan, accounting for 39.36% of the total financing amount; followed by Shanghai, which also performed prominently with a financing amount of 6.346 billion yuan, accounting for 20.98% of the total financing amount.

Figure 3: Number and Amount of Financing by Region

Source: Flintstone Industry Data Center

【Distribution of Financing Amount】In the first half of the year, a total of 265 projects received investments, with a cumulative amount exceeding 30.244 billion yuan. There were 88 cases where the single financing amount exceeded 100 million yuan, with a total financing amount of up to 28.713 billion yuan, accounting for 94.97% of the total financing scale in the first half of the year.

Figure 4: Distribution of Financing Amounts

Source: Flintstone Industry Data Center

Most Notable AI Financing Projects

1. Dark Side of the Moon Completes Over $1 Billion Financing - AI startup Dark Side of the Moon has completed a new round of financing exceeding $1 billion, with investors including Alibaba, Sequoia China, RED, Meituan, and follow-on investments from existing shareholders such as Lisi Capital.

Beijing Dark Side of the Moon Technology Co., Ltd. is a general AI research and development company dedicated to finding optimal solutions for converting energy into intelligence. It collaborates with users to create intelligence and launched Kimi, the world's first smart assistant product that supports input of up to 200,000 Chinese characters, in October 2023. Dark Side of the Moon's business model is primarily consumer-oriented (To-C), and it has developed products including the game application "Hoho Simulator," which is integrated with the company's large model, providing rich couple interaction scenarios and allowing users to customize dialog scenes and characters, with AI characters simulating real conversations. Additionally, the company's smart assistant Kimi Chat boasts multiple functions such as long text summarization and generation, online search, data processing, code writing, user interaction, and translation.

2. PATEO Receives 1.5 Billion Yuan in Financing

PATEO, an automotive intelligence industry enterprise, has received 1.5 billion yuan in financing. PATEO is a comprehensive connected vehicle service provider offering services ranging from active safety, automotive electronics, underlying automotive software, intelligent operating systems, application software, domestic and international Internet automotive ecosystems, mobile phone interconnection, telecommunications operations, HMI and user experience, TSP platform development and operation services, cloud computing, big data, content service integration and operation, map engine software and cloud architecture, voice embedding and cloud platform solutions, PaaS platforms, AI, IoT, and wearable devices.

3. Qiyuan Xindongli Completes 1.5 Billion Yuan Series B Equity Financing

Shanghai Qiyuan Xindongli Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Qiyuan Xindongli"), a subsidiary of State Power Investment Corporation, announced the completion of 1.5 billion yuan in Series B equity financing.

Qiyuan Xindongli is a comprehensive smart energy service provider under the State Power Investment Corporation Group Co., Ltd., focusing on the "green electricity transportation" sector. It possesses core battery swapping patented technologies and has comprehensively deployed over 100 heavy-duty truck charging and swapping stations across 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, compatible with over 200 battery swapping heavy-duty truck models on the market, making it a leading brand in large-scale battery swapping services in China. As a comprehensive service provider for zero-carbon green transportation, guided by the corporate mission of "Making Transportation Greener and Life Better," Qiyuan Xindongli actively promotes battery swapping heavy-duty trucks and electric construction machinery, builds battery swapping service networks, provides full-lifecycle management of power batteries, intelligent digital operation management, customized financial services, etc., striving to use green energy to help enterprises embark on a sustainable future.