Image Source : China Visual

BEIJING, November 8 (TMTPOST) — The conversational AI company Xiaoice recently completed a total of 1 billion yuan（$138 Million）in financing to accelerate the AI Being framework technology development and promote the popularity of digital employees, according to its announcement on Monday.

People familiar with Xiaoice revealed that Xiaoice is currently valued at about $2 billion after its November 2022 financing. Sequoia and other institutions participated in this round of financing, with some of the old shareholders following the investment.

Xiaoice has previously raised two rounds of financing. On November 24, 2020, the company raised hundreds of millions of yuan in a Pre-A round of financing from Northern Light Venture Capital and NetEase Capital. On July 12, 2021, Xiaoice raised a Series A round of financing led by Hillhouse Capital Group, followed by 5Y Capital, Neumann Advisors, IDG Capital, Ji Yuan Capital, Northern Light Venture Capital, and NetEase Capital.

According to Li Di, CEO of Xiaoice and former vice president of Microsoft (Asia) Internet Engineering Institute, Xiaoice's main revenue currently comes from the enterprise (to B) sector, as enterprises have more clear demand. Xiaoice currently provides AI solutions to verticals such as finance, smart cars, retail, and sports. Its customers include the Winter Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sports, the National Textile Information Center, China Unicom, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, China Merchants Group, etc.

According to Li Di, Xiaoice is focusing on customer-oriented businesses in the long term, such as Xiaoice's AI Beings product, although so far Xiaoice is still working on the popularization of AI Beings.

The AI Beings in operation include "Hóng", a virtual analyst from Sequoia China, "Luo Tianyi", a virtual singer, and "Cui Xiaopan", a digital employee from Vanke Group.

At present, some of Xiaoice's products have been delivered in advance in the recent launch of China Merchants Group's "Zhao Xiaoying", the Winter Olympics digital coach "Guanjun" and other digital employees.