Who Is The "First Stock" Of AI Four Little Dragons Who Has Been Inquired By Cloud From The IPO Review Of Sci Tech Innovation Board?

On the last working day before the new year's Day holiday in 2021, the audit status of cloud's IPO on the science and technology innovation board was updated to "inquired", indicating that its listing process has entered the substantive review stage.

Yuncong, Yitu, Kuangshi and Shangtang are known as the "four little dragons" of computer vision in the domestic AI field. Who will the "Ai first share" go to? Has always been one of the hot spots in the market.

Among them, Kuangshi technology was the first to launch the Hong Kong stock IPO, but it has been stranded so far; the IPO of Yitu science and technology innovation board was launched earlier than the cloud, and no new progress has been made since the "inquired" status was displayed on December 1, 2020; the IPO plan of Shangtang technology has been announced from time to time, but it has not been officially announced so far.

According to the current progress, the biggest competition of "Ai's first stock" will be between cloud Cong and eatu, and the comparison of their prospectuses has become a big point. Some people in the industry believe that the cloud IPO from the relatively smooth, may lead the landing.

It is worth noting that under the epidemic situation, AI technology shows amazing power, which makes the market full of expectations for its future. However, in the capital market, AI industry has been regarded as "loud thunder and small raindrops" in recent years. In this situation, Yuncong and Yitu have rushed to the science and technology innovation board, and the market has also paid high attention to its valuation.

Unicorn burning money

Mentioning the domestic AI four dragons, "burning money" is the first impression that emerges in the minds of many investors.

With the disclosure of prospectuses, Yitu and Yuncong, the market finally has an intuitive perspective to focus on the AI unicorn.

In August 2019, Kuangshi fired the first shot of AI Unicorn listing and formally submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Among them, the volume of open vision technology is the largest.

According to the prospectus, from 2016 to the first half of 2019, Kuangshi achieved revenue of 67.8 million yuan, 313 million yuan, 1.427 billion yuan and 949 million yuan respectively. In terms of net profit, Kuangshi technology's loss increased accordingly, with a loss of 343 million yuan, 759 million yuan, 3351 million yuan and 5.2 billion yuan, respectively.

ETO's losses are also increasing year by year. From 2017 to the first half of 2020, the operating revenue of ITOT was 68.7189 million yuan, 304 million yuan, 717 million yuan and 381 million yuan respectively; in the same period, the net profit of itto technology was - 1.166 billion yuan, - 1.161 billion yuan, - 3.642 billion yuan and - 1.299 billion yuan, respectively, with a total loss of 7.268 billion yuan.

In contrast, the loss of cloud technology is much better, its revenue scale is slightly larger than that of Yitu, but the scale of net profit loss is smaller than that of Yitu. From 2017 to the first half of 2020, the revenue of cloud is 64 million yuan, 484 million yuan, 807 million yuan and 220 million yuan respectively, and the net profit loss is 106 million yuan, 180 million yuan, 1.708 billion yuan and 286 million yuan respectively.

From the explanation of the three companies, the reasons for the increase of losses year by year are the same. On the one hand, due to the rise of the overall valuation level of the AI industry, the fair value of the company's preferred shares rises correspondingly, resulting in Book losses; on the other hand, it is the continuous R & D investment.

It is worth noting that the investment institutions standing behind the three companies are very eye-catching. The largest shareholder of kuangzhi is Ali series, as well as famous shareholders such as Guoxin holding company, Hon Hai Precision, sunshine insurance, Lenovo venture capital and Bank of China group. Yitu technology's well-known shareholders include Sequoia Capital, Hillhead capital, Yunfeng fund, Zhenge fund, etc.

The number of shareholders of Yuncong technology is as high as 57, among which there is no lack of state-owned capital background, such as Nansha financial holding, Guoxin capital, Shanghai Liansheng, Guangdong venture capital and other state-owned shareholders. Zhou Xi, founder and CEO of Yuncong, is from Chongqing Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Yuncong's predecessor was also hatched by the face recognition research team of Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Chinese Academy of Sciences is also one of the shareholders of Yuncong, which makes Yuncong technology known as "Ai national team".

Jiadu technology, A-share listed company, holds 7.82% of the shares of Yuncong technology. The former is also focused on face recognition technology. As early as April 2015, Jiadu technology invested in Yuncong technology, and in November 2017, it again participated in the round B financing of Yuncong technology. The relevant person in charge of Jiadu science and technology capital operation center told the reporter of the 21st century economic report that "at the beginning, we were based on the business needs, and sought technical partners in computer vision. When we met Dr. Zhou Xi, we recognized his technology, business judgment and business philosophy, so we invested 50 million yuan in him to establish Yuncong technology. So our investment in the cloud is based on our strategy in the general direction of artificial intelligence. "

As Kuangshi IPO ran aground, "Ai's first stock" may emerge between cloud Cong and Yitu. Yitu's IPO application for the science and technology innovation board was accepted on November 4, 2020, and it was shown as "inquired" on December 1, 2020. However, one month later, the reply letter of Yitu has not been released. Yuncong's IPO application for science and technology innovation board was accepted on December 3, 2020, and it was shown as "inquired" on December 31, 2020. If it goes well, cloud may take the lead in IPO.

On the listing process of Yuncong technology, on January 4, the reporter of 21st century economic report called the company's secretary office to inquire about the relevant situation. After recording the reporter's questions, the staff said that they would convey them to the relevant leaders. As of the time of publication, there was no reply.

AI tuyere and foam

Listing is not the end point. The unicorns are still facing competition in technology and commercialization. At the same time, they will really be tested by the public. How to digest the existing valuation bubble is a big pressure.

According to the "2020 Hurun global Unicorn list" released by Hurun Research Institute, Kuangshi technology has the highest valuation of 30 billion yuan, Yuncong technology is valued at 20 billion yuan, and Yitu technology is valued at 14 billion yuan.

From the above performance data, an obvious feature is that the net profit of the three AI unicorns continued to lose, and the valuation continued to rise. Under the overvalued value, in recent years, the market began to frequently mention the word "Ai bubble". However, it seems that Kuangshi's plan to go public in Hong Kong has run aground.

Hu Guoping, senior vice president of iFLYTEK and President of the Research Institute of iFLYTEK, said in an exclusive interview with our reporter, "in the second half of 2019, it has become difficult for AI enterprises to refinance. When artificial intelligence is hot, there are many companies from the second and third echelons crowded in, but it is not likely that many companies will do it at the same time, such as face recognition, medical imaging, etc. But for head companies, it's not a bubble. "

Yao Zhiqiang, co-founder of Yuncong technology, also said in public that "the bubble in the artificial intelligence industry is a normal phenomenon."

"The AI industry as a whole is not making money and has been developing at a loss. IPO indicates that enterprises are still short of money, and the gap is not small. The way that enterprises could finance through venture capital has been blocked. They can only use the stock market to meet their growing capital needs. " Zhang Xiaorong, President of the Institute of deep science and technology, former senior vice president of a securities company and chief Internet analyst, told reporters.

Perhaps it is in this context that AI companies focus on the capital market. In terms of fund-raising scale, Yuncong's fund demand is lower than that of Yitu. The former plans to raise 3.75 billion yuan from the science and technology innovation board, while the latter plans to raise 7.505 billion yuan.

With regard to the valuation of AI Unicorn after its listing, many market people interviewed believe that the decisive factor lies in technological innovation, including its own business, technical barriers, market barriers and even shareholder structure.

"There is no consensus on the valuation of AI. It depends on market, policy and company performance. In the future, these enterprises will face challenges mainly in the research and development of innovative technologies, followed by the application of new technologies, and thirdly, to shorten the time for commercial development as soon as possible and make profits as soon as possible. " Zhang Xiaorong said.

In contrast, what are the technical advantages of cloud? Zhang Xiaorong believes that "at present, the technology gap between the four little dragons is not big. They are all based on face recognition technology to make money from the financial and security fields, and their competitive advantages are not obvious. The main difference lies in the application fields of products and solutions. For example, Yuncong focuses more on banks and various medical fields according to the plan."

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