Matrix Partners China has led a series A financing round in PerceptIn, a Silicon Valley-based artificial intelligence start-up developing the "eyes and brains" for robotics and smart devices.
Matrix did not disclose the amount raised in the round, and only said that it is worth tens of millions RMB in an announcement it posted on its Wechat account.
San Francisco-based cross-border venture capital firm Walden International and Silicon Valley-based TEEC Angel Fund also participated in the deal, which values the 11-month-old start-up at RMB200 million (US$28 million) post-money.
"PerceptIn provides smart visual systems for robots, smart vehicles and augmented reality hardware," said Wang Huadong, a partner at Matrix Partners. "The most important step to make electronics 'smart' is to give them eyes, mouths and brains, while PerceptIn is the answer to adding 'eyes' and 'brains' to electronics and to become the center of coordination."
Founded in March 2016 by two former Microsoft engineers Zhang Zhe and Liu Shaoshan, PerceptIn provides all-in-one perception, visual and intelligence solutions for robot makers, virtual reality and augmented reality device makers, smart vehicles, content creators, smartphone makers and gaming companies.
Its products include a robotics vision system Visual Inertial Module and visual reality gaming solutions. Currently, the company has a team of 20 people and have offices in both Silicon Valley and Shenzhen.
Walden International manages over US$1.6 billion in assets. TEEC Angel Fund was founded in 2010 by Eugene Zhang, the former CEO of Silicon Valley-based cross-border technology startup incubator Innospring. It manages US$30 million and focuses on both U.S. and Chinese start-ups in the healthcare, consumer, financial technology, and hardware sectors.