In early June, there was "Science and Technology Innovation Board AI"ChipKnown as the first share.Cambrian periodAfter a smooth meeting, from entering Science and Technology Innovation Board's "examination room" on March 26 this year, to a quick meeting after two rounds of inquiries, it took a total of 68 days, refreshing the speed of Science and Technology Innovation Board's examination.

On July 20, the "first share of AI chip" officially landed on the Kechuang board in the Cambrian, with an increase of about 29% on its first day of trading, with a market capitalization of more than 100 billion yuan. With the success of the Cambrian IPO, the passing of the Cambrian allowed the first round of investors to stand behind.IFLYTEKsurface.

In recent years, the rise of industrial capital dominated by CVC has injected more living water into the venture capital industry. Today, with the emphasis on post-investment management and fine operation, the ecological capacity provided by industrial capital has become the best channel for excavating the project and the best post-investment service for the project. From another point of view, in the context of the intensification of industry differentiation, funds flow to the head institutions, and industrial capital has stronger financial support and strength to resist more brutal market competition. In this context, iFLYTEK, on the one hand, makes strategic investments such as mergers and acquisitions around the upper and lower reaches of the industrial chain through its own funds, and on the other hand, participates in the establishment of an industrial fund "iFLYTEK Venture Capital" to pry more capital and resources. Through venture capital inartificial intelligenceSubdivide the application areas and strengthen the layout in the forward-looking direction.

Since 2015, iFLYTEK Ecology has invested in many star enterprises of the artificial intelligence track, including Cambrian, Shangtang technology, Youbixuan and other unicorn projects. So far, the iFLYTEK new generation artificial intelligence open innovation platform has more than 2 million ecological partners, 1800 ecological enterprises have been supported, 75 platforms have been incubated, and nearly 60 strategic investments have been made.

Hu Yu, co-founder and CEO of iFLYTEK, stressed the importance of ecology to the artificial intelligence era at the 2019 iFLYTEK Global 1024 developers' Day. He said that the artificial intelligence era, "not concentrated in one or two, like the Internet era of a dominant, brave take-all node hands." The business ecosystem of the future must be a mixed and mutually supportive ecosystem. "

The ecology that supports each other may be the best place for iFLYTEK ecology and the best way to find unicorns. With iFLYTEK's strong artificial intelligence background, iFLYTEK Ecology is trying to accelerate the deep integration of artificial intelligence with various industries, and the next unicorn may be brewing.

Be a good partner on the way for entrepreneurs.

After the outbreak of the epidemic at the beginning of the year, the cash flow of start-ups was tortured by the market, especially in the offline catering and tourism industries. The venture capital industry has also been suspended. As an important investment platform for iFLYTEK ecology, iFLYTEK venture capital chairman Xu Jingming began to think about how to help startups tide over the difficulties.

When the weather is fine, start-ups spread all over the country, and as soon as the environment becomes a piece of death. As an enterprise, no matter how the environment changes, you must do your best. Only in this way can you survive. The rest is king. " He also continues to boost the confidence of entrepreneurs. "after SARS in 2003, a number of excellent enterprises, including iFLYTEK, came out and became the leaders of the industry." I believe that after today's COVID-19, he will also come out of a number of excellent enterprises. The more others relax, the more opportunities we are likely to surpass. "

"during the epidemic, we launched A.I. Light through the epidemic situation 'artificial intelligence science and technology creation project online roadshow activities, nearly 100 projects online roadshow, thousands of investors participated in the activities. Artificial intelligence is the core driving force of the new round of industrial change. "

"We are always looking at the future." Xu Jingming said.

In the early days of iFLYTEK venture capital, the artificial intelligence industry has not yet sprung up on a large scale. According to incomplete statistics, the number of investment and financing cases in the field of artificial intelligence jumped from 447 in 2016 to 651 in 2018.

In fact, since 2015, the artificial intelligence boom brought about by deep learning has just entered its fifth year. In the continuous progress of time, the investment perspective of iFLYTEK venture capital has also undergone several updates. Xu Jingming said that from an investment point of view, artificial intelligence applications should be observed from a long-term perspective.

"A few years ago, we invested in some unicorns, mostly basic technological innovation companies; in 2018, we want to create scene value; in 2019, we need data on whether entrepreneurial projects create application value and whether a business model can be established. This year, it is the deep penetration of the 'AI+ industry'."

IFLYTEK venture capital is evaluated by the industry, calling it a "professional player in the field of AI". Understand the technology, understand the market, can see the opportunities and trends of AI at an early stage. This early entry advantage, iFLYTEK venture capital found a large number of unicorn projects, and advance layout, also makes many AI startups' round A, and even angel round have iFLYTEK venture capital support.

In fact, when the industry is not yet hot, there is not only a lot of "gold" in the market, but also relatively cheap. Different from the current star project, "one vote is hard to get". "it is not easy to find investment in artificial intelligence projects at an early stage." Xu Jingming said with a smile, today's AI chip star Cambrian in the early stage of development, financing is not plain sailing.

Around 2016, the artificial intelligence industry is still in the initial stage, especially chip companies, with a long growth cycle and great uncertainty. Talking about the financing of chip companies, Xu Jingming recalled, "the risk of start-up teams is great, and it is very difficult for such companies to find investors at that time." For investment institutions, under the high-risk uncertainty, it is necessary to find the bright spots of the project, which has a strong requirement for professional judgment.

"to make a chip, software and hardware need to be combined. We can identify the technical capabilities of enterprises and help them enter the market. We are not only the entrepreneur's investors, but also his first client. "

This Cambrian meeting, its sponsor agencyCITICGiven a valuation of 19.2 billion yuan to 34.2 billion yuan, if calculated with the valuation of 34.2 billion yuan, the early investment institutions have made a lot of money.

Pursue certainty in uncertainty

In the early days of iFLYTEK venture capital, Xu Jingming set the direction to focus on artificial intelligence-related areas, and adhere to the "industry + technology + capital" investment concept. This logic has been gradually confirmed in the development of the industry.

Last year, due to the influence of the capital winter, investment and financing in the AI field returned to calm, falling to 331, with a total investment and financing amount of 93.1 billion yuan. But iFLYTEK venture capital investment rhythm is not disturbed by the outside world, "regardless of the external environment, we maintain their own pace." Xu Jingming said, "Industrial funds will not have a strong demand for the number of investment projects, or'me as the main 'play."

This "self-oriented" style of play can be best reflected in a stable rhythm.

So far, iFLYTEK venture capital management scale is 1.5 billion-2 billion yuan, Xu Jingming revealed that part of the iFLYTEK contribution, the rest of the public fundraising in the market, external LP, including Tsinghua Bauhinia, Century Jinyuan, Tianjin Haihe Fund, and so on.

This kind of investment structure is more common in industrial capital. on the one hand, it can maintain the strong support of industrial capital, on the other hand, it does not rely too much on the listed company itself, and allows the fund to make more market-oriented investment and decision-making.

In the specific investment process, Xu Jingming does not agree with the idea of "betting". In his view, there is an element of gambling in "betting", and iFLYTEK venture capital tends to look for certainty in uncertainty. "Investment is not fortune-telling, especially early-stage projects. At the initial stage of start-up, we can only gather 1020% of the elements of enterprise success. There is great uncertainty in the development of enterprises. What we pursue is the success rate brought about by helping the invested enterprises grow through cognition, empowerment and cooperation."

It is recognized in the industry that investment is cognitive money. According to iFLYTEK Venture Capital's past investment character, around the field of artificial intelligence, iFLYTEK Venture Capital mainly invests in upstream and downstream companies. IFLYTEK Ventures prefer to invest in areas that they can understand and are good at compared to areas where they have no industry knowledge.

Xu Jingming said that experts from iFLYTEK technology and industrial departments will be brought in at the early stage of the contact project. In the investment decision-making process, iFLYTEK Venture Capital has set up a technical committee internally, which can better control the technological advantage and industrial direction, so as to ensure the correct rate.

In the high-tech barrier industry of artificial intelligence, technology and logic are very important. Xu Jingming's methodology is that in the industrial development and technological cycle, "there are fewer and fewer opportunities for the underlying core technology, and enterprises should penetrate deeply into various industries and accelerate the transformation."

As Xu Jingming said, to invest in the future, you can't just focus on the present. If you only look at short-term opportunities, you will be fascinated by bubbles, and investment needs to think about how technology will change in the next decade. "how will the industry trend evolve in the future? Where do the drivers come from? What kind of technology companies will benefit? What kind of enterprises will be eliminated by the Matthew effect? "

"this year, we will focus on the opportunities brought about by the deep integration of artificial intelligence with various industries, and there are good opportunities for the combination of artificial intelligence and new infrastructure." In Xu Jingming's view, only by thinking about the possibility of the future by judging the hour and sizing up the situation can we avoid mediocrity and find real valuable investment targets.

Build an enabling investment platform

At the beginning of the year, the epidemic swept the world, and various industries were affected to varying degrees. AI has attracted a lot of attention because of its resilience in the epidemic. Through landing intelligent medical images, in vitro temperature measurement, so that part of the industry AI enterprises out of the siege.

However, some people think that at present, the landing scene of Chinese artificial intelligence companies is too single. Xu Jingming said bluntly that in the current period of transformation, there is still a cognitive process in the entire social environment, and it is easy to generalize or myth artificial intelligence. When artificial intelligence is empowering traditional industries, it will also involve a lot of data, traditional habits, work processes, and professionals. Therefore, we must look at it rationally, objectively and realistically.

"artificial intelligence is penetrating deeply into all areas of our lives, and this is a very good entrepreneurial era," he said. "We need to fully release our core competencies and deeply integrate them with industry applications." In the direction of investment, iFLYTEK Venture Capital pays close attention to the landing and development of the project. "to have differentiated technological advantages, the second is through the AI+ industry, in-depth enabling industry."

For iFLYTEK, this ecological empowerment is an important part of making up for its shortcomings and building a stronger ecosystem, while for iFLYTEK ecology, supporting the growth of innovative enterprises is a core element and a unique core skill.

"Synergy" is the key word of iFLYTEK ecology.

Different from pure financial investment, the strong technical support and ecological capacity of iFLYTEK ecology are obvious. Based on industrial experience and the ability of resource integration, iFLYTEK Ecology has the ability of enabling industrial ecological investment.

IFLYTEK's new generation artificial intelligence open innovation platform has opened 318 AI capabilities and programs to the public. Enterprises invested by iFLYTEK Ecology can enjoy the open testing of iFLYTEK's cutting-edge AI technology and technical support VIP guarantee services. This is like an oasis in the desert for AI startups that urgently need to enter the market. To some extent, the attraction of industrial support goes beyond the simple desire for capital of AI enterprises.

As early as 2015, iFLYTEK Venture Capital invested in a robotics company. In fact, the two sides already had a deep cooperation before taking a stake in Youbixuan. In the cooperation between Youbi and iFLYTEK, the former works as hardware, while the latter provides voice and other human-computer interaction solutions. In addition, iFLYTEK has industry advantages, robots need to be docked with industry applications, iFLYTEK can provide a wealth of application scenarios.

This is the combination and mutual promotion of powers other than capital.

Technical support and ecological openness are the advantages of iFLYTEK ecology. through project investment, iFLYTEK and enterprises can build a "software + hardware + service" ecosphere. IFLYTEK Ecology can not only take priority over other institutions to find the trump card of the project, but also the only way to build an ecological layout.