Chinese AI firm Xiaoi sees profits and sales doubling on surging demand, plans IPO
Company will seek stock listing next year to fund expansion
Shanghai Xiaoi Robot Technology sees profit and revenue more than doubling this year due to strong demand for artificial intelligence technologies, and is planning an initial public share offering for next year as it looks to further expand.
The developer of bots that run automated tasks over the internet is confident of recording sales of 500 million yuan (US$75.1 million) this year, compared to 200 million yuan in 2017, said Zhu Pinpin, co-founder and chief executive of Xiaoi. Net profit is expected to hit 100 million yuan this year, surging 150 per cent from a year earlier, he added.
“The AI sector has reached a milestone amid the wide use of the technologies in businesses,” Zhu said in an interview. “We want to raise funds to invest in new areas with our partners to expand the use of our technologies.”
The company recently delisted from mainland China’s over-the-counter National Equities Exchange and Quotations market, and plans to launch an initial public offering in 2019 to raise fresh funds to support its further growth, Zhu said. He did not elaborate on the size of the planned fundraising.
In April, Xiaoi chairman Yuan Hui had said that Hong Kong, with its regulatory environment friendly to technology start-ups, was one of the options for the company’s listing.