‘China’s Palantir’ MiningLamp raises US$300 million in funding round co-led by Temasek, Tencent

Beijing-based big data company MiningLamp’s new funding round was led by Singapore’s state investor Temasek Holdings and Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings

The new funds come amid a global coronavirus pandemic, expected to further dampen China’s funding environment which had already been cooling

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Wu Minghui, founder and chief executive of MiningLamp, a Chinese artificial intelligence and data analytics company. Photo: Handout

Published: 10:47am, 27 Mar 2020Updated: 10:53am, 27 Mar 2020

Beijing-based big data and artificial intelligence (AI) company MiningLamp Technology, which has been called “China’s Palantir” for its similarities to the US data analytics firm, has closed a US$300 million funding round co-led by Singapore’s state investor Temasek Holdings and Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings.

The Chinese company’s Series E funding round has attracted short-video start-up Kuaishou among other backers, it announced in a statement on Friday, adding that the investment will bankroll its continued efforts in research, talent hiring and business expansion.

“With the capital injection, MiningLamp can speed up our efforts to empower our clients to digitise, helping them successfully transform at a time full of uncertainty,” said the company’s founder and CEO Wu Minghui in the statement.

MiningLamp’s fundraising comes amid a global coronavirus pandemic, expected to further dampen China’s funding environment which had already been cooling amid an overall slowdown in the domestic economy as well as an ongoing tech war with the US.

Last year, the country’s AI start-ups closed 13 per cent of global funding deals, but the total amount of around US$2.9 billion they raised accounted for only 11 per cent of total funds raised by AI start-ups worldwide, down from 21 per cent in 2018, according to tech-market intelligence firm CB Insights.

“2020 has been marked by ‘black swans’ [unpredictable or unusual events],” MiningLamp said in the statement on Friday. “Against a subdued macro and venture capital environment, MiningLamp’s fundraising is a strong boost to the enterprise service industry in general and showcases recognition from investors of the company’s capabilities in intelligent and digital transformation.”