Baidu Enters into Definitive Agreements to Raise Series A Financing for its Smart Living Business
Leading artificial intelligence company Baidu on Sept. 30 announced that its Smart Living Group (SLG) has entered into definitive agreements with CPE, Baidu Capital and IDG Capital for Series A financing at a post-money valuation of approximately 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion.)
The transaction announced on the morning of Sept. 30 is subject to certain closing conditions and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Upon the completion, Baidu, as a majority shareholder, will hold the super voting rights in SLG and continue to consolidate the financial results of SLG.
SLG operates the DuerOS voice assistant and DuerOS-powered smart devices.
At the Baidu World 2020 event held on Sept. 15, Baidu’s smart living unit announced its collaboration with hotel brands by providing services for over 100,000 hotel rooms that are outfitted with Xiaodu, the AI system invented by Baidu.
“We are pleased to see the rapid growth of SLG since inception in 2017, which has become a leading player in China (and globally) in the fast growing voice assistant and smart devices market by leveraging Baidu‘s AI capabilities,” said Robin Li, Chairman and CEO of Baidu. “This transaction marks another milestone for Baidu to incubate new businesses with its leading technologies and strong synergies from Baidu Core, to capture large market opportunities,” Robin Li added.
