ViSenze, the Singapore artificial intelligence (AI) company that develops visual technology for eCommerce and digital businesses, has completed a US$10.5 million series B funding round.
It will use the financing to invest further in the company’s proprietary image-recognition technology, expand its staff and grow its international offices.
The funding was led by Rakuten Ventures, the venture capital arm of internet giant Rakuten, with two co-lead investors, WI Harper Group, which specialises in cross-border investment between China and the US, and Enspire Capital, which focusses on early-stage technology startups in Asia and the US.
Other investors include SPH Media Fund, the investment arm of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), FengHe Fund Management, founded by former Alibaba CTO John Wu, Raffles Venture Partners, Phillip Private Equity and UOB Venture Management.
Rakuten Ventures managing partner Saemin Ahn says ViSenze is introducing simplified shopping experiences on digital content platforms, with video commerce innovations that also have “huge potential”.
In the past 12 months, ViSenze has had 300 per cent year-on-year revenue growth, with global clients including global fashion marketplace Asos, eyewear retailer Essilor, Korean online auction and shopping mall Interpark Corporation, marketplace Lazada Group, India’s eCommerce fashion group Myntra, Japanese marketplace Rakuten Ichiba and fashion eCommerce site Zalora.
ViSenze’s eCommerce technology, such as visually similar product recommendations, out-of-stock alternatives, search by image, and automated product tagging.
“In online shopping, we train our visual shopping AI to look deeply for visual attributes in products and match them to available products shoppers are searching for,” says co-founder/CEO Oliver Tan. “We have generated up to 70 per cent uplift in conversion rates for our retail clients through continuous search quality improvements and innovations.”
As well as allowing the company to expand its R&D team of machine learning and computer vision scientists, the new funding will enable the company to grow its offices in the US and India, as well as open offices in China and the UK.
