Big data industry innovation service media
——Focus on data·Changing business
On September 28, the decision-making AI unicorn company 4Paradigm officially listed on the Hong Kong stock market, with an issue price of HK$55.60 and a net fundraise of HK$840 million. On the first day of listing, 4Paradigm opened at HK$63.1, an increase of 13.49% from the issue price; it closed at HK$58.55, an increase of 5.31% on the day, corresponding to a market value of HK$27.17 billion.
In this issuance, the Hong Kong public offering was oversubscribed 11.4 times, and the international offering was oversubscribed 1.57 times. Xinhua Capital, Zhongguancun Science City, and A-share listed company Montage Technology serve as cornerstone investors with a total subscription of nearly US$100 million.
Dai Wenyuan, founder and CEO of 4Paradigm, said that listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is an important milestone for 4Paradigm.
The largest decision-making AI manufacturer in China,
Annual revenue 3 billion
4Paradigm is headquartered in Beijing and was founded in 2014. As a decision-making AI company, 4Paradigm provides platform-centered solution products to provide enterprise-level customers with marketing, risk control, and supply chain optimization services to solve efficiency, cost, and value issues faced in digital and intelligent transformation. Thereby improving the level of decision-making. After years of development, 4Paradigm’s SageOneP platform is widely used in energy and power, finance, retail, manufacturing and other industries.
A report from Chishi Consulting pointed out that from 2018 to 2022, the domestic decision-making AI market size will have an average annual compound growth rate of 87.7%, and the average annual compound growth rate in the next five years will be 42.3%. In terms of revenue scale, 4Paradigm is the largest decision-making AI manufacturer in China.
IDC data shows that in 2022, the domestic machine learning development platform market size will be 3.5 billion yuan, and 4Paradigm, with a market share of 32.7%, is ahead of Huawei Cloud, Jiuzhang Yunji, and Chuangxin Qizhi, and is the largest machine learning development platform in the country.
From 2020 to the first quarter of 2023, Fourth Paradigm achieved revenue of 940 million yuan, 2.02 billion yuan, 3.08 billion yuan, and 640 million yuan respectively, with corresponding losses of 750 million yuan, 1.80 billion yuan, 1.65 billion yuan, 300 million yuan. In five years, 4Paradigm’s revenue has increased 24 times.
Talk about big models in terms of generative AI
Reconstructing the software ecosystem
The prospectus points out that according to application fields, the domestic artificial intelligence industry can be divided into four major categories, namely decision-making artificial intelligence, visual artificial intelligence, speech and semantic artificial intelligence, and artificial intelligence robots. The decision-making artificial intelligence engaged in by Fourth Paradigm mainly achieves decision-making guidance through insight into data, finding the hidden patterns behind the data.
In June 2019, 4Paradigm released SageOne, an enterprise-level AI software and hardware integrated platform, establishing its leading position. The SageOne platform builds a closed-loop enterprise AI system through software-defined computing and integrated software and hardware technology, including three major engines: AI training, AI reasoning, and AI feature storage, opening up the entire value chain and supporting business scenario applications.
After ChatGPT became popular, Fourth Paradigm invested in research and development and entered the territory of generative AI. In February 2023, Third Paradigm launched the SageGPT-style large-scale model, ahead of other major Internet companies. In just two months, the Fourth Paradigm's large-scale model has been updated to three versions.
The fourth paradigm's large-scale model is positioned at the transformation of B-side software. According to the AIGS concept proposed by Dai Wenyuan, Fourth Paradigm hopes to reconstruct software with generative software and subversively improve the user experience of B-side software by introducing emerging interaction models.
Leading Fintech manufacturer receives US$1 billion in financing
Dai Wenyuan, who was born in 1983, had a talent for programming since he was a child. While studying at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, he participated in the International College Student Programming Finals and won the gold medal. During his graduate studies, Dai Wenyuan went to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for further studies, studying under Yang Qiang, a famous artificial intelligence teacher.
After graduation, Dai Wenyuan joined Baidu and was promoted to scientist in Baidu Business Search Department two years later, responsible for the model group of Baidu Fengchao Strategy Team. In 2013, Dai Wenyuan moved to Huawei as a chief scientist.
In 2014, Fourth Paradigm was established and soon received an early investment of US$4 million from Sequoia China. At the invitation of Dai Wenyuan, Professor Yang Qiang, Chen Yuqiang, head of Toutiao recommendation system, and Baidu technology guru Hu Shiwei joined 4Paradigm and became co-founders. Fourth Paradigm chose finance as its breakthrough direction and became one of the leading domestic FinTech manufacturers in a short period of time.
As of 2021, 4Paradigm has completed a total of 11 rounds of financing, with a total net amount of more than US$1 billion. Investors include big-name VC/PEs such as Sequoia Capital, Boyu Capital, Primavera Capital, Sinovation Ventures, Songhe Capital, and Lenovo Venture Capital. mechanism. In terms of introducing strategic investors, Fourth Paradigm has gathered investments from the five major state-owned banks.
After the last round of financing, 4Paradigm’s valuation exceeded 20 billion yuan, ranking 310th in Hurun’s global unicorn rankings.
The listing was full of twists and turns, and after four submissions, I finally
Achievements in cultivation
The listing of Fourth Paradigm has been full of twists and turns, with the company submitting its listings four times in August 2021, February 2022, September 2022, and March 2023. In September, 4Paradigm, which submitted its fourth listing, successfully passed the listing hearing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Fourth Paradigm is a representative manufacturer of domestic artificial intelligence. In March 2023, it was included in the entity list by the U.S. Department of Commerce and became the target of suppression. Well-known domestic technology companies on the list with Fourth Paradigm include Inspur Group, BGI, and Loongson Zhongke.
According to announcements related to the global offering, in the next three years, 4Paradigm will use 60% of the proceeds to strengthen basic research, technical capabilities, and solution development, and 20% of the proceeds to expand products, establish brands, and enter new markets. industry sector.
The prospectus shows that after the IPO, Dai Wenyuan and Wu Ming held 38.84% of the shares in 4Paradigm. Based on the issuance market value of HK$25.8 billion, Dai Wenyuan and his wife were worth more than HK$10 billion. Sequoia China, which has invested in six rounds, is the largest institutional shareholder of Fourth Paradigm, holding 11.7% of the shares before the IPO.
Text: Bugle-X / Data Ape
