Baidu Artificial Intelligence Alumni Raise $300 Million In One Year

When it comes to raising tens of millions of dollars in venture capital, it helps to be a veteran of Baidu's artificial intelligence units. Over the prior 12 months, former employees of the Chinese tech giant have raised close to US$300 million in VC funding rounds, according to a review of deals by China Money Network. The latest recipient of VC funding is Aibee, an artificial intelligence solutions provider founded by Lin Yunqing, former head of Baidu Inc's Institution of Deep Learning (IDL), which today announced a RMB165 million (US$25 million) angel round led by China's venture capital firm Kinzon Capital. Alibee was established in last November, after Lin resigned from the tech giant Baidu in October. It focuses on developing AI solutions in areas such as computer vision, speech recognition, natural language understanding and big data analytics.