China's AISpeech Raises $76M on Advanced Speech Tech; Eyes AI Chips

Suzhou City-based AI and speech technology company AISpeech announced today it had raised CN¥500 million (US$76 million) in Series D Funding led by Oriza Holdings and China Minsheng Investment Group. Chinese media reports the company is also planning an IPO on a local stock exchange. AISpeech was founded in 2007 by University of Cambridge graduates CEO Shixing Gao and Chief scientist Kai Yu. The company develops human-machine interaction technologies with a specific research interest in natural language, speech recognition and synthesis, and voiceprints. While Google and Amazon market their own smart speakers, AISpeech plays its role in the underlying technologies.