Taiwanese marketing technology firm iKala has completed a $20.8 million Series B+ round of financing. Separately, the new energy subsidiary of publicly listed solar inverters developer Sungrow Power Supply has roped in two more investors in its first external financing.
Taiwan’s biggest telecom carrier leads $20.8m deal in iKala
Taipei-headquartered iKala, a provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cloud management and marketing solutions, has secured $20.8 million in a Series B+ round to bring its total fundraising to over $50 million.
Chunghwa Telecom, the largest telecom carrier in Taiwan, led the Series B extension round alongside iKala’s existing investors Wistron Digital Technology, Huitung Investments, Honesty Ventures, and Cherubic Venture.
iKala, which offers AI-driven cloud services and marketing technology, or MarTech, plans to invest the new financing in the R&D of AI and the expansion of its footprint in Japan and Southeast Asia.
As part of the strategic financing, Chunghwa Telecom looks to work with iKala in the two main areas of cloud migration and AI development. The duo will jointly train enterprise-specific large language models (LLM) to empower internal AI systems, enhance operational efficiency, and assist enterprises in achieving AI transformation (AIX), said iKala.
Founded in 2011, iKala has served over 1,000 enterprises, assisting clients in their adoption of hybrid clouds and AI for faster customer acquisition and the improvement of marketing efficiency. Its AI influencer platform, KOL Radar, is used by more than three million influencers globally and is available in markets like Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
In August 2020, iKala closed a $17-million Series B round led by Wistron Digital Technology, an investment unit of Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Wistron Corporation.
Sungrow New Energy raises another $69.2m ahead of domestic IPO
The new energy subsidiary of Chinese publicly listed solar inverters developer Sungrow Power Supply has roped in two investors to take the fundraising sum of its first external round to 847 million yuan ($117.2 million).
In the latest tranche, Sungrow New Energy Development secured 500 million yuan ($69.2 million) from the investment arms of two Chinese state-owned commercial banks, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and China Construction Bank (CCB), according to the latest stock exchange filing by its parent.
While Sungrow Power Supply remains a controlling shareholder, its stake in the new energy business diluted to 79.4% from 81.5%, the filing shows.
The new deal comes only days after Sungrow New Energy signed agreements to raise 347 million yuan ($48 million) in the first tranche from two state capital investors in eastern China, as the firm targets to complete a separate listing on a mainland Chinese exchange within three years.
The latest deal gave Sungrow New Energy a pre-money valuation of over 19.3 billion yuan ($2.67 billion), with a slight increase from the earlier 19 billion yuan, although the share price remains 12.67 yuan ($1.75) apiece, according to the filing.
Founded in 2014, Sungrow New Energy primarily designs and produces power generation systems and equipment used in new energy power plants.
The firm booked 13.8 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) in revenue in the first nine months of 2023, accounting for about 30% of the group’s overall revenue during the period. Its profit in the first nine months stood at 835 million yuan ($115.5 million), or 11.6% of the group’s total.
