In recent years, with the continuous development of technologies such as Big Data+, Internet Plus, Cloud Storage, and the Internet of Things, a large number of forward-thinking intelligent-technology companies have emerged in China. Their products cover all aspects of industries, and their infinite creativity and strong technical core have become "priceless assets" in the eyes of venture-capital firms. Amid the "digital-driven" era in 2016, a few companies emerged as standouts. Perhaps in the near future they will become "unicorns" in their respective industries.

AISpeech

Empowering intelligent products with productivity and creating a more interesting man-machine interaction experience in vertical sectors.

Founded in 2007, AISpeech is a domestic technology company specialized in man-machine dialogue. Although AISpeech, like iFLYTEK, has a portfolio of intellectual property rights with respect to voice technology and has successfully combined production, education and research, the two companies have different market orientations as AISpeech focuses on the voice-interaction application of intelligent hardware in specific scenarios. AISpeech has a profound technical legacy in speech recognition, speech synthesis, semantic understanding, voiceprint recognition, dialogue management and audio analysis. Its products include smart car solutions, smart home solutions, smart robot solutions and voice-control boards (smart voice input).

It is significant that the combination of production, education and research is an important source of AISpeech's strength as an innovative developer. AISpeech and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have established a joint laboratory of intelligent man-machine interaction, which brings together more than 100 talents from world-renowned speech research institutions and is engaged in fundamental, cutting-edge research. The staff at AISpeech focuses on research into application technology; hence, many relevant technical achievements and intellectual property rights are owned--and have been transformed--by AISpeech. Since its establishment, the company has garnered investment from well-known VCs such as Legend Star and TusPark Ventures. By the end of 2015 it had accrued nearly RMB200 million in investment.

Mobvoi

Creating a new experience of future man-machine interaction from TicWatch to TicMirror

Mobvoi is a Chinese artificial intelligence company in which Google has invested. Among its proprietary core technologies are those pertaining to speech recognition, semantic analysis, vertical search, vision-based ADAS and robot SLAM. Since its establishment in October 2012, Mobvoi has put artificial intelligence first as part of a commitment to creating a new experience of man-machine interaction through the combination of software and hardware products that bring AI to people's lives.

In June 2015, TicWatch, a representative combination of software and hardware, was launched. In September of the same year, it became a strategic partner of Google Android Wear voice search. In October, it successfully obtained Google investment, its financing totaled US$75 million. In November 2016, Mobvoi officially entered the smart-car arena with the release of TicMirror, an on-board smart rearview mirror, and TicEye, an advanced driver-assistance system.

Mobvoi has developed abundant products and garnered practical experience in the field of artificial intelligence. It is gradually changing the contemporary lifestyle by applying advanced artificial intelligence technologies to "wear, car and home" scenarios, which are characterized by frequent man-machine interaction through the combination of software and hardware products.

GTCOM:

Building an intelligent-cognition big-data analysis platform

GTCOM, a holding subsidiary of China Translation Corporation, has created the YeeSight big-data analysis platform, the YeeCloud language big-data platform and the YeeKit professional tool platform. Relying on advanced natural-language processing technology, big-data analysis technology and a legacy of more than four decades encompassing hundreds of millions of hours in language big data and service, GTCOM is the world's leading multilingual big-data service provider. Recent events such as the launch of YeeSight 2.0 and the establishment of the 2020 Cognitive Intelligence Research Institute herald GTCOM's R&D efforts in the fields of big data and cognitive intelligence.

In just six months of 2016, GTCOM secured series-B funding of RMB400 million. Additionally, it carried out strategic cooperation with numerous industry giants and respected organizations such as Haier Group, Guangdong Radio & Television, and Alibaba Cloud. GTCOM's mission is to constantly explore the value of big data as it builds a multilateral win-win ecosystem platform, helps partners expand more value-added space and promotes the full integration of big data with other industries. In 2017 GTCOM will invest at least RMB200 million in technology research and development, doing so to support in-depth research in big-data analysis and cognitive intelligence, thereby promoting the transformation of technological achievements and industrial applications.

iCarbonX:

Building a global health big-data analysis platform with an artificial intelligence engine

Given the rapid improvement of living standards and the ever-accelerating pace of life, personal health is now a common daily focus. the iCarbonX company, founded in October 2015, is committed to building a health big-data platform and artificial intelligence engine based on the mobile Internet and the Internet of Things. Thus it will integrate leading resources in related fields around the world, providing end users with comprehensive but personalized life and health-management solutions and related applications.

iCarbonX secured series-A funding of nearly RMB1 billion in April 2016. In July of the same year, it was invested by China Bridge Capital with RMB300 million to acquire a capital-market platform and integrate the fields of precision beauty, precision nutrition, precision health, precision healthcare and intelligent hardware. Recently, iCarbonX launched MEUM, its innovative digital health-management platform, which is supported by efficient databases and computing systems of life big data and provides users with multiple-scenario personal health-management services such as skincare, sports training and weight management. Consequently, iCarbonX has realized a complete infrastructure architecture system covering a platform for data mining and technology, an artificial intelligence data-analysis platform, intelligent hardware (data mining and product service promotion interface), databases and sample libraries as well as O2O personalized user services.

Unisound:

Intelligent voice-service solutions covering many fields such as cloud platforms, terminals and chips

In view of the implementation of new algorithms such as deep neural networks and big-data modeling, the enhancement of hardware and mobile Internet technologies, and the popularization of intelligent terminals, intelligent voice will become a "super-interface." The Unisound company, established in June 2012, is committed to the digital transformation of traditional industries through speech-recognition technology. In September 2012, the company launched the Speech Cloud Platform with permanent free access in order to promote the sound development of the speech ecosystem. In 2013, Unisound released the industry's first speech-recognition cloud service based on deep learning, and later secured series-A funding of RMB100 million.

Unisound's products cover cloud platforms, terminals, chips and many other fields through the use of a cloud-computing platform and mobile Internet technologies. Those offerings have been widely used in mobile Internet, smart home appliances, wearable devices, vehicle navigation, call centers, medical care and education. These products facilitate connectivity not only between users and devices but also among devices, helping traditional industries achieve large-scale Internet-based applications.