Biometrics giant SenseTime rumored to be planning Shanghai IPO at $10B valuation

Jul 31, 2020 | Chris Burt

SenseTime develops biometric identification system

Just days after SenseTime and other Chinese biometric facial recognition leaders were reported to be recovering well from the effects of limitations imposed by the U.S. government, Reuters writes that the company’s prospective IPO on the STAR tech market in China will value the company at $10 billion.

Sources told Reuters that in addition to the IPO plans, SenseTime is expecting to raise $1.5 billion from a funding round that will be completed soon. The company has been in talks with securities regulators for weeks, one of the sources told Reuters, with a timeline and size yet-undetermined and the talks still in preliminary stages.

Neither SenseTime nor the China Securities Regulatory Commission offered comment.

Valuating SenseTime could prove tricky, as its top rival Megvii is not publicly traded, and comparison with companies based in other markets is tenuous with the Entity List designation hanging over them. SenseTime delayed its own reported plans to list in Hong Kong earlier this year. At the time it was rumored to be raising $1 billion in private funding. Reuters says company founder Tang Xiaoou said in 2017 that SenseTime could be listed in the U.S., Hong Kong, or mainland China.

Shortly after SenseTime’s inclusion on the Entity List was announced, the company reportedly recorded a 200 percent increase in year-over-year revenue growth.