The patent viewer app raised $ 300 million from Japanese giants SoftBank and Chinese Tencent. Its $ 1 billion valuation makes it part of the privileged club of tech unicorns.
A new unicorn was born in Singapore. PatSnap, a developer of patent analysis software, has raised $ 300 million (€ 252 million) from an investor group led by Japan’s SoftBank and Chinese Tencent, report Nikkei Asia, transforming her into a unicorn, a small name given to start-ups whose valuation reaches more than $ 1 billion.
Son CEO, Jeffrey Tiong, who founded the company in 2007 to respond to companies’ difficulties in penetrating the patent jungle, explains that he intends to conquer the Japanese market, on the strength of this new status and the entry of the Vision Fund II from SoftBank to the capital of his company.
PatSnap provides graphical visualization of patent information compiled in nearly 120 countries. We can for example “Visualize by means of a map all the research and development partnerships of a company”, explains the Japanese site. PatSnap claims some 10,000 customers, including Dyson and Spotify, and employs 700 people in Singapore and its London and Toronto offices.
A quick Zoom call
The CEO from SoftBank had “Achieved his first commercial success by selling the patent for one of his inventions, a translation tool, to Sharp”, recalls the economic newspaper. Masayoshi Son, with the second investment fund created by SoftBank, Vision Fund II, whose $ 10 billion portfolio was enriched with 26 new holdings in December alone, “Decided to invest in PatSnap after a quick Zoom call with Tiong in January”.
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