Taiwan's AI Unicorn Appier Is Listed in Japan, With a Market Value of 1.77 Billion, Leading the Island
Appier, a marketing AI company from Taiwan Province, has been listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, becoming the second Taiwanese technology company to be listed in Japan in nearly two decades.
On March 30, Appier (Pei Xing Interactive Technology), an AI company in Taiwan Province, was listed on the Mother board (i.e., Japan's Growth Enterprise Market) of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan.
Appier was priced at 1,600 yen (about 95 yuan) on the day of listing, with a market value of 29.8 billion yen (about 1.77 billion yuan). It rose by 37% on the day of listing.
Taiwan's technology media Digital Times and IThome have both reported extensively on the event, and the media generally regard Appier as the first AI unicorn in Taiwan to be successfully listed.
Providing AI marketing solutions, with annual revenue of 600 million last year
Appier was founded in 2012 by Dr. Zhihan You, who graduated from Stanford University and Harvard University. He worked as a researcher at Harvard Medical School before returning to Taiwan to start a business. Before founding Appier, he also founded a game company.
According to the introduction on Appier’s official website, they provide customers with four types of AI solutions for online marketing, including AiDeal, AIQUA, AIXON and CrossX.
Among them, AiDeal uses machine learning and deep learning technologies to predict users' purchasing intentions and push product coupons in a targeted manner to accelerate potential transactions.It is worth mentioning that this business originated from the Indian startup QGraph, which was acquired in 2018.
AIQUA uses AI to automate recommendation push in different channels.AIQUA is also a product from Emotion Intelligence, a Japanese startup acquired in 2019.
AIXON helps customers build a complete user profile and predict user behavior through machine learning models;
CrossX uses deep learning to predict users’ LTV, screen out high-value customers, and conduct subsequent precision marketing.
According to the listing documents, Appier has more than 800 corporate customers of different sizes. Its revenue has grown steadily in the past three years, from RMB 440 million in 2018 to RMB 514 million in 2019.By 2020, the annual revenue will reach RMB 638 million, and the gross profit has remained above 40% for three years.
In the past 20 years, only two Taiwanese technology companies have been listed in Japan
The limited number of customers on the island also allowed Appier to deploy overseas markets early. Currently, Appier has set up overseas offices in 17 cities around the world, and has established R&D teams in India and Japan. It has about 500 employees worldwide, and its customers are mainly from Japan and South Korea.
In 2014, Appier received a $6 million Series A investment from Sequoia Capital.It has received a total investment of nearly 200 million US dollars from institutions such as SoftBank Group, JAFCO Asia, Temasek, LINE, and MediaTek.
Regarding the decision to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan, founder Zhihan You said that Japanese companies account for a large proportion of Appier's customers. He also believes that Japan's capital market also values the value of SaaS services.
In addition to Appier, another information security company in the island, Trend Micro, chose to be listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2000 (Trend Micro was listed on the Japanese OTC market in 1998).Appier also became the second Taiwanese technology company to be listed in Japan in the past 20 years.
Looking at the four AI unicorns in China, almost all of them have set their sights on the Science and Technology Innovation Board as their main battlefield. Yitu, CloudWalk, and Megvii have submitted IPO applications for the Science and Technology Innovation Board. Although there are many obstacles, they are promising. Only SenseTime has not officially announced its listing plan.
Who will eventually grab the first AI technology stock may have the answer this year.
News Source:
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/4180/charts?
https://www.bnext.com.tw/article/62005/appier-ipo-infographic