PatSnap, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered platform that offers a comprehensive set of Intellectual Property (IP) solutions to its customers, recently received funding from two major investors, SoftBank and Tencent.
The series C funding round was led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, with follow on investments from China-based technology giant Tencent and existing investor Sequoia India. The significant investment speaks volumes about the potential of PatSnap’s solutions and services to the global IP industry.
This article analyses why SoftBank and Tencent chose to invest in the company when investors are shying away from startup investments due to the uncertain economic landscape caused by COVID-19. It also provides key insights into how investors evaluate companies for investments and assess their chances of long-term success.
SoftBank, Tencent backs IP analytics platform PatSnap in $300M round
SoftBank and Tencent have recently invested strategically in PatSnap, an intelligent IP analytics platform. This marks a major milestone in PatSnap’s growth and puts the platform in the spotlight as the first Asian company to be backed by two of the world’s leading tech giants.
Let’s look at why SoftBank and Tencent decided to invest in PatSnap.
Overview of SoftBank and Tencent’s Investment in PatSnap
PatSnap, a Singapore-based intellectual property (IP) management and analytics platform, has announced it has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from SoftBank Ventures Asia and Tencent. This investment will strengthen its leadership position in IP management and further support PatSnap’s mission to drive meaningful outcomes for organizations through actionable IP insights.
SoftBank Ventures Asia is the venture capital arm of Softbank Group Corp, one of the world’s leading tech companies dedicated to investing in high-growth technology startups such as PatSnap. Tencent is a leading provider of online services including social networks, mobile games, music and payment systems. SoftBank and Tencent have previously invested in significant players across the AI space, taking part in the $18 million Series B round for Monitise Financial Analytics earlier this year.
With this investment from two of the world’s largest players in technology, PatSnap will focus on continuing to innovate around IP management industry trends and providing users with an even better experience using their platform. This includes developing powerful analytics that generate real-time insights into organizations’ intellectual property portfolios across all areas such as patents, trademarks, designs and copyrights as well as building strategic patent roadmaps that future proof investments.
The additional funding will allow PatSnap to expand globally across countries such as China, Japan, UAE and India while opening up new market verticals beyond technology into media entertainment. For Patent law firms they introduced ‘SmartPortfolio™ Manager’ which makes firm collaboration more efficient; a result of intense customer feedback seeking convergence between data science skillsets together with legal know-how for global enterprises having complex portfolio requirements which needs better institutionalization than available today on any platforms.
Reasons Behind SoftBank and Tencent’s Investment
SoftBank and Tencent, two of the world’s largest technology investors, recently invested in PatSnap, a Singapore-based intellectual property (IP) tech platform. This investment highlights the growing importance of IP to global corporate strategies.
PatSnap has developed machine learning driven technology that leverages public data sets to efficiently and cost effectively manage IP activities. SoftBank’s Vision Fund is investing as part of Series B funding, joining existing investor Tencent who focused on their previous Series A funding.
The reasons behind their investments may be due to two key drivers: 1) the industry-wide move towards digitalising IP and patent portfolios to gain insights into new collaboration opportunities and relevant markets; 2) the increasing reliance on patents for investing in research and development (R&D). The newly combined resources from SoftBank and Tencent will help PatSnap accelerate its strategy to become a global leader in IP analytics capabilities.
PatSnap’s platform is particularly attractive to R&D heavy organisations looking for ways to systematically assess patent landscapes for possible external collaboration opportunities or business transactions such as cross licensing or defensive filing initiatives. Enterprises looking to capitalise on this type of intelligence can now benefit from PatSnap’s customer centric platforms built on advanced algorithms designed specifically for R&D professionals.
Benefits of PatSnap
PatSnap, an intellectual property (IP) analytics platform, recently received a major boost from tech giants SoftBank and Tencent, which have invested $300 million. With them on board, PatSnap will now have the necessary resources to develop new products and services.
In this section, we will look at the many benefits of PatSnap, and why SoftBank and Tencent have chosen to back it.
PatSnap’s IP Analytics Platform
PatSnap provides its customers with a comprehensive IP analytics platform to help them identify patents of interest, manage portfolios, make informed decisions and generate new ideas. The platform offers in-depth features and insights such as patent assignment records, forward and backward citation details, legal insights such as litigations, oppositions, modifications and revocations.
In addition to these services for patent analysis, the company provides analytics for other areas such as technology trends, competitive intelligence and market income potential.
PatSnap integrates different data sources from multiple sources like in-house data extraction algorithms, research partnerships with experts from governments or institutions across the world as well as social network analysis techniques allowing customers to access a range of options for tracking intellectual property (IP) related activities that are useful for competitive decision making.
With an AI-based search engine that optimizes predictive analysis for uncovering hidden information around patent document content to give key insights about products or new inventions in the market the service allows customers to scan billions of digitized patents producing results that can be immediately applied in strategy decisions.
PatSnap also provides helpful tools like news tracker or legal alerting system which helps companies not only track when their competitors file any new patents but also generate warnings of possible infringement issues which can save time and risks associated with long lead times in patent disputes and protect profit margins. This enables companies to gain an overview of their competitors’ strategies on tech development or IP management helping them develop successful business strategies while staying ahead of competition.
PatSnap’s AI-Powered Solutions
PatSnap is renowned for developing AI-powered solutions that help enterprise customers harness the power of data in the global intellectual property market. Leveraging its powerful IP database, PatSnap provides a single source solution to make informed decisions on technology partnerships, licensing deals and competitor activity. PatSnap’s AI-powered solutions draw on its proprietary algorithms, digitalizing manual processes and automating complex data searches.
PatSnap’s computer vision-based system reads text in patents to quickly identify and transform technical detail into insights. Using machine learning and knowing worldwide patent databases inside out, PatSnap can intelligently identify trends, detect threats or find opportunities sooner than ever. As a result, the company’s clients can do more with their innovation resources while reducing both cost and time to market.
Furthermore, the company offers valuable modules such as patent landscaping – from visualizing competitors’ activities near your patent portfolio to mapping emerging technologies – enabling customers to strategize their IP portfolios more effectively. This has also attracted investments from some of the biggest tech investors in the world – including SoftBank Vision Fund and Tencent Holdings Ltd., who have invested a combined $180 million for a 25% stake in their business since 2018!
Conclusion
SoftBank and Tencent’s investment in PatSnap demonstrates their commitment to leading in the Asia Pacific market’s emerging patent intelligence landscape. This position will enable them to leverage PatSnap’s proprietary analytics technologies and datasets for an even greater competitive advantage in the global market.
In addition, their investment will help PatSnap provide more quality IP services and products to corporations and academic communities in the APAC region, enabling them to better protect their valuable intellectual property rights.
Both SoftBank and Tencent’s focus on innovation and drive for technological excellence makes them ideal partners for PatSnap, as both companies demonstrate a commitment to staying ahead of the curve when it comes to harnessing cutting-edge technology for sustainable business models.
With the backing of two international powerhouses like SoftBank and Tencent, it is clear that PatSnap is poised to become an established leader in Asia Pacific’s growing patent intelligence industry.
tags = SoftBank, Tencent, IP analytics platform, PatSnap, $300M round, patsnap aipowered 300m series tencent softbankwiggersventurebeat, R&D, Jeffrey Tiong, In 2007, Tiong launched PatSnap, global patent search database
