China's artificial intelligent (AI) companies are luring worldwide capital, reflecting the potential and prospects of the country's innovation-oriented companies.

Beijing Horizon Robotic Technology R&D Co Ltd announced on Oct 20 that it has received A+ financing of about 100 million yuan ($15.13 million) from global institutes including Intel Capital and Hillhouse Capital.

The Zhongguancun-based startup will join with world leading internet giant Intel to accelerate development of China's unmanned automatic driving industry and smart cities.

The company's self-developed high-level driving assistance system has been put into mass production and its self-driving vehicle based on embedded AI has been tested successfully, giving the company a prominent position in the field of deep learning algorithm applications.

Founder and CEO Yu Kai said, "Intel is an internet leader with extensive resources and also a pioneer in the field of AI. It can provide important support for the launch of self-driving solutions."

Yu Kai (L), founder and CEO of Beijing Horizon Robotic Technology R&D Co Ltd, and Wendell Brooks (R), president of Intel Capital, signed a cooperative deal between their companies. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The investment will be used to accelerate R&D of technological products such as AI processors and to develop methods and software systems to launch systematic embedded AI solutions.

Daniel McNamara, vice president of Intel, said, "Intel will support and assist the innovation and development of Chinese tech companies. Our company's Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) integrated with Horizon Robotic's open technologies will produce a computer platform with flexibility and low-power consumption."

Dou Yanli, secretary-general of the Zhongguancun League of Leading Technology and Industrial Service, said that the reason why leading technology startups frequently receive substantial financing is that they already have an increasing proportion of the capital market.

A demo of Horizon Robotic's latest high-level Advanced Driver Assistant System [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]