PatSnap, a Singapore-based startup providing intellectual property (IP) management solutions to automotive, electronics and semiconductor customers, recently announced that it has secured a $300 million investment from tech giants Tencent and SoftBank.
The massive cash injection was part of PatSnap’s Series C funding round, pushing the company’s total raise since its launch in 2011 to $530 million. PatSnap says that the investment will fuel its ambition to expand into new markets such as China and Japan and make investments into next-generation search technologies within the IP sector.
In this article we will discuss what drove these industry titans to invest such an impressive sum into PatSnap, while also looking at how this surge in funds may shape the future of IP management globally.
PatSnap lands $300m investment from Tencent, SoftBank
PatSnap is a front-runner in the Intellectual Property (IP) field, providing comprehensive IP solutions to its customers. This week, PatSnap has been in the news with a whopping $300million investment from Tencent and SoftBank. This investment boosts PatSnap’s resources and capabilities to further enhance its IP services, and here we will provide an overview of what PatSnap offers.
Overview of PatSnap’s products and services
PatSnap is a leading intellectual property (IP) technology platform that helps companies to solve key IP challenges by providing access to millions of patented documents and data-driven insights. With an extensive library of global patent databases, PatSnap is ideally suited for companies searching for prior art, evaluating existing patents, or managing patent portfolios.
PatSnap’s suite of products includes various tools for discovering new technologies and innovations such as visual assignment search, technology foresighting software, AI-powered similarity search tools and virtual research assistant technology. It also provides various services including reverse engineering protection strategies, landscape analysis and licensing opportunities. In addition to its range of products and services, PatSnap offers various consulting services to help customers evaluate their specific market and identify emerging industry trends.
PatSnap can facilitate prototyping on demand with streamlined evaluation cycles and thorough quality control protocols for clients looking to accelerate IP-protected product development or adoption processes. Moreover, the company’s dedicated patent data professionals are available anytime to assist customers with more complex research projects or portfolio management tasks. The combination of high-end services and efficient tools makes PatSnap a worldwide reference in intellectual property management.
PatSnap’s customer base
PatSnap is a leading Intellectual Property (IP) research and analytics solutions provider for Global 2000 companies and research organisations. The company has rapidly expanded its global presence since it was founded in 2007and now operates in over 70 countries.
PatSnap’s customer base covers various sectors, from manufacturing and electronics to pharmaceuticals and biotechnology organizations. Customers can use PatSnap to search for patents worldwide, identify relevant inventions and track market trends, enabling them to make well-informed decisions about IP-related activities such as technology licensing and competitor benchmarking. As well as its customers, PatSnap counts many Fortune 500 companies among its partners.
In February 2021 Tencent, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (SBVF2) invested $300 million into PatSnap to drive forward the company’s mission to help uncover untapped opportunities in IP and the intellectual property. With the inclusion of Tencent, PatSnap raised the total amount of funding it had received after other sources such as Index Ventures UK, Fidelity International Growth Fund (FIGF), Sequoia Capital China Investment Corporation (CIC), TA Associates’ Asian affiliate Trusted Insight Investment Management Co., Ltd., NGP Capital Iconiq Capital Europe LLP (ICELP) among others which were a part of earlier rounds since 2017. The funds will be deployed towards scaling up existing operations including engineering resources, advancing machine learning development and productizing operational processes across innovative areas such as patent data visualization & analysis algorithms.
This investment by Tencent & SBVF2 will help increase development within Patsnap’s products. This will result in the corporate customers getting access to more powerful features that are easy to understand thereby leading to easier decision making related to IP & technological advancement for patent holders globally.
Tencent and SoftBank Investment
PatSnap recently announced the biggest series D funding round in history of the United Kingdom with a $300m investment from Tencent and SoftBank. This news presents the potential of PatSnap as a business and its capacity to scale globally.
This article examines what this investment could mean for PatSnap in the future.
Summary of the investment
On April 26th 2021, PatSnap, a firm that provides analytics tools for intellectual property and market research to large companies worldwide, announced that it had received a $300 million investment from major investors Tencent and SoftBank. This investment is part of an ongoing round of funding and will allow the firm to expand its product offerings through organic growth and potential acquisitions.
The $300 million will go towards doubling down on PatSnap’s hiring efforts and developing their product offerings in areas like digital monitoring of products and services, AI capabilities, and customer service. According to the company’s Chief Executive Officer Jeff Smith, “This new funding will help accelerate our strategic vision by enabling us to continue investing in our core R&D capabilities while also expanding our customer base with targeted growth across continental Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.”
Tencent’s $200 million contribution has been seen as an important step in allowing the firm to expand into China. This move comes when the Chinese market is still largely dominated by players such as Alibaba’s Alipay. In addition, PatSnap is expected to use the additional funds for enhancing its analytics capabilities further for more accurate insights into which patents are relevant for market research.
Overall this significant investment from Tencent and SoftBank signifies a clear increase in focus on PatSnap’s growth plans as it continues its journey towards global expansion across multiple industries worldwide.
What the investment means for PatSnap
The $300m investment from tech giants Tencent and SoftBank is a major coup for UK-based patent intelligence company, PatSnap. This cash infusion will allow PatSnap to fuel their mission of helping innovators by giving them the data they need to evaluate new ideas and make informed decisions.
Through its flagship offering, Insight+, PatSnap’s comprehensive tool allows customers to access patent information from over 65 jurisdictions around the globe in real time. With unique search capabilities and AI-driven analytics software, more companies can bring accurate insights into their innovation processes, faster than ever before.
The recent investment round led by Tencent and SoftBank will further enable this mission by allowing PatSnap to grow its global presence and expand its tools suite. It will help the company increase its core product offerings as well as develop services such as related technology mapping and IP clearance reports which provide customers with assurance that they are pursuing something novel when developing their products or services.
This strategic move reflects a growing acknowledgement of the increasing importance of patent intelligence in a world where half of global GDP is generated by knowledge intensive industries that rely heavily on valuable Intellectual Property (IP). Alongside investments into AI-driven automation, 3D printing and ‘intelligent’ physical assets such as drones, cars & robots; IP asset management has become central to enterprise strategies as they prepare for an increasingly digitalised marketplace.
PatSnap’s recent success marks an exciting milestone for patent technology and demonstrates how a strong understanding of IP can create immense value for any business venture in the long run.
Impact on PatSnap
PatSnap, a Singapore-based research and analytics startup, recently announced recieving a $300 million investment from leading tech investors Tencent and SoftBank. This is huge news for the company, and will have huge implications for its future.
Let’s dive into how this investment may affect PatSnap and its operations.
Expansion of PatSnap’s product and services
The investments of Tencent and SoftBank in PatSnap will help propel many of PatSnap’s plans to offer the best solutions to clients. This includes expansion of its product and services. With increased funding, PatSnap can further develop its technologies, including R&D related to AI, Machine Learning and NLP solutions to improve the services offered. They aim to create an all-in-one patent management suite with deeper knowledge coverage and improved access across worldwide patent data sets. This will enable companies to more easily navigate complex patent landscapes when identifying opportunities for commercialisation.
PatSnap’s AI-driven approach has been market tested on data sets from across six languages, providing the platform with insights into virtually any asset requiring immediate innovation strategy decisions from its customers’ developers and plan managers. Additionally, this investment brings forth focused technological enhancements that would streamline operations for customers and a new range of advanced analytics solutions for creating optimal portfolios and exploring better markets for IP products.
The investment also signals plans by PatSnap to expand outside Asia Pacific’s IP world, particularly into the European markets with their recent launches in Germany and London offices. In addition, it is expected to boost customer satisfaction through direct contact and improved customer service availability before, during and after sales processes.
Increased customer base
The $300 million investment from SoftBank and Tencent brings the potential to reach a much larger customer base. In addition, this could open up future collaborations and partnerships with other companies in the tech and healthcare industries due to PatSnap’s more competitive pricing structure. With this new investment, PatSnap is looking to focus on developing their cloud-based intelligence software to provide customers with access to real-time analytics and insights. Additionally, they are investing heavily in artificial intelligence technology to assist their customers in making faster, more precise decisions regarding IP protection.
Given that PatSnap services over 6500 companies worldwide from over 100 countries, this added investment provides them with a great opportunity for expansion into different markets particularly healthcare, energy and pharmaceuticals. Not only does this increase the customer base for PatSnap but also create an unprecedented level of trust given both SoftBank and Tencent’s presence in these markets. Ultimately, this incentivizes customers to choose PatSnap as their go-to provider of IP information.
Increased market share
The $300 million investment by Tencent and Softbank is expected to significantly increase PatSnap’s existing market share. In addition, this strategic move will position the company to take advantage of new markets and gain competitive advantage over other companies targeting similar market segments.
The funds infusion will allow PatSnap to do more research, development and marketing, resulting in increased user base, better customer experience and improved products. Additionally the investment will open up opportunities for the company to tap into new geographical locations, acquire smaller competitors or even make acquisitions to expand their business horizontally.
The money will also be used to improve infrastructure capabilities and fund new technology initiatives such as AI-powered features, cloud management services and others which could lead to operational growth. By using this capital injection effectively, PatSnap may be able to scale up quickly to become dominant in local and global markets both organically and inorganically with its disruptive innovation capabilities.
Conclusion
Overall, the $300 million investment from Tencent and SoftBank signals that PatSnap is seen as a strong innovator in the intellectual property technology space and further acknowledges the company’s potential for long-term growth.
This strategic partnership will add to PatSnap’s already significant and growing capabilities, broadening its regional reach, facilitating expansion into new markets, opening up access to greater resources, and offering stronger technical support.
The investment from Tencent and SoftBank is likely only the start of what this important partnership can offer PatSnap. The infusion of funds will give it deeper pockets for strategic acquisitions to strengthen their product offerings and further increase their competitive advantages in a fast-moving industry.
Equally as important, however, is the experience these companies bring to the table that could be essential in helping fuel the next stage of PatSnap’s commercial and technological growth.
