Laiye speeds up efforts to assist China's digital transformation

Chinese intelligent automation software company Laiye is speeding up efforts to help the digital transformation of China's enterprises and expand its presence in overseas markets, said Wang Guanchun, chairman and CEO of Laiye.

Wang said the company's intelligent and automatic solutions have been widely applied in a wide range of segments including insurance, telecommunication, electricity, finance, retail and healthcare, so as to liberate people from repetitive work and to help enterprises improve their working efficiency.

"The overseas revenue has accounted for about 20 percent of our total revenue, and we expect this figure to reach 50 percent within the next three to five years," Wang said.

In April, Laiye acquired leading European enterprise chatbot and voicebot platform Mindsay and established a new R&D hub in Paris, France. 

Wang said the company will step up efforts to expand its footprint in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore, and European countries, especially the United Kingdom and France.

Laiye announced the completion of $160 million Series C funding round led by technology-focused investment firm Hopu Magnolia in April. Other investors including VMS Group and Youshan Capital, with existing investors such as Lightspeed China Partners and US-based Lightspeed Venture Partners also participated in this round.

According to global consultancy Gartner, the worldwide intelligent automation market, which mainly includes robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, intelligent document processing and chatbots, is expected to hit nearly $46 billion by 2025.

This is largely driven by organizations rapidly accelerating their digital business plans to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gartner also predicts that a digital workforce will force businesses to speed up their digital business transformation plans by at least five years.