Megvii
Beijing computer-vision unicorn behind Face++, one of China's 'four AI dragons.' US Entity-Listed (2019) and OFAC NS-CMIC-sanctioned (2021) over Xinjiang surveillance; two failed IPOs; founder Yin Qi exited in 2024.
Background
Megvii Technology (旷视科技) was founded in Beijing in 2011 by Yin Qi, Tang Wenbin and Yang Mu, three graduates of Tsinghua University's elite 'Yao Class' (the Yao Qizhi Experimental Class in computer science). Its Face++ open cloud platform, launched in 2012, became one of the world's largest third-party facial-recognition engines; Jack Ma's 2015 'smile-to-pay' demo, built on Megvii tech for Alibaba's Alipay, brought global fame. It is one of China's 'four AI dragons.' The company is organized around a '2+1' AIoT system spanning three lines: Consumer IoT (device face-unlock and cloud vision SaaS), Urban IoT ('smart-city'/public-security surveillance software and AI sensors — historically ~64% of revenue) and Supply Chain IoT, branded 'Megvii Robotics' (warehouse logistics robots/AMRs).
It also built the Brain++ AI development platform and open-sourced the MegEngine deep-learning framework. By 2019 Megvii employed ~2,000+ and was valued near RMB 30 billion (~$4B). In October 2019 the US added it to the BIS Entity List over Xinjiang; a Hong Kong IPO then lapsed, and a Shanghai STAR Market bid was approved in 2021 but withdrawn in November 2024 — when co-founder and CEO Yin Qi stepped down and shifted to the LLM startup StepFun and Geely-linked smart-driving firm Qianli Technology.