Under the Radar: Patents in a Snap - Innovation intelligence unicorn Patsnap’s Co-founder on global growth and Japan as a bright spot

The Evening Runway with Hongbin Jeong, Roshan Gidwani and Chua Tian Tian

Using technology to change the way people innovate from concept to commercialisation – that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Founded in Singapore in 2007, our guest is called Patsnap – or the short form for the phrase “patents in a snap”.

The company’s products help businesses analyse competitor patents, identify the white space open for innovation, validate ideas, assess the patentability of ideas and more.

This is done by using AI-powered technology and machine learning to comb through billions of data sets – over 180 million patents and millions of pieces of literature and reports to be specific – to help innovators connect the dots.

Patsnap currently serves over 12,000 companies and organisations across 50 countries worldwide, including big players like Colgate-Palmolive, Xiaomi, Walt Disney, PayPal and even the University of Oxford.

It achieved its unicorn status in March 2021 after a US$300 million Series E round featuring notable investors such as SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Tencent Investment, Sequoia China, Vertex Ventures. But what is valuation looking like three years down the road and how does it intend to help early investors cash out?

Meanwhile, Patsnap is doubling down on expanding its suite of AI products, launching its AI assistant CoPilot early this year. But how far is CoPilot expected to contribute to the firm’s top and bottom lines?

The unicorn is also expanding rapidly in Japan, with an annual growth rate of over 100 per cent over the past two years – so what can we look out for on this front?

On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Guan Dian, Co-founder and APAC General Manager, Patsnap.

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