The patent system, while crucial to innovation, can become a hindrance. With millions of patents out there, startup founders would have a nightmarish time searching for them, and they would need to know legal and technical terms to do a search.
PatSnap wants to simplify the process. It has a search engine that makes finding patents easier, visualizing search results as 3D topographical maps. Patents are grouped into ‘islands’ according to technology area, and colors represent different companies.
The startup has already gotten over 500 clients worldwide, including NASA, IBM, Pepsi, Xiaomi, and Vodafone. This is enough to satisfy investors: it just raised a S$4.5 million (US$3.6 million) series A round led by Vertex Venture Partners, the venture capital arm of Singapore-government-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings. It has raised a total of S$6.7 million (US$5.4 million) to date.
“PatSnap started out of one dream – to become the ‘Amazon’ of Innovation, providing a platform to accelerate the speed of innovation and discovery for inventors, research institutes and companies,” says Jeffrey Tiong, founder and CEO of the company, which started in 2007 and launched its search engine in 2012.
PatSnap gathers patent data from government sources around the world. The data is then cleaned up and deposited into its database. The company has over 100 staff in Singapore, London, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Beijing – and is still hiring.
The company is cashflow positive, and charges at least S$5,000 (US$4,000) a year for its services.
See more: Japan, China rank top 5 in global patent applications ranking
The post PatSnap, a search engine for patents, raises $3.6M round appeared first on Tech in Asia.
PatSnap, a search engine for patents, raises $3.6M round
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