Frontis

About Frontis

Frontis is a Chinese artificial intelligence startup founded in 2021 by Zhou Bowen, the former head of JD.com's AI research institute. The company is headquartered in Beijing, China. Frontis focuses on developing demand planning software that helps businesses forecast product demand and manage customer needs. The company's strategy involves vertical integration, from its foundational large models to the application layer, aiming to realize both the technical and commercial value of generative AI.

The founding team includes talent from major Chinese internet companies like JD.com, Tencent, and ByteDance, as well as multinational technology corporations such as Microsoft and IBM. In March 2023, Frontis announced it had secured tens of millions of U.S. dollars in an angel funding round led by Qiming Venture Partners, with participation from Matrix Partners China. This followed a seed round in December 2021. The company operates in the SaaS and AI/Machine Learning sectors, providing business and productivity software.

Frontis aims to help its clients efficiently connect with consumers and create value by providing insights into customer needs and product demand. The company is developing its own large AI models and faces the challenge of utilizing homegrown AI chips to lower costs, especially in light of restrictions on high-performance chip exports to China.