Best Smart Cities Companies in China
The 74 best Smart Cities companies in China in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Megvii.
- ResearchAndMarkets.com
- MarketsandMarkets
Ranked: Best Smart Cities companies in China
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Megvii 🦄 Developer of AIoT solutions, including software, hardware, and platform systems 57Funding top 18%AI top 20%Moat top 26%Product top 41% All 10 signals ▾Fundingtop 18% AItop 20% Moattop 26% Producttop 41% Growthtop 45% Newsbottom 49% Talentbottom 49% Techbottom 46% Marketbottom 42% Globalbottom 38% Funding: Raised $2.0B across 7 rounds · 7 rounds over 14 yrs (0.5/yr) AI: Classified as an AI company rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 57/100 | $2.0B | 14 mo ago | Series D | Qi Yin Co-Founder & CEO | 2011 | PHPVideoJSGSAP+11 | — | — |
| 2 | Terminus 🦄 Develops connected end-to-end IoT smart city solutions | $899M | 29 mo ago | Series D | Victor Ai Founder & CEO | 2015 | NginxBaidu Analytics (百度统计)Open Graph | — | — |
| 3 | YITU 🦄 Provider of AI based decision intelligence platform for multiple sectors | $385M | 30 mo ago | Series C | Leo Zhu Co-Founder & CEO | 2012 | — | — | — |
| 4 | Qianfang Technology Provider of smart transportation and security solutions for smart cities | $324M | 70 mo ago | Public | — | 2000 | — | 2 patents Enhanced heat transfer components for falling film evaporators | — |
| 5 | Etcp Provider of smart parking solutions and payment | $281M | 116 mo ago | Series B | — | 2012 | — | — | — |
| 6 | Supremind Developer of video intelligent analysis and spatiotemporal data management AI | $81M | 46 mo ago | Series C | Yao Peng Co-Founder | 2016 | — | — | — |
| 7 | Hainayun Provider of an IoT-based smart city solutions. | $30M | 48 mo ago | Series A | — | 2019 | — | — | — |
| 8 | PowerBee IoT solutions for energy management | $9M | 94 mo ago | Series A | Timo Meyst Owner | 2013 | — | — | — |
| 9 | Weifulai Technology Provider of smart waste management solutions 55Market top 31%Funding top 47%Global bottom 29% All 3 signals ▾Markettop 31% Fundingtop 47% Globalbottom 29% Market: 300 employees (top 7% of High Tech) Funding: Raised $8.4M across 1 rounds · 1 rounds over 3 yrs (0.3/yr) rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 55/100 | $8M | 3 mo ago | Series C | — | 2013 | — | — | — |
| 10 | Varadise Ai Provider of AI-powered digital twin solutions for construction site management | $3M | 17 mo ago | Series A | — | 2018 | Node.jsRadix UITailwind CSS+11 | — | — |
| 11 | Fairsense Developer of an IoT-enabled air quality monitoring system for enterprises | $3M | 99 mo ago | Series A | — | 2016 | — | — | — |
| 12 | Radar Eye Provider of radar-based sensors for diversified applications | $1M | 58 mo ago | Series A | — | 2018 | — | — | — |
Top 12 Smart Cities companies in China
#1
Megvii 🦄Series D · Beijing, Beijing · founded 2011 · 17 employees$2Braised▾
Developer of AIoT solutions, including software, hardware, and platform systems. The company provides AIoT operating systems, redefined hardware, and industry applications. These offerings facilitate IoT connection, data processing, digital twin implementation, and application enablement. The firm’s products include AIoT servers, integrated machines, smart cameras, and analysis boxes. It also offers platforms for city and enterprise-level applications.
- Apr 2025Series D—
- May 2019Series D$750M
- Sep 2018Series D$600M
- Oct 2017Series C$460M
#2
Series C · Hangzhou, Zhejiang · founded 2013 · 300 employees$8.4Mraised▾
Provider of smart waste management solutions. Its offerings include a cloud-based waste sorting machine and AI and blockchain-powered data analytics software. Its solution covers the entire waste management life cycle from classification, cearing, transportation, recycling, reduction treatment, and operations mangement. It alo offers smart access control locks, QR-code based samrt cabinets, sensor embedded sanitizer dispensers, and waste recycling plants.
- Mar 2026Series C—
- Jun 2023Series B$8.4M
#3
Terminus 🦄Series D · Beijing, Beijing · founded 2015 · 800 employees$899Mraised▾
Terminus Technologies develops an end-to-end IoT solution for deployment at large scales (including urban scale). Its chief solutions are connected access control solutions. It also offers parking management systems using sensor hardware and a cloud-based data collection and analysis solution.
- Dec 2023Series D$276.5M
- Sep 2021Series D$93M
- Aug 2019Series C$283M
- Oct 2018Series B$172.9M
#4
YITU 🦄Series C · Xuhui, Shanghai · founded 2012 · 1507 employees$385.1Mraised▾
Yitu provides AI-based business applications. It claims to have developed technologies for computer vision, natural language, knowledge reasoning, intelligent hardware and robotics for different business sectors such as security, finance, transportation, and healthcare. The company develops security systems, identification authentication, and recognition.
- Dec 2023Series C—
- Aug 2021Series C—
- Mar 2020Series C$30M
- Jul 2018Series C$100M
#5
Series A · Hong Kong, Hong Kong · founded 2018 · 28 employees$3Mraised▾
Provider of AI-powered digital twin solutions for construction site management. The company offers a common data environment for real-time collaboration. It utilizes advanced analytics to monitor safety metrics and enhance work safety detection. The company integrates regulations and requirements, promoting safety and sustainability for construction sites.
- Jan 2025Series A$3M
#6
Public · Beijing, Beijing · founded 2000 · 7100 employees$323.9Mraised▾
Provider of smart transportation and security solutions for smart cities. It uses big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud edge-to-end integration technologies for urban transportation, highway transportation, rail transportation, civil aviation & other solutions.
- Aug 2020Post IPO$272.2M
- May 2019Post IPO$51.6M
#7
Series C · Shanghai, Shanghai · founded 2016 · 90 employees$81.4Mraised▾
Developer of video intelligent analysis and spatiotemporal data management AI. The company provides a platform for video analysis and management of time-space data. It delivers algorithms and research in artificial intelligence. The company offers solutions for various applications.
- Aug 2022Series C$59.2M
- Jul 2020Seed$14M
- Sep 2019Seed$8.2M
#8
Series B · Chaoyang, Beijing · founded 2012 · 71 employees$280.6Mraised▾
Provider of smart parking solutions and payment. It provides hardware and software products that enable smart parking solutions by integrating intelligent transportation, networking, and e-payment. It also provides an app to parking owners that lets them query in real-time for empty spaces and make parking reservations.
- Oct 2016Series B$230.6M
- Aug 2016Series B—
- Jun 2015Series A$50M
#9
Series A · Qingdao, Shandong · founded 2019 · 1000 employees$29.7Mraised▾
Provider of IoT-based smart city solutions. It offers a platform to manage smart parks and communities. The platform features an open ecosystem.
- Jun 2022Series A$29.7M
#10
Series A · Shanghai, Shanghai · founded 2013$8.8Mraised▾
PowerBee provides IoT solutions for energy management. Products include power communication chip, smart plugs, smart meters. Also, provides IoT applications such as power management system, lighting control system, temperature control system. Claims to have shipped over 100,000 smart meters to 10 cities mainly to the apartment market.
- Jul 2018Series A$8.8M
- Jul 2017Angel—
#11
Series A · Shanghai, Shanghai · founded 2018 · 50 employees$1.4Mraised▾
Provider of radar-based sensors for diversified applications. It offers products like radar-controlled parking barriers. Also, it offers solutions for collision avoidance trajectory planning for drones, radar traffic monitoring solutions, and sensor streetlight control systems. It caters to transportation, road safety, industrial, and residential sectors.
- Jul 2021Series A—
- Jun 2020Seed$1.4M
#12
Series A · Beijing, Beijing · founded 2016 · 30 employees$3Mraised▾
Developer of IoT-enabled air quality monitoring solution for enterprises. It comprises a portable sensor that measures multiple parameters such as SO2, NO2, O3, PM2.5, PM10, CO, VOCs, temperature, humidity, among others. These data are processed by companion software for providing actionable intelligence and visually showing the connections and changes between data thereby presenting complex pollution situations to users. It also provides customized data products, scientific pollution status assessment reports, and services to analyze the source classification of pollution and accounts for its pollution contribution.
- Mar 2018Series A—
- Sep 2016Seed$3M
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Smart Cities coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
How research on Smart Cities is moving in China
A read on the academic research around Smart Cities — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 7,562 China-affiliated papers.
- Tsinghua University264
- Beijing Jiaotong University213
- Tongji University212
- Chinese Academy of Sciences206
- Southeast University203
- Intelligent transportation system58→825
- Graph1→267
- Reinforcement learning3→240
- Key (lock)11→225
- Traffic flow (computer networking)10→214
- Intelligent transportation system65→918
- Smart city24→422
- Traffic flow (computer networking)16→264
- Key (lock)9→214
- Transport engineering9→194
- Smart city13→170
- Intelligent transportation system13→150
- Key (lock)3→70
- Transport engineering4→59
- Big data4→54
Where smart cities is researched across China
Location clusters by institution affiliation — each city's volume, stance tone, and a quick read on its hot topic, what's advancing, the opening opportunity, and the main concern.
Who's filing smart cities patents in China
China smart cities patent filing is accelerating — 140 filings from 67 assignees (2017–2025), led by Chengdu Qinchuan IOT TECH, FENG Xuanyu, Intel; annual filings 14→18.
- Chengdu Qinchuan IOT TECH86
- FENG Xuanyu10
- Intel7
- UNIV Central South3
- CAO Qingheng3
- Shenzhen Shinyo Energy TECH3
- Shenzhen Shenglu IOT Communicati3
- Suzhou Bijia Internet TECH2
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.