Industrial robots have become one of the hottest tech sectors in China in recent years, as the country encourages the use of advanced technology to improve the efficiency of production floors.
VisionNav Robotics, which focuses on autonomous forklifts, stackers and other logistics robots, is the latest Chinese manufacturer of industrial robots to receive funding.The Shenzhen-based automated guided vehicle (AGV) startup has raised RMB 500 million (about $76 million) in a Series C funding round led by Chinese food delivery giant Meituan and prominent Chinese venture capital firm 5Y Capital. financing.Its existing investor IDG, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and Xiaomi founder Lei Jun’s Shunwei Capital also joined the round.
Founded in 2016 by a group of PhDs from the University of Tokyo and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, VisionNav is valued at more than $500 million in this round, up from $393 million when it was valued at 300 million yuan ($47) six months ago.million) in its Series C funding round, it told TechCrunch.
The new funding will allow VisionNav to invest in R&D and expand its use cases, expanding from a focus on horizontal and vertical movement to other capabilities such as stacking and loading.
Don Dong, the company’s vice president of global sales, said the key to adding new categories is to train and improve the startup’s software algorithms, not to develop new hardware.”From control and scheduling to sensing, we have to improve our software capabilities holistically.”
A major challenge for robots is effectively perceiving and navigating the world around them, Dong said.The problem with a camera-based self-driving solution like Tesla’s is that it’s vulnerable to bright light.Lidar, a sensing technology known for more accurate distance detection, was still too expensive for mass adoption a few years ago, but its price has been slashed by Chinese players like DJI-owned Livox and RoboSense.
“Previously, we mainly provided indoor solutions. Now we are expanding into driverless truck loading, which is often semi-outdoor, and we inevitably operate in bright light. That is why we are combining vision and radar technology to Navigate our robot,” Dong said.
VisionNav sees Pittsburgh-based Seegrid and France-based Balyo as its international competitors, but believes it has a “price advantage” in China, where its manufacturing and R&D activities are located.The startup is already dispatching robots to customers in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Netherlands, the U.K. and Hungary.Subsidiaries are being established in Europe and the United States
The startup sells its robots in partnership with systems integrators, which means it doesn’t collect detailed customer information, simplifying data compliance in foreign markets.It is expected that 50-60% of its revenue will come from abroad in the next few years, compared with the current share of 30-40%.The U.S. is one of its main target markets, as the forklift industry there “has higher total revenue than China, despite the smaller number of forklifts,” Dong said.
Last year, VisionNav’s total sales revenue was between 200 million ($31 million) and 250 million yuan ($39 million).It currently has a team of about 400 people in China and is expected to reach 1,000 employees this year through aggressive recruitment overseas.
Post time: May-23-2022
