China's Zero Zero Robotics gets $23m Series A round
Zero Zero Robotics, a Beijing-based start-up that has developed a flying camera for the consumer market, has received $23 million in Series A funding from IDG Capital Partners, GSR Ventures, ZhenFund and ZUIG.
The company was founded in 2014 by Mengqiu Wang, a serial entrepreneur who was formerly a software engineer at Twitter, and Tony Zhang. It previously raised $2 million in seed funding.
Zero Zero Robotics combines artificial intelligence and small flying robotics, and the Hover Camera is its debut product. The lightweight device - which is below the minimum size for hobbyist drone registration in the US - is released from the hand and hovers near to the user, with the camera designed to track the face and body. It is controlled directly or through a mobile app.
Zero Zero Robotics is headquartered in Beijing and has offices in San Francisco, Shenzhen and Hangzhou. The Hover Camera is manufactured by Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, which supplies numerous consumer electronics brands from its facilities in China.
"There have been a number of flying cameras on the market, but Zero Zero Robotics has for the first time created a product with state-of-the-art technology that we think will power the future of autonomous devices," said Richard Lim, managing director at GSR, in a statement.
Numerous China-based start-ups working on drone technology - chiefly for the consumer market - have received venture capital funding, leveraging relatively low local production costs and plentiful engineering talent. ZhenFund's portfolio includes EHang, a drone manufacturer that last year received a $42 million Series B round led by GP Capital.
The most notable example is DJI, which last year received a $75 million round from Accel Partners at a valuation of $8 billion. DJI and Accel have since teamed up to launch a fund that will back other drone start-ups.
ZUIG, which stands for Zhejiang United Investment Group, was formed in April 2015 by ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management in conjunction with eight Zhejiang-based private sector companies. The initial registered capital was RMB5 billion ($770 million) but there are plans to increase this to RMB30 billion.
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