Chinese robot developer gets $820m Series C round
Tencent Holdings has led an $820 million Series C round of funding for Ubtech, valuing the Chinese manufacturer of consumer humanoid robots at approximately $5 billion.
Other participants in the round include Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), consumer electronics brand Haier, Australia’s Telstra Corp, Minsheng Securities, China Minsheng Bank, home furnishing chain Easyhome, Thailand’s CP Group, Green Pine Capital Partners, CreditEase, China Railway Investment Group, and China General Nuclear Power Group.
CDH Investments, which contributed to Ubtech’s $100 million Series B in 2016 alongside CITIC Capital and Goldstone Investment, also re-upped. Qiming Venture Partners and Shenzhen Leaguer Finance were among the earliest backers of the company.
Founded in 2012, Ubtech has several product lines: Lynx, an in-home robot that connects with Amazon Alexa; Alpha, a more advanced machine that focuses on entertainment and education; Jimu, a build-your-own-robot kit for young people; and Cruzr, a cloud-based service robot capable of facial recognition as well as big data analysis and management. The company has also developed app-enabled Stormtroopers with Disney based on the Star Wars character.
Jian Zhou, Ubtech’s CEO, told local media that the latest financing would go towards research and development, marketing and brand building, and recruitment. The company wants to become a leader in artificial intelligence and humanoid robotics, introducing larger-scale biped products with more sophisticated capabilities driven by motion control algorithms and computer vision.
Last September, Roobo, a Chinese home service robot developer, received $54 million in Series B funding. The company’s first product was Pudding, a voice-activated educational robot for kids. It followed up with Dogmy, a so-called pet robot that can switch on lights in the home and take photos for its owner, and Jelly, a commercial service robot for banks, hospitals, and restaurants.
PE and VC investors have also thrown their weight behind Geek+, a manufacturer of robots for use in logistics and warehousing. Warburg Pincus led a $60 million Series B round for the company in July of last year.
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