China sensor manufacturer secures $7m
Camsense, a Shenzhen-based manufacturer of high-precision vision sensors, has raised RMB50 million ($7 million) in a round led by Chenhui Venture Partners and Feng Yang Capital.
Existing investors Oriental Fortune Capital and Nanling Capital re-upped as part of the extended Series A round. Feng Yang is a Chinese spinout of Silicon Valley-based Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ Venture).
Camsense claims to be the first domestic enterprise that provides sub-millimeter level positioning capabilities with monocular vision, which involves using both eyes separately to increase the field of view. Its products are used in the medical field for surgical navigation, industrial inspection, robotics, and by brands including home appliance maker Haier.
The start-up has focused on floor-sweeping robots for mass commercialization. “Floor sweeping robots will become standard equipment for every family, just like refrigerators and washers,” said Kun Zhou, founder of Camsense. “But due to their low level of intelligence, they have not been largely used. Their random blind movement will be replaced by an intelligent and navigational action, and lidar sweeping robots will become the mainstream.”
Lidar technology encompasses a range of integrated hardware and software components such as cameras, sensors, chips, and algorithms. In 2018, Camsense launched a laser-lidar vision system designed for floor-sweeping robots and has since claimed to be used by many first-tier cleaning robot manufacturers. Nanling said this was a key success but noted that the long-term focus will be on industrial and medical fields.
“Camsense has broken the monopoly of foreign high-precision positioning technology and created excellent domestic substitute products,” Oriental Fortune added in a statement.
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