Chinese restaurant robot supplier raises $28m Series B

Existing investors Yunqi Partners and iVision Venture Capital re-upped. They led the company's Series A in 2016 and returned - with Seekdource Capital - for a pre-Series B.

The new capital will be used to scale the business domestically - most of the demand comes from catering companies - expand into overseas markets, and develop new product lines such as robots focused on medical care.

Founded in 2010, Keenon has more than 1,000 corporate customers in 400 cities across China. It claims to have served over 65% of the country's 100 largest restaurant chains, including hotpot player Haidilao and Hangzhou cuisine specialist Waipojia.

Revenue came to nearly RMB100 million in 2019, an eightfold increase on the previous year, according to a statement. Most of the money comes from leasing. It costs around RMB3,000 per month to rent a robot and contracts run for two years.

Tong Li, Keenon's founder, said that his robots can serve more than 100 covers per day, enough to replace one or two members of staff. The company produced 3,000 robots in 2019, accounting for more than 70% of overall capacity in the restaurant space. Li expects output to reach 10,000 in 2020. Keenon has 300 staff based in 14 cities, including all of China's first-tier hubs. It wants to have a presence in 25 cities by the end of the year.

The outbreak of coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, has accelerated Keenon’s ambitions to enter the medical care vertical. Its robots are now used to deliver medical supplies and meals in hospitals. The company has also developed a new model for hospital sterilization. Although there has been a significant negative impact on the restaurant industry, Li added he was confident of a rebound once the virus is brought under control. 

Elsewhere in the broader robotics space, earlier this month Mech-Mind Robotics, a provider of intelligent solutions for industrial robots, raised a RMB100 million ($14 million) Series B round led by Sequoia Capital China.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Technology
• TMT
• Walden International
• Source Code Capital
• Yunqi Partners