Chinese cleaning robot developer gets $22m Series B
Gaussian Robotics, a China-based developer of robots used for cleaning, has raised RMB150 million ($22 million) in an extended tranche of Series B round led by Broad Vision Funds and China Capital Management.
Other investors include BlueRun Ventures, Grand Flight Investment, and Korea Investment Partners (KIP). Grand Flight led a RMB100 million Series B in March 2019, while BlueRun took the lead in the Series A, which closed the previous year. According to AVCJ Research, Seven Seas Partners and Step VC committed $20 million in pre-Series A funding round in 2016.
Established in 2013, Gaussian builds robots that can replace humans. The company claims its products already clean to a higher standard than people and are up to four times more efficient, depending on the scenario. Gaussian has 1,000 projects across 30 countries covering commercial property, hospitals, schools, and factories. The accumulated working distance of its robots is more than 100 million kilometers.
The company has six product lines, all focused on cleaning. Some robots are for indoor scenarios while others can be used indoors and outdoors or even equipped with medical-grade disinfection capabilities. More than 40% of its products are sold overseas.
Within the domestic market, Gaussian is also a technology provider, serving several serves several leading domestic cleaning robot manufacturers, with a market share of more than 70%.
The company says there are 10 million sanitation workers in China, 70% of whom are over 55 years old. Haotian Cheng, the founder and CEO of Gaussian, noted that recruiting people is difficult and expensive, so there is considerable scope for using automated solutions for simple and repetitive cleaning work.
In the same space, Yunjing - also known as Narwal - raised a Series C round in June led by Sequoia Capital China. This came two months after a $14 million Series B led by Source Code Capital and ByteDance. While Gaussian serves enterprise customers, Yunjing is consumer-focused.
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