China's Agile Robots raises $220m

Additional investors include Chimera Investments, GL Ventures, Sequoia Capital China, Linear Capital, Xiaomi Group, Foxconn Industrial Internet, and Midas Investment. It values the company at more than $1 billion. Proceeds will be mainly used for product development, mass production, and a global sales expansion, according to a statement.

Founded in 2018, Agile initially focused on robotics software, with products including an operating system called AgileCore and a platform called FIP focused on dextrous manipulations. It has gradually entered into the hardware space with robots can capable of doing detail work such as medical surgery, computer products precision assembly, and auto parts assembly.

The company claims differentiation in that its robots can download and quickly learn new operation skills. This allows customers to run more flexible production lines. Revenue is said to have grown tenfold in the past year.

This is an active area of investment. In July, XYZ Robotics, a Chinese start-up specializing in robotic hand-eye coordination raised a $35 million Series B, while Mech-Mind Robotics raised a RMB100 million ($14 million) Series B led by Sequoia China last year. Mech-Mind focuses on artificial intelligence and machine vision solutions for robotic bin picking.

Other players in the space include industrials focused players Jaka Robotics, which raised RMB300 million in Series C funding in January, and Han’s Robot, which raised a RMB395 million Series B in June. In January, Flexiv, a start-up specializing in machines that adapt to unpredictable environments, raised a $100 million Series B.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Technology
• Industrials
• Softbank
• Sequoia Capital
• artificial intelligence
• Xiaomi
• GL Ventures
• Linear Capital