China vacuum cleaner brand Dreame raises $563m
Dreame, a Beijing-headquartered vacuum cleaner maker backed by smart phone and consumer electronics giant Xiaomi, has raised RMB3.6 billion ($563 million) in Series C funding.
The round was led by Huaxing Growth Capital, CPE, and Country Garden Venture Capital.
Other investors include Yunfeng Capital, Stoneylake Asset, Taikang Asset Management, Skywalker Capital, Harvest Capital Management, and Fortune Capital. Skywalker was launched earlier this year by e-commerce service provider Xingyun Group.
Existing backers Xiaomi, Shunwei Capital, and IDG Capital re-upped in the Series C. Xiaomi and Shunwei participated in Dreame's Series A in 2018, according to AVCJ Research. IDG then took the lead in a RMB100 million Series B in 2020.
Dreame was established in 2015 and joined the Xiaomi "ecological chain" two years later. This means its products are distributed through the Xiaomi online-to-offline network and may appear under the Xiaomi brand. Its flagship product is a Dyson-style cordless vacuum cleaner. Dreame also produces sweeping robots, as well as a wet-and-dry vacuum cleaner for wet and dirty floors.
The company has more than 150 core patents and claims to be a global leader in areas like high-speed motors, SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping), and multi-cone cyclone separation. It has nearly 1,800 staff, 70% of whom are R&D personnel.
“When our global counterparts achieve 50,000 revolutions per minute (RPM) and 100,000 RPM on high-speed motors, we must achieve 150,000 RPM, or even 180,000 RPM, to be the world’s number one," said Hao Yu, founder and CEO of Dreame.
"The next 10 years will be the best era for generalized robots. They need a powerful heart and brain. In addition to the high-speed motor - the 'heart' - we will provide a strong brain with the algorithm."
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