CMC, Goldman lead $150m round for China's Cyclone Robotics
Cyclone Robotics, a Shanghai-based robotic process automation (RPA) start-up, has raised $150 million in a Series C round led by CMC Capital Group and Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Other investors include Lavender Hill Capital Partners, ZWC Partners, V Fund, DCM, Matrix Partners, and Source Code Capital.
It is said to be the largest-ever round in China’s RPA industry. The new funding will be used to bolster the company’s hyper-automation capabilities, as well as customer coverage and global expansion.
Founded in 2015, Cyclone currently has over 1,000 enterprise customers across financial services, energy, government, manufacturing, retail, logistics, and technology in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Since 2019, it has achieved annual revenue growth of more than 400%.
It provides end-to-end automation solutions, covering the whole lifecycle of digital transformation, from requirements discovery to the design and management of solutions. New initiatives include delivering more training resources and enablement services to ensure technologies are applicable to a wider range of industries and business scales.
“Cyclone bridges the gap between myriad internal and external software and systems, collects and centralize data, and enables customers with new capabilities and businesses. With continuous development and innovation, Cyclone's complete end-to-end RPA solution has been highly praised by customers,” said Alex Chen, a partner and CIO at CMC.
Matrix Partners China led a $40 million Series B round for Cyclone in 2020. This followed a Series B from DCM China and Source Code in 2019, according to AVCJ Research.
RPA systems simulate human behavior and fully automate highly manual processes, which can reduce labor costs, improve efficiency, and ensure projects are completed consistently. If artificial intelligence equates to a robot brain, then RPA is a robot's hands, industry participants claim. The latest trend is AI-RPA solutions, which combine the two capabilities.
Other start-ups pursuing RPA-AI in China include Laiye Technology, which secured $50 million in an extended Series C earlier this year. The likes of Emotibot and Encoo Technology have also received funding in recent years.
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