China's Pudu Robotics extends Series C to $170m
Pudu Robotics, a China-based manufacturer of service robots, has closed a third tranche of Series C funding with more than USD 15m in commitments. It was led by local VC firm Puhua Capital.
The first tranche closed in May 2021 on USD 78m. Four months later, Pudu announced a USD 77m extension led by Meituan, Greater Bay Area Homeland Development Fund, Shenzhen Investment Holdings, and Sequoia Capital China.
The company received a CNY 50m (USD 7.5m) Series A from QC Capital and Rong Quan Group in 2018 and a CNY 100m Series B in 2020. The Series B was led by Sequoia and featured Meituan.
Pudu was founded in 2016 in Shenzhen and has launched 10 robot models capable of basic indoor and restaurant delivery, in-building delivery, cleaning and disinfecting, and reception desk functionality. It has developed proprietary technology covering motors, single-line LiDAR, RGB depth-sensing cameras, and computing platforms and motion controllers.
KettyBot, the reception robot, can display advertising, interact with customers, perform greeting and ushering duties, and do voice interaction. FlashBot, the building delivery specialist, is said to be the first robot created globally to ride in elevators alongside people.
The company’s most recent delivery robot, PuduBot 2, features independently developed visual simultaneous localisation and mapping technology (VSLAM). Applied at large scale, it enables greater accuracy and reliability in positioning and greater scenario adaptability, according to a statement.
Pudu has shipped more than 56,000 units to date, including 20,000 in 2022 alone. Felix Zhang, founder and CEO of Pudu, said that the company refuses to chase growth by rolling out low-price models or allowing leased products to take up too large a proportion of revenue. In 2022, revenue from operations increased nearly 40% year-on-year.
It launched overseas sales as recently as 2020 – driven by recruitment challenges in the service sector globally – but these now account for 80% of annual revenue. The company has established a presence in more than 60 territories. Notably, Japanese restaurant group Skylark made a single order for 3,000 units of the BellaBot, an indoor delivery robot. This is said to be an industry record.
The new funding will mainly be used to build a new manufacturing facility intended to expand its output capacity and develop more products for commercial cleaning scenarios.
Pudu and Keenon Robotics are regarded as the preeminent players in China's service robot space. Keenon received a USD 200m Series D round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in 2021.
Taihecap served as the exclusive financial advisor for the latest tranche of Pudu’s Series C.
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