China pool cleaning robot start-up gets $29m angel round

Other investors in the round include Yunmu Capital and Suzhou-based Wuzhong Financial Holding. The proceeds will go towards product development, supply chain upgrades, and brand building.

GL Capital said in a statement published on its WeChat account that the deal is part of its Aseed+ incubation programme. The goal is to back 100 start-ups over three years, writing cheques of USD 2m-USD 3m. GL Capital also provides a range of support services.

Xingmai was founded in 2022 by Lesheng Wang who has previously led R&D projects into various kinds of robot applications, including sweeping, window cleaning, and solar panel cleaning. He worked for companies such as Ecovacs Robotics and Dreame.

Wang believes that swimming pool cleaning robots are 5-8 years behind sweeping robots in terms of performance and user experience. Xingmai wants to leverage its experience in the sweeping space to transform the swimming pool robot segment.

A debut product is set to launch early next year. Xingmai’s wireless-controlled robot will be able to climb walls and turn corners automatically.

According to Chinese research provider AskCI, there are approximately 26m private pools globally and the pool-cleaning robot market was worth USD 1.6bn in 2021. It is expected to reach  USD 2.3bn by 2023.

Robotics has emerged as an attractive investment target in China because entrepreneurs can combine the country's strong supply chains with its mature artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The rapid product iteration of Chinese manufacturers also represents a significant competitive edge.

Speaking to AVCJ last year, Wei Zhou, founding partner of China Creation Ventures, highlighted these points and added robotics is an appropriate target for US dollar-denominated funds in areas where it doesn't involve infrastructure or sensitive technology.

There is also scope for Chinese companies to become globally competitive. Dreame expanded from vacuum cleaners into sweeping and mopping robots and now generates 70% of its revenue in overseas markets. Ecovacs also quickly went global and now competes with iRobot in the US domestic robot market.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Technology
• China
• artificial intelligence
• GL Ventures
• Shunwei Capital Partners
• Source Code Capital
• robotics