China’s AI and Robotics company, Ubtech yesterday announced that it had completed its C-round fundraising which achieved a total of 820 million yuan led by the tech giant, Tencent, with a current valuation of 5 billion dollars.
Other investors included the ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China), the Haier Group, and Easyhome among others.
The new funds from the C-round fundraising eclipsed the record-high of 600 million yuan investments for Sensetime, another robotics startup, previously.
Zhou Jian, the founder and the CEO of Ubtech, said this round of fundraising was not only seeking financial partners but also introducing itself to strategic investors who can help in the commercialization of Ubtech’s business.
The raised funds will go into areas such as R&D, marketing, and talent acquisition. The company will also expand the investments into giant anthropomorphic robot research as it steps up its global business expansion.
Yaoxing, the vice-president of Tencent, noted: “Robotics will be the carriers to connect the AI technology and the virtual world.”
Tencent has already made inroads into the robotics sectors. It announced it would set up a Robotics X laboratory this March, which focuses on areas like computer visual recognition, phonetic recognition and among others.
The two companies teamed up to produce the robotic “Orobot Alpha” and launched it into the domestic markets in 2017 December.
The robotic service industry has always been a hot issue in society. However, it has faced challenges as well. The service robotics’ retail prices are rather high while lacking flexibility in real life. Efforts are needed to match the functions of service robots with the customers’ needs.
It seems that their technology and commercialization are still the primary tasks for the robotics industry.
“We will accelerate the commercialization of service robotics,” said Zhou.
Other investors included the ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China), the Haier Group, and Easyhome among others.
The new funds from the C-round fundraising eclipsed the record-high of 600 million yuan investments for Sensetime, another robotics startup, previously.
Zhou Jian, the founder and the CEO of Ubtech, said this round of fundraising was not only seeking financial partners but also introducing itself to strategic investors who can help in the commercialization of Ubtech’s business.
The raised funds will go into areas such as R&D, marketing, and talent acquisition. The company will also expand the investments into giant anthropomorphic robot research as it steps up its global business expansion.
Yaoxing, the vice-president of Tencent, noted: “Robotics will be the carriers to connect the AI technology and the virtual world.”
Tencent has already made inroads into the robotics sectors. It announced it would set up a Robotics X laboratory this March, which focuses on areas like computer visual recognition, phonetic recognition and among others.
The two companies teamed up to produce the robotic “Orobot Alpha” and launched it into the domestic markets in 2017 December.
The robotic service industry has always been a hot issue in society. However, it has faced challenges as well. The service robotics’ retail prices are rather high while lacking flexibility in real life. Efforts are needed to match the functions of service robots with the customers’ needs.
It seems that their technology and commercialization are still the primary tasks for the robotics industry.
“We will accelerate the commercialization of service robotics,” said Zhou.
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