Elite has received hundreds of millions of yuan in C1 round of financing, and is determined to be a long-distance runner in the collaborative robot track

On March 11, Elite Robotics announced that the company has completed the C1 round of financing jointly led by Shanghui Investment and Dachen Caizhi, followed by Kunyan Capital, and Deep Blue Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor for this round. This is the second time that Elite Robot has received the blessing of first-tier institutions within half a year after announcing the B2 round of financing led by CICC Jiazi in September 2021.

Dr. Cao Yunan, Chairman and CEO of Elite, pointed out that the pace of this financing is directly proportional to the current business scale and phased growth goals of Elite.

Cao Yunan believes that for enterprises, they must first have selective financing, especially pay attention to choosing investors who have industrial resources and can have a chemical reaction after investment, that is, choose "differentiated money"; Second, "resources" cannot determine the success or failure of a company after all, for robot companies, product power is the core that can ultimately distinguish the winner or loser; Third, it is necessary to be vigilant that "financing" is a "fruit" in a sense, and only by relying on the "cause" of sustainable growth can enterprises obtain the continuous blessing of capital.
Elite has received hundreds of millions of yuan in C1 round of financing, and is determined to be a long-distance runner in the collaborative robot track

Elite has received hundreds of millions of yuan in C1 round of financing, and is determined to be a long-distance runner in the collaborative robot track

After this round of strategic financing, it marks that Elite Robotics will accelerate its overseas layout through this financing totaling hundreds of millions of yuan, and firmly enhance its product strength and benchmark its international first-line peers.

Deep cultivation of vertical field scenarios

At present, the collaborative robot industry has entered a period of rapid development, on the one hand, market education has obtained a certain precipitation, and customers have a deeper understanding of the flexible changes brought by this product to production; On the other hand, in more and more customer sites, such as electric power, medical and other fields, traditional industrial robots cannot be used to perform work, while collaborative robots that can work in the same space with people well meet the needs of customers; Moreover, the overall strength of China's collaborative robot enterprises is approaching the international leading level, and even surpassing international brands in some indicators.

Compared with traditional industrial robots, collaborative robots have many innovations, which make it easier for engineers in the manufacturing industry to get started. In terms of scene adaptation, cobots can meet the needs of plug-and-play in flexible production scenarios. When collaborative robot companies make further efforts in product definition and function development, they will have more space to create products with a wider range of applications, and then enable collaborative robots to move from industrial scenarios to broader commercial, service and even household scenarios.

In addition, according to data from the Gaogong Robot Industry Research Institute (GGII), China's collaborative robot sales in 2021 will be 18,600 units, a year-on-year increase of 87.62%. Although the domestic collaborative robot manufacturers started slightly later than foreign manufacturers, from the perspective of industrial application, domestic collaborative robot manufacturers have undoubtedly become the leading force in the Chinese market, with a market share of nearly 70%, and the emerging manufacturers of collaborative robots have become the backbone of the market, which is in great contrast with the traditional industrial robot field.

Cao Yunan believes that domestic collaborative robots are gradually stepping onto the world stage, whether it is the end user or the capital market, the understanding of collaborative robots has become deeper and deeper, and the resulting adaptation volume is also getting larger and larger, and the adapted track and product form will be more and more abundant, which is an inevitable trend.

Wu Fei, vice president of Elite Robot, pointed out that the biggest selling point of Elite Robot is "low import cost". In China, there are factories with different levels of automation from Industry 1.0 to Industry 4.0, and for factories in the early stage of automation transformation, the risk of large-scale line transformation is high. Therefore, in 2020, Elite put forward the concept of "gradual automation", which completes the automation deployment in a step-by-step way such as single-station transformation, increased functionality, and reducing personnel and improving quality, coupled with the four characteristics of collaborative robots: safety, efficiency, ease of use, and flexibility, so that collaborative robots have greater adaptability when responding to changes in production line needs.

At present, the main battlefield of Elite robot application is still in the fields of automobiles and auto parts, 3C, etc., and at the same time, Elite is making efforts in a series of incremental markets, including composite transfer robots, medical assistance robots, power robots, kitchen robots, etc.

For example, in the medical field, Elite has completed the benchmark project of deploying more than 200 robots on site for a single head customer; In 2021, Elite and its ecological partners completed projects including the head OEM of Company A, Danbach, and German automotive Tier One manufacturers in the loading and unloading and transfer scenarios of machine tools in the CNC workshop, and deployed a total of 117 composite robots.

From the official convergence to the collaborative robot track in September 2019, to the shipment of 1,000 units in 2020, and then to the shipment of 2,000 units in 2021, Elite Robotics has been steady and steady every step of the way, and the sales goal in 2022 is to double to 4,000 collaborative robot shipments.

Accelerate the comprehensive layout of going to sea

In 2021, 200 units of Elite Robot have been sold overseas, and Elite's main goal in 2022 is to complete a comprehensive overseas layout while expanding domestic market share and increasing sales share, and the proportion of overseas sales orders will reach 20%.

On the product side, the new product CS series collaborative robots will be officially launched, with many performance indicators of this series of products in line with international standards, combined with cost-effective advantages and strong service capabilities, it is expected to break through the solid core customer barriers of foreign brands in the past.

On the market side, on the basis of the North American branch, Elite will also complete the establishment of the European branch and the Northeast Asia branch in 2022. The three subsidiaries all appear in the form of independent entities, independently complete brand building, sales introduction, pre-sales and after-sales support, etc., to further enhance the comprehensive services of Elite in overseas continents and regions, thereby driving the growth of sales in overseas markets.

Elite's iteration of technology, polishing of the product side, innovation of the scene side, and the vision of global layout are the key factors for it to gain the favor of capital.

Liang Guozhi, partner of Dachen Caizhi, believes that collaborative robots are an important part of the second growth curve of the entire robot industry, and the growth of this track has great certainty, representing the next era of robot applications. Therefore, Dachen is firmly optimistic about the development direction of collaborative robots.

As a venture capital fund with 20 years of investment experience in the manufacturing industry, Dachen's role is positioned as an "industrial empowerment" investor, and the related enterprises of Dachen ecology, including 3C, semiconductor, lithium battery, medical and other fields, can have a combination point with Aelite.

Zhou Zhicheng, managing director of Dachen Caizhi, said that for every "shot", we pay more attention to "long-term growth and development space", or in the long-term development of the track has enough precipitation and heritage, can go further "long-distance runners", and the team gene of Elite Robot is a strong research and development strength, and at the same time has the precipitation of market and product industrialization, Dachen is willing to grow with excellent enterprises like Elite and walk with outstanding entrepreneurs.

Shanghui Investment has long focused on robotics and automation-related tracks, and is highly optimistic about the unmanned, intelligent and digital trends in China's economic development system. Among the many companies that Shanghui has researched and contacted, Elite is very much in line with this investment logic.

Huang Zheng pointed out that Shang Hui Investment has always preferred target companies with strong technology genes, and favored enterprises with deep technology accumulation and full grasp of the technological trend of the industry. "We are optimistic that Elite's layout is both forward-looking and growing, as well as its competitiveness in the underlying technology of robots, control systems, motion trajectory planning, braking and other fields." Technology first' is very important for the success of the enterprise, as a domestic robot company that particularly emphasizes the autonomy of technology, some of the performance of Elite collaborative robots has been comparable to the world's leading collaborative robot peers. ”

In addition, Shanghui Investment believes that Elite's commercialization path is clear, including the current sales system - focusing on agent channels and sustainable network ecology, and deeply integrating technology and commercialization. The Elite team led by Dr. Cao Yunan has insight into the industry, and attaches great importance to product quality control, enterprise technology and commercialization capabilities.

Elite has received hundreds of millions of yuan in C1 round of financing, and is determined to be a long-distance runner in the collaborative robot track

Sections viewed

Contact

working hours