Flexiv, a China-based adaptive robot manufacturer, announced that it had enclosed a Series B funding round worth US$ 100 million held in December 2020. The investors including Meituan, Meta Capital, Longwood, Jack Ma’s YF Capital, Plug and Play and many others have participated in this round. Meituan, China’s on-demand services giant had invested the highest amount in this fund.
With Meituan’s strategic investment, Flexiv could extend its solutions to the investor’s core food delivery solution, which involves very repetitive, high-volume tasks and is primed for automation. With the fresh capital, the company aims to implement its AI-based, general-purpose robots in other fields like services, agriculture, logistics and medical care.
It functions out of many major Chinese cities and California while two-thirds of its staff are stationed in China. This is a common strategy for AI startups headed by Chinese founders who have had prior experience in the US, either for work or academics.
In 2019, the startup launched its adaptive robot Rizon, which can be classified under a new generation of robotics products. Equipped with an advanced whole-body force control algorithm, Rizon is an upgrade from the force perception and force control performance of traditional robots. It was awarded the iF Design Award and honoured at the German Innovation Awards. Rizon is known for its innovative and aesthetic product design and unique adaptivity.
The automation industry has been growing and attracting new investors regularly as companies worldwide are looking forward to automating their production lines and supply chains. Flexiv is one of the big names in this field, and thus, it is not surprising that it has bagged such a significant amount of funding.
What Flexiv has to say
Wang Shiquan, founder at Flexiv said, “Flexiv is aiming to expand its key market in North America. “Each country has its own competitive edge in robotics. China’s advantage is in manufacturing, supply chains, and labour costs.”
“Flexiv will continue to innovate and explore product technologies to make robots more dexterous, intelligent, flexible, and universal, and facilitate the next generation of industrial automation,” he also added.
About Flexiv
The company was founded in 2016 by Wang Shiquan, who was an alumnus of Stanford’s Biomimetics and Dexterous Manipulation Lab. It was built with a focus on developing adaptive robots for the manufacturing industry.
About Meituan
Meituan is a group-buying website concentrating on localized consumer services, with a selection of local restaurants, bars etc. It was founded by Xing Wang in 2010 and has its headquarters in Beijing, China.
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