Youibot, a Chinese four-year-old robotic startup announced on May 7, 2021, that it has received funding close to 100 million yuan which is equivalent to USD 15.47 million by SoftBank Ventures Asia.
In this funding round, Youibot obtained continuous investment from its previous investors- SIG and BlueRun and has raised more than 200 million yuan to date.
Youibot aims to use this funding on research and development in its mobile robots and proprietary software, team building, and market expansion.
About Youibot
Founded by a group of PhDs from the reputed university of China, Xi’an Jiaotong University, with headquarters in Shenzhen, China, and with CEO Cody Zhang, Youibot is a leading enterprise in China’s industrial mobile robotics sector. Youibot develops solutions for factory automation and logistic management, as well as inspection and maintenance for various industries. It focuses on scenario empowerment and software service and supporting capacity from the perspective of customer’s actual needs and top-level design of automation upgrading.
It is involved in the vertical segmentation of the precision manufacturing and energy industries and has built deep business barriers with its technological advantages. As of now, Youibot has big names in its clientele list – CRRC Zhuzhou, Huawei, Michelin, FASTRE, ASM, Huaneng Group and has been maintaining a competitive advantage in the disintegrated market of robotics like a power plant, semiconductor.
It has a huge network of deep channel sales with more than 60 countries like Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Germany. The “strongest suits” of the company are in electronic manufacturing and electric power patrol. Today, 80% of the revenues of the company come from China and it is spreading in the overseas market even. The company has increased its revenue three times from 2020.
About SoftBank Ventures Asia
With headquarters in Seoul, Korea, and founded in 2000, SoftBank Ventures Asia is the global early-stage venture of SoftBank Group. It normally invests in TMT, artificial intelligence, semiconductor, software, and customer brands. It invests in startups that have a strong potential to grow globally, thus helping them to closely integrate with the SoftBank ecosystem and achieve coordinated development. It has investments in more than 250 companies across 10 countries and has offices in Seoul, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Beijing.
What does the CEO say?
“It’s just the first step of factory upgrading and transformation to realize unmanned operations via a mobile robot, while what’s more important is to deeply integrate the mobile robot into business management via industrial service software, assisting in resource optimization and decision making. The model of mobile robot+industrial service software has more value and service space and can better adapt to customer needs. This is the optimal form of development of mobile robots in the future. Only going deep into scenarios can bring outburst of innovation and sustained viability.”
What do the investors say?
“Youibot’s complete closed-looped solution from hardware products to service software, its deep focus on the scenario and strong technical support, give it the ability to occupy the market, seize every market opportunity, and lead innovation and change in the increasingly fierce competition of the mobile robotics”, said SoftBank’s Venture Asia’s partner Ding Haipeng.
“Under the wave of new infrastructure, the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries are accelerating, and the application of pan-industrial automation is facing unprecedented market opportunities. As the leader of mobile robots, Youibot has gone deep into vertical scenarios to create a closed-loop service for customers. Its solutions have been put into practice in many fields such as manufacturing and energy. We look forward to witnessing the process of reform and development of the mobile robot enabling industry together with Youibot”, said BlueRun’s managing director Cao Wei.
“As a foundation for opening up future industry and automation of maintenance scenarios, mobile robots will have greater value and growth space in the business management process empowerment in the future. As a leader in the industry with rich experience in team management and solid business capabilities, Youibot has continuously deepened its application in various fields and has entered a stage of rapid development. We have confidence in the development of Youibot and look forward to creating value for more customers”, SIG partner Guo Lu said.
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