Insider Brief
- RobotPlusPlus raised hundreds of millions of yuan, or tens of millions of dollars, in Series C funding to expand its industrial robotics business globally and continue developing embodied AI systems for hazardous work environments.
- Qianggang Capital Fund led the round, with participation from GIG Capital Group, Sealand Innovation and Juntong Capital, while existing investor Fosun RZ Capital increased its stake.
- The company said its robots have logged more than 2 million operating hours, while its hull derusting systems have worked on more than 10,000 cargo vessels at more than 100 shipyards as RobotPlusPlus expands into additional industrial applications.
RobotPlusPlus has raised hundreds of millions of yuan, or tens of millions of dollars, in Series C funding to expand its industrial robotics business internationally and continue development of embodied AI systems.
According to the Beijing-based company, Qianggang Capital Fund led the round, with participation from GIG Capital Group, Sealand Innovation and Juntong Capital. Existing investor Fosun RZ Capital increased its stake in the company. The company said it plans to use the funding to expand globally and continue developing AI systems for robots operating in complex industrial settings.
RobotPlusPlus noted it has spent more than a decade developing robots intended to replace workers on scaffolding and other hazardous structures. Its systems are designed to handle physical tasks while workers supervise operations and make decisions from safer locations and its robots are used for maintenance and other work performed at height or in hazardous industrial environments, including shipyards, oil-and-gas facilities, wind farms and building exteriors.
The company, which claims more than 70% market share in the segment, has focused heavily on ship maintenance and its hull derusting robots have worked on more than 10,000 cargo vessels at more than 100 shipyards. RobotPlusPlus said its derusting systems can perform work five to six times faster than manual methods while reducing overall costs by 30% to 50%.
What’s Next?
RobotPlusPlus is expanding beyond individual specialized machines toward robotic systems for other tyoes of industrial operations. The compnay indicated it is developing AI models for specific industrial environments using data generated from more than 2 million operating hours.
The company added that the Series C will support further expansion of those systems into industrial sites outside the company’s core ship-maintenance market as RobotPlusPlus develops additional automation for high-risk work environments.
RobotPlusPlus operates in more than 18 countries. Customers and partners include NOSCO Shipyard, Drydocks World, ST Engineering Marine, Saudi Aramco and Vopak. The company said more than 60% of its workforce is devoted to research and development, with R&D spending exceeding 20% of revenue for each of the past three years.
Featured image credit: RobotPlusPlus
