The IPO application by JAKA (节卡机器人), a leading domestic cobot developer, to list on Shanghai Stock Exchange has been accepted by the bourse today.
JAKA reportedly filed a prospectus with the Nasdaq-style STAR market of the exchange recently, with Guotai Junan, a major stock brokerage firm, as the sponsor.
It plans to raise 750 million yuan (US$108.12 million) from the share sale.
The Shanghai-based tech startup specializes in the design, development and sale of cobots catering to industries as diverse as auto parts, 3C, precision processing and new energy.
Featuring higher levels of agility and safety than industrial robots, JAKA has also deployed its products to commercial service, healthcare and education sectors.
According to the prospectus, JAKA sold 2,267 cobots, which represented around 6% of the global total at 39,000 units, a figure disclosed by International Federation of Robotics.
This proportion has put the Chinese company within the top echelon of cobot players worldwide, such as Universal Robots (优傲) from Denmark, Rokae (珞石机器人), Dobot (越疆科技), Elite Robot (艾力特) and Aubo (遨博).
The prospectus shows that in 2020 to 2022, JAKA posted revenue of 48.27 million yuan, 170 million yuan and 280 million yuan, with a corresponding net loss attributable to shareholders of 23.96 million yuan and 7.23 million yuan.
In 2022, however, JAKA managed to turn a profit, recording 5.73 million yuan in net profit of attributable to shareholders.
Nonetheless, the company still racked up a loss of 25 million yuan in the intervening years.
Other financials disclosed during the reporting period appear to lend force to JAKA’s IPO bid. Its gross margin held steady at 50.31%, 49.39% and 50.23% between 2020 and 2022.
The company’s spending is mainly concentrated in sales and R&D activities. Its overall expenses continued to widen, from 49.04 million yuan in 2020, to 95.93 million yuan in 2021 and 131 million yuan in 2022. They made up 101%, 54% and 47% of the corresponding revenue.
Sales outlays amounted to over 86 million yuan in 2022, or 30% of the revenue.
Since its inception, JAKA has closed six rounds of financing, injected by big-name investors such as SAIF Partners in China, CPE, SDIC, True Light, Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund (SVF) II, and Aramco’s Properity7 Ventures.
To date, JAKA has raised more than 140 million yuan in equity financing, making it the most-funded of all cobot startups.
In July last year, JAKA received 1 billion yuan from a consortium of investors led by Temasek and SVF II, at a post-money valuation of 3.5 billion yuan.
