Aventurier, a Shanghai-based cleaning robot startup, recently completed an angel round worth tens of millions of US dollars, led by Jinqiu Capital, with participation from CCV.
Proceeds from this round will be spent on R&D of cleaning robot technology and products as well as globalization operation.
Founded in September 2022, Aventurier is dedicated to freeing mankind from repetitive, dreary cleaning work through AI and robotics, so as to enhance the efficiency of cleaning and make the process more intelligent.
Traditionally, commercial cleaning service is a labor-intensive sector. Amid a graying population worldwide, the industry is grappling with an increasingly acute labor shortage.
Meanwhile, in the post-pandemic era, demand for more advanced modes of cleaning in public spaces has grown exponentially, with technologies like robotic sweepers and scrubbers now being sought-after.
Compared to vacuum robot cleaners for home use, commercial cleaning robots are adopted in a wide range of scenarios, such as office building, hotel, shopping center and hospital.
According to the projections of iyiou, a business intelligence portal, and TF Securities, a stock brokerage firm, China’s commercial cleaning robot market will reach 74.91 billion yuan (US$10.44 billion) in 2026.
In contrast, the world market for these devices could exceed 1 trillion yuan in size.
Due to technical limitations, in particular slow progress of AI technologies, the previous two generations of cleaning robots can hardly satisfy demand for application in a complex business-oriented environment.
For instance, the second-generation products generally possess a low level of tech sophistication, and needs human intervention to complete trivial tasks like charging, water replenishment and switching between working modes.
With the advent of multimodal large language model, the next-gen cleaning robots are likely to become more autonomous and intelligent, thanks to an open-source hardware and software platform.
Aventurier has made a step in that direction. It plans to roll out a third-generation cleaning robot that is not just smarter but also applicable in various complicated use cases. This is to minimize human intervention in the process and reduce labor costs, the company says.
Going forward, the startup will launch three commercial cleaning robots tasked with scrubbing floors in restaurant, factory, hotel and office building.
A highlight of these products is that when equipped with LLM, they will cost less in terms of algorithm development and gained better agility.
However, the company didn’t disclose which LLM will be utilized on its robots or how it will integrate them.
“We’ve noticed that the team of Aventurier sets high store on overseas market expansion and globalized operation, and has rich experience in cleaning robotics. Their capabilities in defining products and strengths in erecting barriers to entry will make the company a new barometer in the segment,” says an investor with CCV on conditions of anonymity.
Despite the immense market potential, Aventurier will likely find itself up against more established rivals like Gausium (高仙自动化), Sparkoz (汤恩智能) and Ecovacs (科沃斯, 603486.SH).
