Rokae (珞石机器人), one of China’s leading cobot manufacturers, recently closed a Series C+ round of funding valued at 200 million yuan (US$28.90 million), led by Shenzhen Capital Group and Grand Flight Capital, with Index Capital providing exclusive financial advisory services.
To date, Rokae has raised a total of more than 300 million yuan in its Series C rounds.
Proceeds from the latest round will be plunged into R&D of the company’s new products, extension of industrial applications, and commercialization.
The company, headquartered in Beijing, produces an array of products, including the high-performance XB industrial robot series and xMate flexible cobots.
The XB family is more developed and technically mature relative to xMate, featuring a payload ranging from 4 to 25 kg. Rokae claims that XB is characterized by high precision and has grabbed annual sales in excess of 3,000 units.
In comparison, xMate, the cobot category, is available in 6- and 7-axis versions. It adopts flexible force control technology, and unlike XB, which possesses sensing capabilities only in the robotic forearm, xMate has its entire arm equipped with force sensing and control technologies.
Notably, following the latest fundraising, Rokae will soon roll out its latest xCore control system, with independent intellectual property rights.
The xCore system has received a substantial facelift and will score better in such dimensions as “velocity, precision, compliance, collaboration and intelligence,” says Rokae.
These upgrades allow xCore to better support the firm’s industrial and collaborative robot product lines.
Currently, members of the XB family are mainly adopted by clients in fields as diverse as automobile, 3C, precision processing, healthcare, and scientific research.
Amid a dwindling working population and growing labor costs, many manufacturing businesses in China are compelled to look to industrial robots to address labor shortages.
Founded in 2014 and backed by stellar investors such as New Hope Group and Shunwei Capital, Rokae faces stiff competition in industrial robotics, surrounded by established rivals such as ABB, Kuka and Fanuc.
In the emerging cobot sector, the Beijing startup also finds itself in the same league as Universal Robots (优傲机器人), Flexiv (非夕机器人) and Jaka (节卡机器人).
