Chinese media reported that bodk (博工医疗), a medical robot developer, has bagged tens of millions of yuan from a pre-Series A round of funding, led by Lime Capital.
Proceeds from this fundraiser will be used to accelerate the development and market promotion of its so-called “life science robots.”
Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Dongguan, bodk is committed to the development of robotic technologies catering to life sciences as well as application of AI technologies in these spheres.
bodk ventured into the medtech space with products tailored to incubation of stem cells.
Since its inception, it has developed in-house a suite of modular robotic products including lab automation incubator, centrifugal robot, and liquid nitrogen tank robot for the storage of biospecimen.
These products have met with success in stem cell culture, a key use case, enabling standardized, automated storage and preparation of stem cells.
The company then steadily branched out into new segments like medical examination and drug discovery.
Lab operators place a high premium on a germ- and bacteria-free environment, which in turn calls for automation equipment like robots to mitigate risks of human-to-human contamination.
Proven track record
With the iteration of robotic technologies, it is inevitable for biotech sectors to become intelligent and automated at R&D and production stages, Liu Zhaoqiang, founder and CEO of bodk, was quoted as saying in Chinese media reports.
“With many years of industrial know-how and customer insights, bodk focuses on the R&D and manufacturing of automation solutions for life sciences,” Liu explained.
With a proven track record as a robotic industry practitioner, he used to work for Mooe Robot (木蚁机器人) and PartnerX (未来伙伴机器人) and has filed dozens of patents related to core techniques such as robotic path control and visual control.
Lime Capital, the sole backer in this round, said that the venture fund pins high hopes on and is confident about the R&D and commercialization capabilities of bodk’s team.
“We’ll continue to support bodk to evolve into an outstanding representative of digital service providers in the realm of life sciences,” Zhang Yunpeng, founding partner at Lime Capital, said.
Going forward, Liu of bodk said he looks to leverage the firm’s highly automated AI tech platform, to build it into a pioneer in cell and gene therapy, medical examination, and biopharma R&D, among other scenarios in life sciences.
