KAANH (佳安智能), a Shenzhen-based startup specializing in grinding and sanding robotics, today announced the completion of a Series A round of funding valued at close to 100 million yuan (US$13.95 million).
The press release from the company didn’t state who the investors were in this round.
The Series A proceeds will be spent on new product R&D and efforts to bolster delivery efficiency.
To date, the startup has completed four fundraising rounds, roping in investors such as Fortune Capital, Shunwei Capital, Lens, Qingsong Fund and Galileo Venture.
Founded in July 2018, KAANH has been focusing on the development and manufacturing of smart robotic grinding workstations and core components.
Granding, polishing and deburring are considered crucial steps in industrial manufacturing processes. They determine the smoothness and quality of product surfaces.
These procedures are widely found in a number of industries ranging from high-speed rail, airplane and shipbuilding, to automotive production, machinery and 3C sectors, making the segment a market worth “trillions of yuan.”
Traditionally, sanding processes are highly dependent on human labor, resulting in a lack of efficiency and consistency as well as high overall costs.
Besides, sanding workers are at a higher risk of developing work-related diseases as a result of highly tiring and dreary workload, ear-splitting noise and inhalation of metal powder.
These factors could compound the hiring difficulty on the part of employers.
Nonetheless, demand for robotic sanding and polishing equipment has been surging over the past few years. According to industry statistics, the domestic market for these equipment has reached a volume of more than 20,000 units, and is expected to exceed 50,000 in the next three years, averaging a CAGR of over 35%.
Thanks to a self-developed robotic sensing system, smart sanding computer aided manufacturing (CAM) software, and an expanding database, KAANH has successfully addressed the issue of automatic polishing of complex, curved surfaces such as turbine blades in the aviation and aerospace industry, the company claims.
Based a proprietary high-speed motor drive, it has rolled out a suite of key products such as sanding workstation, robotic controller and 6D force sensors, which are widely deployed to use cases such as sanding, polishing, grinding, deburring and assembly.
According to Pan Yang, founder and CEO of KAANH, the firm’s products and solutions have been adopted by clients in aerospace, military industry, consumer electronics and hardware sectors, including Bright Laser Technologies (西安铂力特, 688333.SH), China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Lens (蓝思科技, 300433.SZ) and LungHealth Medtech (朗合医疗). Repeat orders have been signed at scale.
