Hantewin (汉特云智能), a service robot startup, has closed a pre-Series A+ round of funding valued at over 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million), invested solely by Fuzhou Financial Holdings.
Proceeds from this round will be spent on product R&D, industrial application and global market expansion.
Founded in June 2019 in Fuzhou, capital of southeastern China’s Fujian Province, Hantewin specializes in the manufacturing of indoor and outdoor service robots and low-speed autonomous vehicles.
With fully independent core technologies covering autonomous electronic control unit (ECU), chassis-by-wire, and smart connected cloud computing platform, Hantewin has full-stack innovative capabilities in hardware and software designs and algorithms.
Its products are deployed mainly to residential communities, industrial parks and office buildings. The firm was chosen as an official partner of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
According to Zou Huiyun, founder and general manager of Hantewin, building up the underlying technical capacity is crucial for a service robotic firm. After three years of intensive R&D, Hantewin has acquired three key technologies, constructed three general-purpose platforms and rolled out numerous product series.
It claims to have achieved hundreds of real-life applications in dozens of cities and also has ecosystem partners in a number of areas.
In terms of business model, Hantewin operates on a robot-as-a-service (RaaS) basis, leasing a suite of its solutions to clients to address their needs. One of its products, a self-guiding concierge robot called ben xiao bao, or little dummy, performs a series of tasks such as greeting, meal delivery, parcel delivery and night-time patrol.
Currently, Hantewin has expanded beyond Fujian to top-tier cities via a network of distributors and even exported robotic chassis to overseas markets.
