VisionNav Robotics, a global manufacturer of driverless industrial vehicles, announced a C+ round of more than US$80m (£63,8m), making VisionNav the company with the greatest number of funding rounds and the biggest single funding in the field of driverless industrial vehicles globally.
VisionNav Robotics said that this round of funding will be mainly used to research new technology and innovative forms of product development. It will also help the firm optimise product performance, focusing on product stability and standardisation, as well as promote large-scale implementation and localised delivery for global customers.
The company added it is committed to applying AI, environmental perception, deep learning, servo control, and other core technologies to industrial vehicles. This will provide autonomous vehicles and flexible unmanned solutions for intralogistics in factories and warehouses. At present, VisionNav Robotics has developed nine series of driverless industrial vehicles and robot control systems.
Since the last round of funding, VisionNav Robotics has set up marketing centres in more than 30 countries and regions. The company has successfully delivered more than 350 projects, more than 1,500 autonomous forklifts and unmanned tractors, covering auto parts, tires, petrochemicals, tobacco, food, pharmaceuticals, 3C electronics manufacturing, e-commerce logistics, third-party logistics, textiles, printing, and papermaking among many others.
Li Luyang, CEO of VisionNav Robotics, said that under the backdrop of an uncertain international situation and the ongoing pandemic, the robot industry has ushered in a year of “challenge” and is moving towards a stage of large-scale and standardised delivery.
According to Luyang, sales amount witnessed 10-fold growth between 2019 to 2021. Compared to 2021, it is estimated to surge by 300% in 2022, with average order amount increasing by 350% and the amount of customer re-purchase order by 300%. With the entry of new markets and the large-scale delivery in advantageous scenarios, business scale is promising to increase 5-fold this year.
This latest funding round was led by Meituan, China’s leading e-commerce platform for services, and 5Y Capital.
