Following the influx of capital into new consumption and new technology, the robot track that has been silent for several years is heating up locally again, a large amount of funds are running towards the factory, and industrial robots have once again become “Favorites”.
“The robot enterprises in Songshan Lake will be robbed by venture capitalists”, which has been widely circulated in the venture capital circle since the middle of last year. In the era of scientific and technological innovation, policy dividends are fermented, and artificial intelligence is “ready to move”. Whether active or passive, industrial robots are eager for breakthrough and innovation.
On December 28, 2021, the Ministry of industry and information technology and other 15 departments jointly issued the “14th five year plan” for the development of robot industry, promoting China’s robot industry to move towards the medium and high-end level during the 14th Five Year Plan period.
“China has become the world’s largest consumer of industrial robots for eight consecutive years. In 2020, the density of manufacturing robots will reach 246 sets / 10000 people, nearly twice the global average.” According to Wang Weiming, director of the first Department of equipment industry of the Ministry of industry and information technology, in 2020, the operating revenue of China’s robot industry exceeded 100 billion yuan for the first time; During the 13th Five Year Plan period, the average annual compound growth rate was about 15%, of which the output of industrial robots increased from 72000 sets to 212000 sets, with an average annual growth of 31%.
According to the data of the National Bureau of statistics, from January to November 2021, China’s industrial robot output was 330000 sets, a year-on-year increase of 49%, and the output continued to hit a record high. In addition, according to the statistics of China Commercial Industry Research Institute, the sales of industrial robots in China will reach US $7.27 billion in 2022.
The policy provides strong support for the development of the industrial robot industry, technological change accelerates the localization of the industrial robot brand, and the expansion of downstream application fields forces the continuous expansion of the industrial robot market. Under the joint catalysis of multiple positive factors, the growth trend of China’s industrial robot orders is uncertain, which has also attracted great attention of capital. According to the statistics of it oranges by the reporter of the financial times, in 2021, there were 90 financing cases in China’s industrial robot industry alone, with a financing amount of more than 20 billion yuan, twice the financing amount in 2020.
Since last year, Sequoia Capital, Zhenge fund, Wuyuan capital and other private institutions have successively gone to Dongguan Songshanhu robot industry base to investigate the project. Taking Hairou innovation as an example, as a company focusing on box storage robot system, Hairou innovation completed three rounds of financing in the first half of last year: in March 2021, it completed a B + round of financing of RMB 100 million, led by five source capital, followed by source capital and Huadeng International; In May, the company completed round C financing, led by five source capital, followed by Sequoia China and source capital; In September, it received a round D investment of more than 200 million US dollars, and the investment portfolio continued to expand.
At the same time, meituan and other industrial capital are unwilling to lag behind and “bring capital into the group” one after another. Among them, meituan zhantou invested five times in the robot track in 2021, two of which were invested in meckamand robot. In just five years, the company has grown into one of the largest, fastest-growing and most applied companies in the field of AI + industrial robots in the world. In the past two years, byte jump has also shot at the robot track for many times. Investors behind industrial robot companies such as Jiazhi technology, Siling robot and syrius Juxing have appeared byte jump.
In the field of industrial robots, the subdivision track of cooperative robots is gradually coming into the spotlight of capital. According to statistics, the top three categories of invested enterprises in the field of industrial robots are mobile robots, which account for 29%, robot software and hardware suppliers, which account for 23%, and cooperative robots, which account for 16%.
According to the market view, at this stage, robots do not want to completely replace humans, but take over repetitive work from humans and let humans focus on decision-making and judgment. Mobile robots mainly do basic work, which is the innovation of handling mode. The degree of flexibility and intelligence is very low, and can not really meet the needs of modern industrial production.
In the process of industry gradually moving towards intelligence and automation, the rise of cooperative robots is inevitable. Human-computer interaction is no longer a simple “machine + human” physical interaction, but towards a new integration mode.
According to the latest report released by China Business Industry Research Institute, combined with 5g communication technology, big data, cloud computing and AI technology, industrial robots will realize more functions in the future, industrial cloud will serve the real economy more comprehensively, and promote the further transformation and upgrading of industrial robots towards intelligence and networking.
In the view of insiders, cooperative robots are the breakthrough for overtaking in Chinese curves. As we all know, in the field of traditional industrial robots, the shipments of “four families” from Japan and Europe: abb, FANUC, Yaskawa electric and KUKA account for half of the global shipments. In this context, the way of domestic substitution often comes from improving product competitiveness through M & A, or passively benefiting from the upgrading of downstream manufacturing industry. However, in the field of intelligent robot, because it is a relatively emerging field, what it needs is technological innovation in artificial intelligence, intelligent perception and intelligent execution. In this regard, China’s strength has reached the international leading level.
The guiding opinions on expanding investment in strategic emerging industries, cultivating and expanding new growth points and growth poles issued in September 2020 proposed that the implementation of intelligent manufacturing and intelligent construction pilot demonstration has further strengthened policy support in the field of intelligent robots.
The era of intelligent manufacturing has come. With the support of policies, Chinese industrial robot enterprises can use preferential industrial policies to increase R & D investment, accelerate the introduction of scientific researchers and technology, cooperate with enterprises in the industry or public R & D platforms, layout forward-looking technologies and next-generation robot technologies, and further enhance their core competitiveness.
“It is expected that the intelligent industrial robot and industrial cloud platform will become an important track in the industrial robot industry and promote the domestic, intelligent and high-end development of industrial robot brands.” China Commercial Industry Research Institute mentioned in the above report.
Post time: Jan-20-2022