Chinese AI Robotics Firm Receives $820 Million in Latest Funding Round
China-based Ubtech Robotics just announced that is has received $820 million in Series C funding, giving it a market valuation of $5 billion.
It called the investment the "the single largest funding round ever for an artificial intelligence company."
Investors include the lead investor Tencent Holdings, a Chinese investment firm, as well as Minsheng Securities, Easyhome Furnishings, Whale Capital and CDH Investments, which was the lead investor in the company's Series B funding.
Ubtech specializes in "intelligent humanoid robots" for mainly consumer and STEAM education uses. Its current product roundup is featured on its Web site.
"We are honored and gratified by this investment, the exceptionally high quality of our investors, and the strategic initiatives we will be able to launch as we innovate a new era of consumer robots," commented James Zhou, Ubtech founder and chief executive officer, in a prepared statement.
According to the statement, this funding round will mainly finance "research and development, market and brand expansion, as well talent recruitment," with Ubtech's R&D division focusing in on"large-size humanoid robots, humanoid robot servo, gait planning and motion control algorithms, computer vision," among other areas.
Ubtech was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, China with a North American headquarters in Los Angeles, Calif.
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Becky Nagel is the vice president of Web & Digital Strategy for 1105's Converge360 Group, where she oversees the front-end Web team and deals with all aspects of digital projects at the company, including launching and running the group's popular virtual summit and Coffee talk series . She an experienced tech journalist (20 years), and before her current position, was the editorial director of the group's sites. A few years ago she gave a talk at a leading technical publishers conference about how changes in Web browser technology would impact online advertising for publishers. Follow her on twitter @beckynagel.