(Chinese Version)

Robot company Geek+ had announced on July 13th Thursday to have completed its series B round financing at $60 million. This round of financing was led by an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing, and participated by existing shareholders including Volcanics Venture. Geek+ has set a new record in single round financing in the global logistics robot sector.

Founded in early 2015 and headquartered in Beijing, Geek+ provides one-stop intelligent logistics robot solutions to customers. Enabled by artificial intelligence and robot technologies, Geek+’s solutions cover storage, order picking, material handling and parcel sorting.  Geek+’s founder Zheng Yong holds a bachelor degree from Tsinghua University and a master from RWTH Aachen University. After graduating from school, Zheng started to work for ABB, one of the four leading industrial robot companies in the world, and later discovered the investment potential in robot automation at investment firm.

 “In a warehouse, it usually takes a human worker 60% to 70% of his or her time to carry packages around. What’s left is the actual time for work that creates more value. Our robots provide automation solutions, reduce the time needed for human workers to walk around. This can boost the human staff’s efficiency by three times,” Zheng Yong said.

Geek+ is rolling out its 5th generation robot. The robot company is adopting the QR code navigation in unmanned scenarios like order picking etc., which provides high accuracy and proves to be cost effective. The automation system also implements SLAM laser technology, freeing the robots from relying on ground signs, which allows them to maneuver in a complex environment where both humans and robots are in.

At present, Geek+ covers fields ranging from e-commerce, express delivery companies, offline retailers and manufacturers of apparels, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and electronics etc. The company is also expanding to overseas market and has planned and completed the early preparation for the very first overseas project, which will go into operation soon.

According to Geek+, to date, the company has delivered nearly 1,000 units of robots in warehouses for over 20 customers including Tmall, VIPShop and Suning. The company has successfully supported its e-commerce customers seamlessly complete their warehouse operations during major e-commerce promotion campaigns such as “November 11th Singles’ Day” and “June 18th Shopping Day” in China. Geek+ expects to finish deliveries of 2,000 robot units by end of 2017.

Zheng Yong, Founder and CEO of Geek+, said:

“This round of financing will help us upgrade our business in three aspects. Firstly, we will accelerate the upgrading of our logistics robotics products and expand product offerings to cover more applications. Secondly, we will accelerate our geographical expansion and industry coverage to provide our one-stop intelligent logistics system and operation solutions to more customers. Thirdly, we will start exploring overseas markets through multiple channels.”

Mr. Jericho Zhang, Principal of Warburg Pincus, commented:

“As the AI technologies are maturing, we are seeing increasing market demand and new applications. In particular, the traditional, capital-intensive and labor-intensive logistics industry provides huge market potential for AI technologies. With the rapid development of China's e-commerce industry, China’s warehouse management industry is undergoing transformational changes. More complex warehouse operations and increasing costs are spurring demand for AI-enabled solutions, particularly logistics robots.”

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Translated by Garrett Lee (Senior Translator at PAGE TO PAGE), working for TMTpost.