VisionNav Robotics, a global manufacturer of driverless industrial vehicles, today announced a C+ funding round of more than $80 million led by Meituan, China’s leading e-commerce platform for services, and 5Y Capital.
VisionNav Robotics stressed that this funding will be mainly used to:
• Research new technology and innovative forms of product development;
• Optimize product performance, focusing on product stability and standardization;
• Promote large-scale implementation and localized delivery for global customers.
Founded in 2016, at present, VisionNav Robotics has developed nine series of driverless industrial vehicles. Since the last round of funding, VisionNav Robotics has accelerated its globalization and set up marketing centers in more than 30 countries and regions. The company states it 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 other types of industry sectors.
Low efficiency, a difficult labor recruitment environment, and a lack of digitalization have been the main pain points that have plagued the intralogistics of enterprises for a long time, the company added. Driverless industrial vehicles provide a feasible solution to these pain points, thus forming a potential market with huge growth. According to World Industrial Trucks Statistics (WITS) data, global forklift shipments volume reached 1.58 million units in 2020 and 2.34 million units in 2021, an increase of 42.93% over last year. Fortune Business Insights predicts that the CAGR of global forklift shipments from 2021 to 2028 is about 4.3%. At present, the electrification ratio of global forklifts has reached 63% (WITS, 2020), and it is expected that 20% will be autonomous in 2028.
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 standardized delivery. According to Luyang, sales size or 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, the announcement added.
The Shenzhen, China-based company is active in the U.S. market, and exhibited at MODEX earlier this year.
Source: https://www.mmh.com/article/visionnav_robotics_lands_80_million_in_c_round