Robot sensor developer Slamtec receives USD 22 million for Series C
Slamtec
Founder: Chen Shikai
Founded in: 2009
Financing status: RMB 150 million (USD 22 million) Series C round in 2017
Robot sensor developer Slamtec on Monday received USD 22 million for its Series C financing round to develop automatic positioning algorithms for robots.
Slamtec is a robot sensor developer that provides its partners with affordable and high performance robot localization and mapping solutions. It mainly develops auto localization and navigation systems for robots, and also offers related sensors for robot systems.
The Shanghai company currently has several products on sale including a low cost LIDAR sensor priced at around several hundred RMB (USD 15), which is less than one-ninth of the cost of industrial grade sensors. Other products on sale include SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) solution based on LIDAR technology and a general purpose robot platform Zeus which can be widely used in several industries.
This Series C financing round was led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Holdings, with Chinese private equity firm ChinaEquity Group, and Shenzhen Guozhong Venture Capital Management also participating in this round. The capital will be used to upgrade its system, as well as develop automatic positioning algorithm for robots.
Flower delivery platform FlowerPlus receives undisclosed Series B in tens of millions of USD
FlowerPlus
Founded in: 2015
Financing status: 2017 Series B round amounting to hundreds of millions of RMB (tens of millions of USD)
Flower delivery platform FlowerPlus on Wednesday received an undisclosed Series B financing round in tens of millions of USD for market expansion plans.
FlowerPlus is a subscription based flower delivery platform that offers customers with no-frills flower delivery services. Customers can use FlowerPlus’ WeChat enterprise account to complete the subscription. They can choose different flower packages on the WeChat account, choose a time and place for delivery, and complete payment on WeChat. Users can choose to receive flowers either weekly or monthly. In addition, FlowerPlus’ prices are more affordable as compared to prices at brick-and-mortar flower shops, with single flower bouquets priced at RMB 98 (USD 15) and RMB 168 (USD 24) for mixed flower bouquets.
The Shanghai based platform has over 4.5 million users so far, and it sends out over 2 million flower packages monthly. Currently, the company partners with over 500 flower farms, with most of them located in China’s Yunnan province. Its flower delivery services have covered China’s major cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
This Series B financing round was led by Zhenfund and Kinzon Capital. FlowerPlus plans to use the fund to expand its business to new cities across China.
(Top photo from 58pic.com)
