AI solution provider Roobo receives USD 54M for Series B
Roobo
Founder: Liu Yinbo
Founded in: 2014
Financing status: RMB 350 million (USD 54 million) for Series B financing in 2017
AI solutions provider, Roobo, received USD 54M for Series B on September 6 to invest in product updates and recruiting.
Roobo is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions provider that serves as a technology platform for intelligent hardware. It integrates AI systems with robotics and relevant services, and manufactures its own robots.
It released an educational robot for kids called Pudding, with a voice-controlled feature. Pudding can be used to teach kids vocabulary, geography, and to joke with kids. Additionally, it is working with kindergartens, schools, and other educational institutions to promote its robots. According to the company, it has sold more than 100,000 Pudding robots in the last year.
Recently, it has upgraded its strategy. It will not only meet individual customers’ demands by providing them with robotics products, but also proceed to meet enterprises’ demands for AI solutions and relevant services. For example, it is working with Baidu to release a smart financial robotics product, as well as manufacture other new types of robots to meet its partners’ various demands.
Founded in 2014 in Beijing, the company operates globally with branches around the world, such as in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu, Seoul, Moscow, and Seattle.
Previously it secured its Series A financing round led by iFlytek, a software enterprise dedicated to the research of intelligent speech and language technology. This new financing round was led by 7seas Venture Capital. The capital will be used to upgrade its products and services, as well as invest in technological development, and recruit talent.
Convenience shelf startup 7Kola received USD 7M for Series A
7Kola
Founder: Wen Chaohui
Founded in: 2017
Financing status: RMB 50 million (USD 7 million) for Series A financing in 2017
Convenience shelf startup, 7Kola, received USD 7M for Series A on September 7th to optimize its business.
7Kola is a convenience shelf startup that mainly places convenience shelves in offices and provides customers with instant food and snacks, like instant noodles, biscuits, and so on. Placing convenience shelves in offices is better than placing them in convenience stores for several reasons: 1) customers in offices are more precise with quality, instant food is in-demand for them; 2) customers stay in offices for a long time; 3) customers in offices have a higher consumption ability, and are more open to new things; 4) recording data is important for a new retail concept, which can improve the efficiency of the whole consumption chain.
Founded in 2017 in Beijing, 7Kola has put more than 3000 convenience shelves in offices. The average gross profit of goods on convenience shelves is 35%, and the turnover in each of its convenience shelves is between RMB 120 to 150.
7Kola grabbed this new financing round from Yi Capital, with existing investor Matrix Partners China participating. The company plans to use the funds to invest in optimizing its business, as well as expanding its convenience shelves to more places and regions.
（Top photo from 58pic.com）