UBTECH lost 2.5 billion yuan in three years and became the leading stock in the field of humanoid robots

At the closing ceremony of the Universiade on August 8, UBTECH’s humanoid robot Walker

A week later, Walker After being connected to the intelligent multi-modal interaction system independently developed by UBTECH, Walker X can achieve sensory fusion and perform tasks reasonably and accurately in actual application scenarios

At the forum session of the World Robot Conference, Zhou Jian, founder and CEO of UBTECH, said that humanoid robots have entered the stage of industrialization. In the future, humanoid robots will play a role in three main application scenarios, namely industrial manufacturing, business services and family companionship. Among them, the commercial service field will be the fastest application market for humanoid robots, while the family companionship field is the most potential market for humanoid robots. In addition, in the field of intelligent manufacturing where humanoid robots are widely used, robots will define workers in the AI ​​era in innovative ways, ultimately liberating humans from repetitive labor

Zhou Jian believes that it is only a matter of time before humanoid robots enter thousands of households. Whether it takes ten years or thirty years, this dream will eventually come true

Impact of Hong Kong stock IPO, loss of 2.5 billion yuan in three years

After submitting the prospectus for the first time on January 31, UBTECH updated its Hong Kong IPO prospectus on August 25 to challenge the domestic humanoid robot field

According to the prospectus, UBTECH’s revenue from 2020 to 2022 was 740 million yuan, 817 million yuan and 1.008 billion yuan respectively, and its adjusted net losses were -642 million yuan and -761 million respectively. billion and -782 million yuan. In the first four months of 2023, UBTECH’s revenue was 132 million yuan, and its adjusted loss was -273 million yuan

Youbixuan has suffered a cumulative loss of 2.5 billion yuan in the past three years or so. This is mainly due to high R&D investment. According to data from the prospectus, from 2020 to 2022, UBTECH’s R&D investment accounted for 57.9%, 63.3% and 42.5% of total revenue respectively

The large investment in R&D has built a technological moat on the one hand, and also brought a leading position in products on the other. Based on revenue calculations in 2022, UBTECH has become the largest educational robot manufacturer in China, with a market share of 22.5%

According to the prospectus, approximately 90% of UBTECH’s revenue comes from enterprise-level robot products and solutions, including intelligent educational robots, intelligent logistics robots and industry-customized intelligent robots

As of the end of the third quarter of 2022, UBTECH’s robot products have been sold in more than 40 countries and regions, with nearly a thousand corporate customers, and a total of 500,000 robots have been sold

At the beginning of starting a business, I met the best angel investor

Zhou Jian, the founder of UBTECH, was born in Shanghai. In 1995, he entered the School of Wood Industry (now the School of Materials) of Nanjing Forestry University. After graduating from university, Zhou Jian joined the German machinery giant Michael Weinli Group, starting as an intern and gradually promoted to the position of China regional manager

In 2005, Zhou Jian started his own business for the first time and successfully achieved financial freedom in the field of industrial automation. In 2008, Zhou Jian launched his second business venture and invested 20 million yuan in robot research and development. Four years later, Zhou Jian came to Shenzhen, which has the most complete robot industry chain, and founded UBTECH Company

Key components The servo driver is an important part of the robot, including deceleration, sensing, motors, chips and other difficult technologies. In order to overcome technical difficulties, Zhou Jian's team experienced countless failures and exhausted their initial funds. At the most difficult moment, Zhou Jian had to sell his house, vehicle and company for the research and development of robots

Before Zhou Jian met Xia Zuoquan, things had not improved. Xia Zuoquan was an early investor in BYD. He made 50,000 times the profit from his investment in BYD and was hailed as the best angel investor in the industry. In 2013, two institutions, Zhengxuan Investment and Lihe Huarui, led by Xia Zuoquan, invested 8 million yuan in Youbixuan at a valuation of 36 million yuan. After that, Xia Zuoquan borrowed another 16 million yuan twice to help Youbixuan overcome the difficulties

The first strike of commercialization, entering STEM education

With the support of angel investor Xia Zuoquan, UBTECH finally made a breakthrough in the field of research and development and successfully conquered the core technology of servo drives. In 2014, UBTECH’s first small humanoid robot, Alpha 1S, began mass production and sales. In 2016, 540 Alpha robots appeared on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, showing off complex dance moves, making UBTECH a household name overnight

After the advent of the Alpha robot, the market price of small humanoid robots dropped from tens of thousands of yuan to several thousand yuan, making large-scale commercialization possible. Starting in 2017, UBTECH has introduced Alpha robots into K12 education scenarios and applied them to STEM education

After achieving success in the education market, UBTECH has continued to make great progress and successfully completed multiple rounds of financing. In May 2018, UBTECH successfully raised US$820 million, bringing its valuation to US$5 billion, becoming the world's most valuable artificial intelligence startup at the time

In 2022, Youbixuan once again completed the D round of financing, and state-owned institutions such as Huzhou Nanxun District Government Guidance Fund and Anqing Tongan Industrial Investment Fund have joined in.

According to the prospectus, after the completion of the D round of financing, Zhou Jian holds 26.15% of the shares of Youbixuan and becomes the company’s largest shareholder. As an angel investor, Xia Zuoquan holds 5.78% of the shares and is the largest individual shareholder besides the founder. Tencent holds 6.48% of the shares and is the largest institutional shareholder of UBTECH; Qiming Venture Partners holds 5.98% of the shares and is the second largest institutional shareholder

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