Recently, Beijing Soft Robot Technology Co., LTD. (SRT) has received two consecutive rounds of financing totaling 150 million yuan. Among them, the C round of financing was led by Jinshi Investment, and the C+ round was invested by Shenqi Capital and Hot Star Fund. Star Capital acted as the sole long-term financial advisor.
SRT, founded in 2016, is an innovative technology company based on soft robot technology, which has the whole process design, manufacturing and related control technology of soft robot. At present, SRT's products have been applied in batches in industrial automation, rehabilitation robots and other scenarios.
The traditional robot is mainly driven by joints, which is limited by lack of flexibility and high cost. At present, in industrial scenarios, traditional robots only solve 3%-4% of the handling problems of regular and rigid items. A large number of flexible, deformed, vulnerable products need to rely on manual work, difficult to achieve automation. Flexible end-effectors are the best solution to solve the global manufacturing industry's flexible and fragile goods handling problems.
Soft robot technology is attracting attention, the number of related papers is increasing year by year, and the academic attention is very high. The related industrial applications are rapidly landing, and the industrial penetration rate is rapidly improving. SRT founder and CEO Gao Shaolong said that China's manufacturing industry is developed, software robot technology can help fresh prefabricated vegetables, medical supplies, hardware, semiconductors and many other Chinese characteristics of the industry to achieve automation and digital transformation and upgrading, SRT goals and China's manufacturing industry long-term symbiosis, help China's manufacturing industry transformation and upgrading, the formation of global competitiveness.
At present, SRT has formed 8 core product series of end effectors, with a number of international patents, such as SFG flexible clamp, ISC airbag internal stay clamp, VFC van der Waals force suction cups. Widely used in fresh prefabricated vegetables, medical supplies, hardware, semiconductors, 3C, panels, lithium, automotive, injection molding and other more than 20 industries.
In the field of medical robots, products such as hand flexible exoskeleton, trunk flexible exoskeleton (under research) and ankle flexible exoskeleton (under research) have been formed for rehabilitation, some of which have been sold in bulk or entered the clinical stage.
In terms of technical barriers, Gao Shaolong believes that soft robots are interdisciplinary fields such as materials science, robot motion control, and chemical engineering, testing the team's comprehensive ability in underlying algorithm models, materials and chemical experimental methods, chemical process technology, and product understanding. SRT has completed tens of thousands of experiments on various materials and products since its establishment. With the accumulation of massive experimental data, and the formation of 8 international patents, more than 200 domestic patents, SRT is confident that it can maintain the absolute technical advantage of the company in the global soft robot field for a long time.
In terms of development strategy in the industrial field, SRT hopes to take the flexible clamp as the entry point, on the basis of widely selling standard parts to the global market, for the advantageous industries with Chinese characteristics, dive into the industry to form standard solutions, seeking to become the "new infrastructure" of the industry, long-term symbiosis with the industry, and help the global expansion of Chinese industry.
In terms of the development strategy in the field of medical robots, SRT plans to take "pneumatic muscle" as the core technology module, and form a series of products in the direction of flexible exoskeleton for rehabilitation, abdominal surgery fixator, and artificial heart.
SRT's products cover 26 countries, more than 20 industries, and serve more than 500 customers. Average annual revenue growth of more than 2-3 times. The core team of the company is mainly from Beihang University, Beijing Institute of Technology and other universities. At present, SRT has a total of more than 370 employees, with R&D personnel accounting for more than 50%.
