These Chinese startups attracted sizable funding amid Covid-19 pandemic

Since China was first rocked by the Covid-19 outbreak around Lunar New Year in January this year, many facets of the everyday economy experienced major disruptions. However, venture capital and fundraising in China’s dynamic startup ecosystem remained resilient, continuing to advance their strategies amidst an uncertain macroeconomic environment.

Looking back at the fundraising deals that happened during the outbreak period, we can see continued investment in robotics, education technology, supply chain logistics, and frontier technologies.

Photo credit: Somsak Sudthangtum / 123RF

Robotics

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated demand for autonomous solutions, and investment in the Chinese robotics sector continued throughout the outbreak period. Specifically, deals were closed in robotics, including hardware, like robot cleaners and waiters, and software such as computer vision, audio recognition, and chatbot tech.

On the software side, Zhejiang-based AISpeech, specializing in voice interaction solutions, just closed a 410 million yuan (US$58 million) series E round led by CTC Capital. The firm counts Alibaba, Foxconn, and MediaTek as other investors. It has over 8,000 clients including Alibaba, Xiaomi, and SF.

Meanwhile, chatbot solutions provider Xiaoneng closed a series C round worth 125 million yuan (US$17.6 million). According to financial data provider Jingdata, China’s chatbot industry is worth 15 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion).

In terms of hardware, Bytedance co-led a 100 million yuan (US$14.1 million) series B round for Narwal Robotics, a maker of autonomous cleaning robots.

Keenon Robotics, a Shanghai-based manufacturer of robot waiters, closed a series B round on March 10 at 200 million yuan (US$28.8 million). The company dominates the service robot industry and is popular in the hospitality sector and among restaurants, like hot pot brand Haidilao. Its goal this year is to provide 10,000 new robots to significantly strengthen its position in the space.

Focused more on enterprise solutions, Chinese autonomous mobile robot (AMR) company ForwardX Robotics completed a 100 million yuan (US$14.1 million) series B+ financing round on April 2. Headquartered in Beijing, the firm uses computer vision and AI to augment processes in the logistics and manufacturing industries.

Also, Shanghai-based Encoo, founded in 2017, hauled in 211.6 million yuan (US$30 million) in series B funding in a round led by Sequoia Capital China on March 16. Encoo specializes in robotic process automation (RPA), which automates a wide range of business processes to optimize efficiency.

Education and healthcare technology

The Covid-19 pandemic has required educational institutions to quickly pivot to online instruction, as China’s online education market has experienced continuous growth in the past five years. It’s also expected to hit 453.8 billion yuan (US$65.4 billion) in 2020, according to industry research firm iiMedia.

Yuanfudao stole the headlines at the end of March, setting the record for the largest fundraising deal in edtech as it raised 7 billion yuan (US$1 billion) in a series G round. The Beijing-based edtech giant operates six apps within its ecosystem and boasts 400 million users, of which 1.5 million are paid subscribers.

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Supply chain and logistics

Frontier tech