UBTECH, a robotics company with a long-term goal of developing and commercializing life-size humanoid robots, is about to go public in Hong Kong.
How is such a tall company growing?
Speaking of this robot company located in Shenzhen, many non-industry insiders may not have heard of it, but if you talk about the 540 small robot performance of the 2016 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, maybe some friends will have some impressions.
I remember the Spring Festival Gala 7 years ago when domestic artificial intelligence was just heating up, the author saw hundreds of small humanoid robots dancing uniformly on the stage, and even made a street dance movement of handstand and leg rotation, which was quite surprising.
And the company behind these robots is UBTECH.
Ahead, but there is still a long way to go
UBTECH was founded in Shenzhen in 2012 by Mr. Zhou Jian, President of the company, mainly engaged in the design, development, production and sales of intelligent service robots and intelligent service robot solutions, and is one of the few service robots and solution companies in China that can cover full-stack core technologies including computer vision, voice interaction, servo drive, motion planning and control, positioning and navigation, etc., and at the same time, in terms of revenue, in 2022, it will be 28% of the market share ranks third, and in the direction of education this subdivision with 225% market share ranks first.
From the perspective of products, UBTECH currently mainly provides four categories of products: education, logistics, customization in other industries, and consumer-level.
Among them, the educational products are mainly multi-size humanoid robots, as well as construction and building block robots, and are mainly customers with local education bureaus, and finally exported to schools as STEAM course teaching tools
Logistics products are mainly automatic guided vehicles and autonomous mobile robots
Other industry customized products are mainly used in schools, hospitals, airports, supermarkets, banks and other public places to provide guidance assistance, reception, simple inspection and environmental monitoring and other services;
Consumer-grade products are mainly small humanoid robots, pet products, sweeping robots, etc.
In the full year of 2022, UBTECH's technology and education products will have a revenue of 51.7 billion yuan, accounting for 512%, and 2% of logistics product revenue6.3 billion yuan, accounting for 261%, and 08.2 billion yuan, accounting for 82%, consumer product revenue 13.2 billion yuan, accounting for 131%。
It can be seen that the main market of its products is in the field of on-campus education, as well as in the field of logistics, where robots have been widely used.
Although UBTECH's products have some landing use scenarios and have achieved continuous sales, further combined with its product functions and performance, its products still have a long way to go and still have a lot of efforts to do.
Active research and development
Although the product is not perfect, UBTECH, which can show its face at the Spring Festival Gala and the Winter Olympics, is still very serious about research and development.
As of the end of June this year, UBTECH's R&D team has more than 700 people, led by Dr. Xiong Youjun, Dr. Tan Huan, Dr. Pang Jianxin, and Dr. Huang Dongyan.
Xiong Youjun is the director, deputy general manager and chief technology officer of the company, with a doctorate degree in mechanical design and theory and about 18 years of R&D experience.
Huan Tan is the company's deputy chief technology officer, with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and about 20 years of R&D experience.
Jianxin Pang is the vice president and executive R&D director of the company, with a Ph.D. in signal and information processing and about 15 years of R&D experience.
Dongyan Huang holds a Ph.D. in physics and metrology and about 26 years of R&D experience.
All four of them have a solid educational background and rich R&D experience in core fields such as robotics, artificial intelligence-related technologies, and algorithms.
In addition, from the perspective of R&D investment, its R&D expenditure in 2020, 2021, 2022, and the first half of 2023 will be 42.9 billion yuan, 51.7 billion yuan, 42.8 billion yuan, 22.4 billion yuan, accounting for the company's revenue in the same period. 9%。
With active R&D investment, as of the end of June this year, it has obtained more than 1,800 registered patents related to robotics and artificial intelligence, most of which are invention patents, and contain more than 380 overseas patents, and related patents have also won 2 national awards, 4 provincial science and technology awards, and 1 international award.
It can be seen that its R&D investment is relatively large and fruitful.
Growth vs. loss
Under the tall business, what is the financial performance of UBTECH?
In the first half of 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, its operating income will be 7400 million yuan, 81.7 billion yuan, 100.8 billion yuan, 26.1 billion yuan, net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company was -70.7 billion yuan, -92 billion yuan, 97.5 billion yuan, -53.3 billion yuan, and at the same time, the year-on-year growth rate of revenue in 2021, 2022, and the first half of 2023 will be respectively. 38%、-7.89%。
Obviously, its revenue growth performance is very average, and the profit level is still in the stage of continuous loss.
In addition, in the first half of 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, the proportion of sales revenue of its top five customers is. 5%, the proportion of sales revenue of the largest customer is respectively. 4%。
It has to be said that for an enterprise whose products are qualified to achieve wide sales, such a customer concentration seems to be a bit high.
It's still early
Of course, at this stage, we probably shouldn't use the imperfection of products and unsatisfactory financial performance to evaluate companies like UBTECH.
After all, the intelligent service robot industry is still in the early stage of development, and from a global perspective, related technologies are still in the process of continuous improvement and iteration.
However, it is certain that intelligent service robots, especially life-size humanoid intelligent service robots, can be applied to a wide range of applications, and the future consumer demand is strong enough.
Finally, it is inclusive and expectant, tolerate its current shortcomings, and look forward to its future growth.