Author: Big Brother, Editor: Xiao Shimei
In the hot artificial intelligence industry, another heavyweight company has landed in the capital market.
On the last trading day of 2023, UBTECH will be listed and traded on the Hong Kong stock market, and China's "first share of humanoid robots" will be officially born.
In this Hong Kong stock IPO, UBTECH raised 90.6 billion Hong Kong dollars, the market value on the first day of listing was close to 38 billion Hong Kong dollars, although the company has not yet achieved profitability, but the Hong Kong ** market pricing UBTECH is not low.
As the earliest leading enterprise in China to develop humanoid robots, UBTECH's listing is undoubtedly an important milestone in the development of the industry. With the blessing of capital, with the development of artificial intelligence, the Chinese humanoid robot industry seems to be on the eve of the outbreak.
[Bright prospects].
Emerging industries, including humanoid robots, are becoming a new engine for China's sustained and high-quality economic growth at an extraordinary development rate.
According to the ** and estimation of Soochow and the WestThe global humanoid robot will be initially commercialized in 2025, with sales of 20,000 to 30,000 units, and an additional demand of 1 million units in 2030, when the new market space for domestic humanoid robots is expected to reach 503.5 billion yuan, and the compound growth rate of the new market space for humanoid robots is expected to reach 96% in the next 7 years.
Like emerging industries such as photovoltaics and new energy vehicles, the development of Chinese humanoid robots is also quite competitive in the world, and after more than 10 years of economic transformation, China has achieved fruitful results in many emerging industries.
According to the "Humanoid Robot Technology Patent Analysis Report" recently released by the People's Daily Online Research Institute, as of May 31, 2023, China has applied for a total of 6,618 humanoid robot technology patents, with 3,110 valid patents, ranking first in the world compared to Japan, South Korea, France, and the United States.
The report specifically mentions UBTECH's technological advantages in China and even in the world
In the field of humanoid robots, UBTECH's effective patents have reached 763, with an average annual patent application of 191 in the past five years2 pieces, two important technical indicators are ranked first in the world, ahead of Honda, Samsung, Boston Dynamics and other world-famous enterprises. In the three main technical fields of core components, body structure and drive control, UBTECH's patent applications are the largest in China.
1. Second in the world. In terms of the comprehensiveness of technical reserves, UBTECH is unique in the country and even in the world.
At the practical application level, UBTECH's patented technology has also been implemented.
In 2018, UBTECH launched the walker series of humanoid robots, which used motor technology with extremely high difficulty and precision, and was known as one of the best technical routes for humanoid robots at that time.
After several iterations, the latest version of the Walker (i.e., Walker X) is equipped with 41 servo drives, has 41 degrees of freedom, and has basic humanoid movement ability, can go up stairs and down slopes, and can walk at a maximum speed of 35 km, 1 weight can be carried on one arm when exercising5 kg.
In contrast, at present, the vast majority of robots can only walk on flat ground, and robot companies that can stably walk up and down stairs and overcome slopes and other all-terrain stable walking are rare, and it is extremely difficult to maintain a certain speed and walk with weight.
As one of the very few companies in the world with full-stack technical capabilities for humanoid robots, UBTECH is also the first company in the world to complete the process of small torque to large torque (0.2nm to 200nm) servo drive mass production company, in the core areas of servo drive, computer vision, motion planning and control, voice interaction and human-computer interaction, UBTECH has strong technical capabilities, and finally helped the walker humanoid robot in the most difficult movement ability, to achieve an important breakthrough.
In 2021, UBTECH's humanoid robot walker was rated as one of the most groundbreaking and innovative robot inventions in the past century, and became the only humanoid robot publicly known to be mass-produced and delivered in the world.
[Realistic pressure].
In the context of population aging and economic intelligence, intelligent manufacturing, commercial services, and household consumption provide broad application scenarios for humanoid robots.
However, the real pressure faced by humanoid robot companies is still very high.
Although UBTECH has the world's top level in technology, it has not completely broken through the technological singularity, and since the launch of Walker, a representative product of large-scale humanoid robots, has contributed less than 100 million yuan in revenue, and high R&D investment has brought high costs and high standards, making it difficult to achieve large-scale commercialization quickly.
At present, UBTECH's downstream subdivision scenarios are mainly in the fields of education, logistics, health care, entertainment, etc., and its products include Alpha Mini Wukong, humanoid Yanshee Yanshi Education Robot, etc., all of which are small humanoid robot products.
In the field of educational intelligent robots and intelligent robot solutions, UBTECH is a well-deserved industry leader, with a market share of 22 in 20225%, which is 5 times that of the second in the industry.
The fastest-growing sector is the logistics industry, with UBTECH's revenue from logistics intelligent robot products and solutions in 2022 being 26.3 billion yuan, a soaring nearly 20 times compared with 2020, and the growth rate in the first half of 2023 will still exceed 80%.
Although the market competitiveness and revenue growth rate of each business are not good, the company's profitability is not ideal. From 2020 to the end of April 2023, UBTECH's total loss exceeded 3 billion, and the net operating cash outflow reached 21$8.4 billion.
The reason for the continuous loss is the decline in gross profit margin caused by the fierce competition in raw materials and the industry on the one hand, and the high R&D investment on the other hand.
The artificial intelligence and robotics industry is a typical industry with high R&D investment, and in order to maintain its technological advantages, UBTECH's R&D expenses in recent years have accounted for more than half of its revenue. Relying on its own cash flow, UBTECH is obviously unsustainable.
At this time, seeking support from the capital market has almost become the only way for UBTECH.
[Lurking Boss].
Since the start of the Pre-A round of financing in 2013, UBTECH has carried out a total of 5 rounds of financing, with a total of about 5 billion yuan of financial support, including Tencent, iFLYTEK and other technology giants, as well as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, CITIC Kingstone and other star institutions.
Among them, 8The $200 million Series C financing set a record for the highest single financing in China's AI field at that time, and Tencent became UBTECH's largest institutional shareholder, holding more than 5% of the shares, with a post-investment valuation of $5 billion.
In 2019, UBTECH tried to be listed on the A-share market, but at that time, the humanoid robot was not the focus of market and policy attention, and UBTECH's financial data was not eye-catching, so the company's A-share listing was helplessly stranded.
In the past two years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence, Tesla and Xiaomi humanoid robots have been launched, which has attracted widespread attention in the capital market, and the national policy level has also continued to be favorable, adding weight to UBTECH's road to listing. Eventually, the more international Hong Kong stock market became the preferred market for UBTECH's initial listing.
Before this IPO, the most eye-catching figure among UBTECH's major shareholders was undoubtedly Xia Zuoquan, chairman of Zhengxuan Investment.
As the first angel investor to invest in UBTECH, Xia Zuoquan is currently a non-executive director of the company, with a shareholding ratio of 563%, is the company's fourth largest shareholder, and at the same time Zhou Jian is acting in concert, while ensuring the founder's absolute control over the company, it also indicates his long-term shareholding position.
Xia Zuoquan's other identity is better known as the co-founder of BYD and the first angel investor.
28 years ago, BYD was just established, the development of the industry is far from mature, almost no one wants to believe Wang Chuanfu, and there are still 13 years before Buffett enters the market.
Perhaps based on the hazy feeling of emerging industries such as lithium batteries, and more importantly, the full trust in Wang Chuanfu, Xia Zuoquan invested 300,000 yuan in BYD and became the third largest shareholder of BYD at that time.
The rest of the story is well known.
BYD, which was widely questioned at the beginning, was first listed on the Hong Kong stock market in 2002, and then landed on the A-share market in 2011, and eventually became a double leader in the lithium battery and electric vehicle industries. This part of the shares held by Xia Zuoquan is now worth more than 16 billion, and the profit is more than 50,000 times.
From the perspective of industry trends, the current humanoid robot track is similar to that of lithium batteries and electric vehicles 20 years ago. is also a high-quality player in the first track, and has also been blessed by Xia Zuoquan, an investment saint, UBTECH, who has just landed in Hong Kong stocks, may have the potential to become the next BYD.
Disclaimer of Warranties
This article involves the content of listed companies, and is the author's personal analysis and judgment based on the information publicly disclosed by listed companies in accordance with their statutory obligations (including but not limited to temporary announcements, periodic reports and official interactive platforms, etc.).The information or opinions contained herein do not constitute any investment or other business advice, and Market CapWatch disclaims any liability for any actions resulting from the adoption of this article.
end—