Peking hat einen Super-Unicorn mit einem Wert von 15 Milliarden Yuan hervorgebracht: Der Logistikroboter liegt weltweit an der Spitze, was drei große Chancen aufzeigt.
Recently, a super unicorn emerged in Beijing: Geek+ Technology Co., Ltd., which has submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
It is a star enterprise in the field of logistics robots, having completed more than ten rounds of financing with a total amount of nearly 3 billion yuan. As early as after the Series E1 financing in 2022, its post - investment valuation reached 15 billion yuan.
The rise of this enterprise reveals three major opportunities in the field of logistics robots:
1. Dividends from emerging markets.
Regions such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa are becoming the "new blue ocean" for intelligent logistics. The annual growth rate of the warehouse automation market in Southeast Asia reaches 15.5%. The scale of logistics automation in the Middle East exceeds 12 billion US dollars. Saudi Arabia plans to increase the GDP share of the logistics industry to 10% by 2030.
2. Technological integration and innovation.
For example, the combination of large AI models and logistics robots, force - controlled robots, and unmanned full - stack solutions.
3. In - depth exploration of niche scenarios.
In tobacco logistics, using AI to verify documents has reduced the error rate from 5% to 0.3%. In cross - border logistics, using the multimodal transport large model has reduced data latency by 50%.
These high - value niche areas have not been fully covered by leading enterprises, and new players can enter through technological differentiation.
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Geek+ was founded in 2015, with its headquarters in Beijing. Its main product is autonomous mobile robots, and its core application scenarios are warehousing fulfillment and industrial handling.
In terms of application scenarios, its logistics robots cover multiple industries, such as e - commerce, retail, footwear and apparel, logistics, pharmaceuticals, automotive, and 3C manufacturing. Its main customers include more than 700 global enterprises such as Nike, Walmart, Toyota, Siemens, Suning.com, Dell, DHL, and SF Supply Chain.
Before the emergence of Geek+, traditional logistics warehousing mainly relied on manual operations and fixed equipment, which was inefficient, costly, and lacked flexibility.
In terms of manpower dependence, when workers pick goods in the warehouse, about 70% of their time is spent walking back and forth between shelves. The efficiency of traditional manual picking is only 80 - 100 pieces per hour. If new employees are not familiar with the location of shelves, the efficiency will be further reduced. While the picking efficiency of automated warehousing (such as AGV robots) can reach 500 - 800 pieces per hour, an increase of 5 - 8 times.
The rapid development of e - commerce and the manufacturing industry has accelerated the elimination process of traditional solutions. Especially in the direction of efficient and flexible supply chains, robots have gradually become alternative solutions.
Take a well - known e - commerce enterprise as an example. Under the traditional logistics warehousing model, during shopping festivals such as "Double 11" and "618", the order volume surges instantaneously, and the warehouse staff have to work long hours under high - intensity conditions.
Even so, the goods sorting speed is still difficult to match the order generation speed, resulting in a large number of backlogged orders and delayed shipments. According to statistics, under the traditional model, the average daily walking distance of warehouse staff is up to 20 kilometers, and they spend a lot of physical strength searching for goods between shelves. The time actually used for effective sorting operations accounts for less than 30%.
The manufacturing industry also faces challenges. The product iteration cycle is constantly shortening, and the production model of small - batch and multi - batch has become the mainstream, which places extremely high requirements on the timeliness and flexibility of material supply.
In traditional manufacturing factories, material handling relies on manual forklifts and trolleys. Workers shuttle between large warehouses and production lines, which is not only inefficient but also prone to material mis - delivery and missed delivery due to human negligence, affecting the production progress.
For example, a 3C product manufacturing enterprise loses more than 500 hours of production line downtime each year due to material supply problems in its traditional logistics warehousing, resulting in direct economic losses of millions of yuan.
In some extreme environments, robots also have better adaptability, such as in cold - chain logistics.
Take a cold - chain food enterprise as an example. Under the traditional warehousing model, the low - temperature environment seriously affects the work efficiency of workers, and the accuracy of goods sorting is low, with a high goods loss rate. However, robots can operate 24 hours a day. According to the data in Geek+'s prospectus, robots can reduce labor costs by about 60% and reduce the goods loss rate to less than 5%.
The above - mentioned types of demands have promoted the growth of Geek+'s business.
For example, a company's warehouse used to recruit a large number of temporary workers during promotional periods to cope with the peak order volume. Now, with the help of logistics robots, the labor demand has been significantly reduced, and the daily order processing volume has increased from 50,000 to 500,000.
Currently, the business with the highest revenue proportion for Geek+ is the sales of AMR solutions. Simply put, it sells "intelligent handling robots + supporting systems" to enterprises to help them achieve automated handling, picking, and sorting tasks in warehouses and factories.
In the direction of warehousing fulfillment, in terms of revenue, Geek+ has ranked first globally for five consecutive years. From 2022 to 2024, its revenue increased from 1.452 billion yuan to 2.409 billion yuan, but it has been continuously losing money in the past three years.
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The logistics robot industry originated in the 1950s.
In 1953, the world's first automated guided vehicle (AGV) was born in the United States, which was transformed from a simple towed automated guided cart (AGC) by the American Barret Company.
Early AGVs were mainly used in the industrial manufacturing field. Limited by the technological level at that time, their navigation methods were extremely single, mainly relying on laying magnetic strips on the ground or presetting fixed paths. Like being pulled by an invisible rope, they performed simple material handling tasks between factories and warehouses, with serious deficiencies in flexibility and autonomy.
In the 1990s, computer technology, sensor technology, and wireless communication technology developed.
The navigation system was the first to undergo a revolution, evolving from the once rigid preset path mode to more flexible and intelligent advanced modes such as laser navigation and visual navigation, enabling logistics robots to shuttle in complex environments.
At the same time, the coordinated application of multiple sensors such as lidar and visual sensors improved the robot's perception accuracy of the surrounding environment, and the obstacle - avoidance function became more reliable.
During this period, logistics robots were widely used in industries such as automobile manufacturing and semiconductors, which have high requirements for production accuracy and efficiency. Subsequently, their application areas gradually expanded to key logistics links such as warehousing and distribution centers.
In the 21st century, with the development of cutting - edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, autonomous mobile robots (AMR) emerged.
By being equipped with a laser or visual SLAM system, robots no longer rely on pre - laid guiding objects. As long as the starting and ending points are clear, they can automatically plan the optimal operation path through algorithms.
For example, at the end of 2010, QR code technology was widely popularized in China and was quickly applied to the navigation system of AGVs. Through the QR code matrix laid on the ground, AGVs can accurately obtain position information and achieve millimeter - level positioning and path planning.
After that, the emergence of composite AMRs enabled robots to integrate multi - functional modules such as robotic arms, grasping devices, and sensor arrays, capable of performing a series of more complex operations such as goods sorting, palletizing, and handling, expanding the application scenarios of robots in the entire logistics process.
Currently, the global logistics robot market is constantly expanding. According to a report by Interact Analysis, from 2019 to 2021, the global shipments of logistics robots (for logistics warehousing and manufacturing) tripled. It is estimated that from 2023 to 2028, the global AMR market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 36.8%, reaching a scale of 172.5 billion yuan by 2028.
The demand behind this growth mainly comes from the increasing demand for efficient logistics in industries such as e - commerce, retail, and manufacturing.
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In recent years, the state has introduced a series of policies to support the development of the intelligent logistics and robot industries. For example, the "14th Five - Year Plan for the Development of Intelligent Manufacturing" proposes to promote the R & D and application of intelligent logistics equipment.
In addition, with the development of the industry, the demand for intelligent warehousing in regions such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa has increased significantly.
From 2023 to 2028, the compound annual growth rate of the warehouse automation market in Southeast Asia is expected to reach 15.5%. As an important market in Southeast Asia, Singapore has an Internet penetration rate of up to 98%, a smartphone adoption rate of 93%, and 58% of its citizens conduct online transactions. It is estimated that by 2026, its e - commerce market will reach 10 billion US dollars.
At the same time, the manufacturing industries in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam are developing strongly, with rapid growth in industries such as electronics, textile and clothing, automotive, and food and beverage. In 2021, Singapore's manufacturing industry contributed 13.2% to GDP growth.
In the Middle East, the e - commerce market is expanding rapidly.
The scale of the logistics automation market in the Middle East has exceeded 12 billion US dollars, with a compound annual growth rate of 18.7%, far exceeding the global average. Saudi Arabia plans to increase the scale of the logistics industry from 5.3 billion US dollars in 2022 to 15.3 billion US dollars by 2030, increase the transport volume from 5.5 million TEUs to 16.7 million TEUs, and raise the GDP share of the logistics industry from 6% to over 10%.
The demand for intelligent warehousing in Africa is also gradually increasing. In the first half of 2024, the African transportation and logistics industry attracted 218 million US dollars in investment, surpassing the fintech industry. During the pandemic, the African e - commerce market developed rapidly and is expected to reach 2.35 billion US dollars by 2030.
Another new trend for intelligent robots is the integration of new technologies such as large AI models.
Taking Geek+ as an example, it has integrated large AI models with navigation technology and launched laser - vision fusion SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) navigation technology. This technology enables AMR robots to achieve a positioning accuracy of ± 10 millimeters in complex environments and improves the motion planning efficiency by 40%.
In addition, the picking strategy optimized by large AI models enables a single workstation to achieve a picking efficiency of 400 pieces per hour, far exceeding the industry average of less than 180 pieces per hour, with a picking accuracy rate of up to 99.99%, while the industry average is 99.90%.
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In the international market, the competition in the logistics robot industry is fierce. Generally speaking, countries in Europe, America, and Japan have certain advantages.
The United States is a powerful country in the field of logistics robots. As early as 1953, the world's first automated guided vehicle (AGV) was born in the Barret Company.
After years of development, American logistics robot enterprises lead in the R & D of core technologies.
For example, the Alphabot system developed by Alert Innovation can accurately and efficiently complete the picking and packaging tasks of online shopping orders with its mobile robots capable of moving in a structured three - dimensional space, and its technology has great advantages in the e - commerce logistics warehousing link.
The wheeled robot Stretch of Boston Dynamics can move 800 boxes per hour and has the ability to lift boxes weighing up to 50 pounds, performing well in the scenarios of unloading trucks and containers.
Europe also has strong strength in logistics robots.
As one of the birthplaces of Industry 4.0, Germany has outstanding achievements in the field of warehouse automation. According to data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), there are 294 robots per 10,000 workers in Germany, ranking among the top in the world.
Many well - established European enterprises, such as Swisslog Holding in Switzerland and KUKA in Germany, have rich experience in logistics automation system integration and robot manufacturing. According to data from market research institutions, the European warehouse automation market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13.67% from 2022 to 2027.
In contrast, domestic logistics robots are still in the catching - up stage, but the gap is narrowing.
In the domestic market, although there is no absolute leading monopoly enterprise yet, the market concentration is gradually increasing.
Hikrobot, relying on its security technology foundation, stands out in key technology fields such as visual navigation, and its products are used in multiple fields such as industrial manufacturing and warehousing logistics. Quicktron focuses on warehousing logistics automation solutions, and its intelligent warehousing robot system has accumulated many customers in industries such as e - commerce and express delivery.
Compared with its competitors, the difference of Geek+ lies in its more complete product line, covering various types of robots such as picking, handling, sorting, and intelligent forklifts, which can meet the needs of the entire industry scenarios such as e - commerce, retail, footwear and apparel, logistics, pharmaceuticals, automotive, and 3C manufacturing.
So, for new players, what new opportunities are there?
First of all, they can enter emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
In addition, pay more attention to emerging technologies, especially in the direction of large models.
1. Large AI models + logistics robots: A new track for intelligent scheduling
For example, Mujin Robotics has integrated the DeepSeek large model to optimize the task allocation of multiple robots.
Force - controlled robots: A necessity for precision scenarios.
Its core value lies in improving the operation quality and safety through high - precision force - sense feedback and adaptive adjustment capabilities.
Unmanned full - stack solutions: Flexible implementation.
For example, Youqi Intelligent's humanoid robots + unmanned logistics vehicles have achieved full - process unmanned operation in BYD's park, increasing the efficiency by three times.
4. Niche logistics scenarios, such as tobacco logistics and cross - border logistics.
The content of this article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Pencil News" (ID: pencilnews), written by Xi Wen, and is published by 36Kr with authorization.