Es besteht ein Mangel an Hunderten von Tausenden von Schweißern. Diese auf intelligenten Robotern spezialisierte Firma widmet sich der Entwicklung von künstlich intelligenzengetriebenen Schweißrobotern und hat über 100 Millionen Yuan an Kapital beschafft | Exklusivbericht von 36Kr

Autor/in | Ou Xue

Redakteur/in | Yuan Silai

Hard Kr has learned that "Shengshi Weisheng" recently announced the completion of a new round of financing worth hundreds of millions of yuan. The investors include several institutions such as Zhongke Xinkong, Linchuang Sinan Fund, Xingsheng Equity, Jiayou Fund, Dingsheng New Kinetic Energy Fund, and Jiaxing Xinglü. This round of financing will be mainly used for the iteration and data training of the embodied intelligent AI model, as well as market promotion and channel construction.

Founded in 2020, "Shengshi Weisheng" is a company focusing on embodied intelligent robots in the vertical welding scenario. It provides manufacturing enterprises with "mechanical welders" with autonomous perception, decision-making, and execution capabilities, aiming to solve industry pain points such as the shortage of welders and harsh working environments. The company is a national high-tech enterprise, a benchmark enterprise for specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative products and intelligent robots in Shanghai, and has more than 100 intellectual property rights.

It is worth noting that in 2022, "Shengshi Weisheng" acquired Harbin Institute of Technology Modern Robot Co., Ltd. It is currently one of the few intelligent robot companies in China with the independent core capabilities of "AI algorithm + welding process + robot body" in one package. Its holding subsidiary, Harbin Institute of Technology Modern, has a smart factory in Haining, Zhejiang, with an annual production capacity of 1,000 robots and a cumulative shipment of more than 5,000 units.

Second-generation machine: Embodied intelligent welding workstation (cantilever type) (Source/Enterprise)

The company's product line is divided into three generations: The first generation is general-purpose industrial robots; the second generation is intelligent welding robots with AI recognition and 3D reconstruction capabilities, which can achieve teaching-free and one-key start; the third generation is autonomous mobile welding robots, supporting wheeled and multi-legged forms, further expanding flexible operation scenarios. At present, the second-generation products have been shipped in batches, and the third-generation wheeled products have also been launched on the market in stages.

In fact, as the largest segmented market for industrial robots, welding is facing a serious labor shortage. Third-party data shows that by 2025, the shortage of welders in China is expected to reach 5 million, and it will expand to 10 million by 2035. In the field of non-standard part welding, the penetration rate of intelligent equipment is still less than 20%, leaving a vast blue ocean market.

"Currently, the biggest pain point in the industry is the insufficient intelligence level of products," Wang Dezhao, the founder and CEO of Shengshi Weisheng, told Hard Kr. "Intelligence is a very comprehensive manifestation. Breaking it down, it means there are deficiencies in aspects such as the accessibility, efficiency, and quality of welding. The entire industry needs higher-level models and more data training to iterate products."

The core advantage of "Shengshi Weisheng" lies in its "three-in-one" closed-loop capabilities: "Most players in the industry only have one or two of these capabilities, while we independently develop and deeply integrate everything from the design and manufacturing of the robot body, to the embodied AI model, and then to the welding process data."

"Shengshi Weisheng" adopts the path of an "end-to-end embodied AI model." Through the training of a large multi-modal welding vertical model, the robot can understand welding tasks, enabling it to have stronger adaptability and high-level functions under non-standard and complex working conditions, such as real-time molten pool tracking and dynamic process adjustment.

In terms of market strategy, "Shengshi Weisheng" promotes sales through a "three-horse carriage" model: agent sales by integrators, direct contracts with end customers, and robot labor services. Its customers cover large state-owned enterprises and manufacturing leaders such as China Railway, Baosteel, State Grid, CRRC, and SAIC.

    First-generation machine: Laser welding workstation (Source/Enterprise)

The average annual revenue growth rate of "Shengshi Weisheng" in the past three years has exceeded 50%. It is expected to exceed 100 million yuan in 2025. Since all core links are self-developed, the company "has an advantage in terms of cost." Currently, R & D personnel account for more than 50% of the team, and R & D investment accounts for about 30% of the revenue.

Next, Wang Dezhao said: "Shengshi Weisheng" will continue to deeply cultivate the welding scenario. After establishing itself as the industry leader, it will gradually expand to other industrial manufacturing links. In the future, the company will also plan to go global, focusing on exploring markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Japan, and South Korea.

"The company is currently focused on the embodied intelligence in the vertical welding scenario, providing in-depth services for the production and manufacturing links at the factory end. Only by deeply understanding the welding process can we truly do well in robots for vertical scenarios," Wang Dezhao said.

Views of the investors:

Wang Zhao, the person in charge of Beijing Zhongke Xinkong, said: Embodied intelligent welding robots are a typical application of artificial intelligence equipment in the industrial field, with a rigid market demand and huge market space both at home and abroad. By combining AI with industrial robots, in the production process of welding, by improving the accuracy and efficiency of traditional welding, it can effectively reduce labor costs and promote the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. Our participation in Shengshi Weisheng is because we are optimistic about its years of mature technology accumulation in the field of welding robots and its development direction in AI embodied intelligent industrial robots. We also hope to support Shengshi Weisheng with Zhongke Xinkong's industrial foundation and technological advantages in computing power, artificial intelligence applications, and robot training platforms, so as to help it maintain its leading position in the segmented application field of intelligent welding and jointly build a leading enterprise in embodied intelligent welding robots.

The investment team of Linchuang Sinan said: From a market perspective, the production environment for steel structure welding is poor, and high welding experience is required. The new generation of young people are less willing to become welders, but the demand for welders continues to increase, resulting in a continuous expansion of the welder shortage. The demand for machine replacement in non-standard scenarios such as steel structures and ships is urgent, and the trend of welding intelligence is obvious.

"Shengshi Weisheng" is one of the few intelligent welding robot manufacturers in China with a robot body production factory, truly realizing the combination of robot body + AI + welding process in one package. From a technical perspective, most welding intelligent robot companies in the market mainly focus on software development and do not have mature robot body products and R & D capabilities. However, "Shengshi Weisheng" has the capabilities for the robot body. The team has broken through the technical bottleneck of the underlying connection between vision and the robot body and achieved global three-dimensional high-precision reverse reconstruction. We are extremely looking forward to and firmly believe that the team will continue to move forward in future work, continuously break through the technical boundaries in AI vertical scenarios, and lead the wave of welding intelligence.

Su Chuang, the person in charge of Jiayou Fund, said: The investment community has reached a general consensus on investing in AI and robots, but there are widespread differences on which specific application scenarios to invest in. Welding is one of the main occupations, with a large market space. In the field of standard welding, robot companies led by the "Four Big Families" have emerged. Shengshi Weisheng has effectively overcome various difficulties in non-standard welding with AI and is expected to become a platform-type welding company.