A former technical director of KUKA starts a business and raises nearly 10 million yuan. With a background in precision instruments from Tsinghua University | Exclusive report from 36Kr

Author: Ou Xue

Editor: Yuan Silai

Yingke has learned that Bisfu Intelligent Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Bisfu"), a developer of intelligent grinding equipment, recently completed an Angel + round of financing of nearly 10 million yuan. We have summarized the information of this round of financing and several highlights of the company:

Financing Amount and Leading Investor

Financing Amount: Nearly 10 million yuan

Financing Round: Angel + round

Investment Institution: Led by Dunxing Capital

Use of Funds: The funds from this round of financing will be mainly used for market expansion, product iteration, R & D of new product lines, and supplementing working capital.

Basic Company Information

Establishment Time: June 2022

Company Headquarters: Suzhou

Core Products: Intelligent six - axis grinding equipment + floating spindle, providing an integrated solution for deburring, grinding, and polishing.

Technical Highlights: Bisfu deeply integrates German industrial genes into equipment design. The equipment features high rigidity and high stability. The company has achieved independent breakthroughs in key components. Its self - developed floating spindle supports 360°±15mm adaptive floating, which is a domestic first. Meanwhile, the system integrates AI vision and no - code programming capabilities, enabling intelligent identification of workpiece features, supporting rapid deployment and flexible adjustment, and effectively reducing the threshold and cycle of automation transformation.

Self - developed floating spindle (Source: Company)

Application Scenarios: Focusing on the deburring and surface treatment of aluminum/magnesium castings in the automotive, motorcycle, aerospace and other fields, it has entered the supply chains of many leading customers in the industry and exported its equipment overseas.

Market Size

According to data from CICC Puhua Industrial Research Institute, the market size of aluminum castings in China was about 1.5 trillion yuan in 2023, with die - castings accounting for about 50%. With the trend of lightweighting in new energy vehicles, the market potential of automated grinding equipment for aluminum/magnesium castings is expected to exceed 10 billion yuan per year. Currently, the industry still relies mainly on manual labor, with an automation penetration rate of less than 20%, and the market is in the early stage of rapid growth.

Company Performance

Bisfu completed the development of its first - generation product in only 6 months, significantly faster than the industry average, and quickly gained market validation after its launch. Since 2023, the company's annual compound growth rate has exceeded 70%, and its revenue is expected to reach about 50 million yuan in 2026. Currently, the products have successfully entered the supply chains of many leading customers in the automotive and motorcycle industries and are being delivered in bulk to overseas markets such as Europe and Southeast Asia.

Intelligent six - axis grinding machine (Source: Company)

Team Background

Founder Fang Zhengfei graduated from Tsinghua University with a bachelor's and master's degree in precision instruments. He has over 15 years of experience in R & D management of robot automation and high - end equipment. He once served as the technical director of KUKA Industrial and was responsible for the R & D system in companies such as Inphi Technology. The core team members mostly come from KUKA and well - known domestic and foreign automation companies, combining German - style process genes with local implementation capabilities.

Founder's Thoughts

Yingke: Why did you choose the niche market of "casting deburring", and what is the market prospect?

Fang Zhengfei: This stems from my direct observation at KUKA. At that time, I was in charge of automotive casting automation. We found that almost all casting deburring and grinding work was done manually, and the market demand was huge. We chose this niche market based on our team's existing industry process experience, customer resources, and core team.

Currently, the market prospect is very clear: With the trend of lightweighting in the automotive industry, a large amount of aluminum/magnesium castings are used, and burrs are inevitable when they come out of the mold. Currently, both large and small factories rely on a large number of manual workers, facing difficulties in recruitment, management, and high occupational safety requirements. Therefore, end - customers have an extremely urgent need for automation and intelligence. This is a rapidly growing market.

Yingke: What is the current level of intelligence in the deburring process, and how far is it from full unmanned operation?

Fang Zhengfei: Currently, it is still in a "slightly intelligent" stage, with basic automation mainly achieved, but human intervention is still required in programming and other aspects. The ultimate goal should be to use AI and embodied intelligence technology to enable robots to automatically identify burrs and program, achieving a truly unmanned scenario. However, this may take 10 years or even longer.

From the perspective of the industry as a whole, the bottleneck lies in the maturity of visual recognition and AI. The AI and unmanned operation in the industry and currently applied products are still relatively basic, but our company has technical reserves in AI vision and automatic programming and will upgrade products according to customers' actual needs.

Yingke: What are Bisfu's development plans for the next two to three years?

Fang Zhengfei: In terms of products and market, our goal is to become a leading enterprise and expert in the deburring and grinding process within 3 - 5 years. We will continue to focus on core fields such as automotive and motorcycle industries and plan to expand overseas markets simultaneously. Leveraging the team's background and resource advantages in foreign - funded enterprises, we will expand to Southeast Asia, North America, Europe and other regions.

Secondly, the ultimate goal of the industry will be fully unmanned grinding based on AI and embodied intelligence. Our approach is to advance step - by - step. Currently, the focus is on investing in the visual system and AI data accumulation, achieving the upgrade from "automation" to "slightly intelligent", and laying a solid foundation for ultimate intelligence.

Investors' Views

Ma Yangguang, Chairman of Dunxing Capital, said: "Bisfu's core team consists of senior experts from well - known automation companies, combining forward - looking technical vision with mature industrial management experience. The company provides leading intelligent multi - axis composite machine tools and integrated solutions for intelligent manufacturing. We are optimistic about the company's development prospects in the fields of intelligent manufacturing and new energy vehicles."

Tang Gaozhe, Founding Partner of Kaijian Venture Capital, said: "The deep integration of AI and robots is unlocking infinite imagination in the manufacturing industry. Bisfu's core team combines leading robot technology, solid engineering implementation capabilities, and efficient AI algorithm innovation strength - from the deburring and grinding processes that are in high demand across industries such as automotive, 3C, and precision manufacturing, to the continuous expansion of various complex manufacturing scenarios, we are fortunate to accompany and witness this enterprise re - engineering the new - generation manufacturing process with AI, injecting the core driving force for a productivity revolution into the industry."