The overseas revenue has increased by 7 times, and "Narwal Robotics" has received hundreds of millions of new financing from two major state-owned capitals in Shenzhen and Wuxi. | Exclusive by HardcoreTech.

Author｜Huang Nan

Editor｜Yuan Silai

HardcoreTech exclusively learned that the sweeping robot unicorn enterprise "Narwal Robotics" has completed a new round of financing of several hundred million yuan, with the investors being the two state-owned capitals from Shenzhen and Wuxi.

This is also the latest capital dynamic of Narwal after a three-year interval. Since 2016, Narwal has completed 8 rounds of financing, amounting to several billion yuan. The backers also include the Qingshuiwan Fund managed by Li Zexiang, ByteDance, Sequoia Capital, Ming Shi Ventures, Source Code Capital and other well-known institutions.

Perhaps the data of this year's Double 11 can reveal some clues. As of 23:59 on November 11, Narwal's total sales across all channels exceeded 1.7 billion yuan, with a significant year-on-year growth of 200%. The sales target was completed by more than 160%, setting a new brand record. According to the online e-commerce monitoring data of Aowei Cloud, during this Double 11 promotion period, the online retail sales market share rankings of Narwal's two major product categories, sweeping robots and floor washers, have steadily risen, both ranking in the top 3 of the industry.

Product image of Narwal (Source: Official)

In recent years, the market for intelligent cleaning hardware has been continuously expanding. With the technological advancements in AI large models, 5G, the Internet of Things, and the improvement of users' quality of life requirements, the sales volume and market share of products such as sweeping robots, floor washers, and vacuum cleaners have been steadily increasing, gradually becoming one of the essential appliances in daily households, and service robot enterprises represented by intelligent cleaning have achieved rapid growth.

However, in the face of the industry's sales slowdown in the past year, product competition has gradually shown homogeneity, from the early category dividends to the competition in technology, performance, and price. Returning to technological innovation and understanding user needs have become the key words for various manufacturers to respond to market changes and stand out.

Based on the integration of multiple technologies such as SLAM, 3D perception, AI object recognition, robot structure, and big data application, Narwal focuses on the floor cleaning scene, concentrating its product line on the two categories of sweeping and mopping robots and floor washers.

Narwal J5 (Source: Official)

Its sweeping and mopping robots are divided into Xiaoyao Series, J Series, R Series, etc., with the price range covering 2,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan. Among them, the Xiaoyao Series is targeted at high-end users, adopting top-level configurations and positioning as a fully intelligent cleaning flagship; the J Series is aimed at mid-to-high-end users, positioning as a scientific cleaning flagship with comprehensive functions and strong cleaning capabilities; the R Series meets the cost-effective needs of mid-to-low-end users and can meet the daily cleaning functional requirements. The floor washer category has launched multiple products such as S1, S1 MAX, S2, F1, S2 Island, etc., with the price range locked at 1,000 - 3,000 yuan.

In the product end, Narwal focuses on the actual scene usage needs, precisely targeting user pain points for technological and product iterations, in order to continuously increase the penetration rate. For example, in the J4 series, it adopts an innovative cyclone diversion type rolling brush, which can achieve zero hair entanglement, effectively solving the common problem of hair entanglement in users' lives; the newly released Xiaoyao Series is equipped with a fully intelligent spatial perception system and its self-developed dual-core and dual-eye architecture, as well as the Xiaoyao AI large model, improving the adaptive dynamic cleaning ability and interaction ability of the sweeping and mopping robot.

Narwal Xiaoyao 001 (Source: Official)

In the market, against the backdrop of the slowdown in domestic consumer demand, going overseas has become an inevitable choice for Chinese service robot enterprises. Narwal has started to expand its overseas business on a large scale since 2023, and the overseas market has grown rapidly. Official data shows that as of the end of September this year, Narwal's overseas business revenue has increased by nearly 7 times year-on-year, and it has exported to more than 30 countries or regions, including North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Southeast Asia, etc.

Narwal's founder and CEO Zhang Junbin told HardcoreTech, "In the process of going overseas, Narwal's current main focus is to expand the online channels in key countries. Because Narwal itself is good at doing DTC (Direct-to-Consumer), we can quickly open the market in countries or regions where the online channels are relatively strong."

HardcoreTech understands that Narwal will continue to increase its overseas investment, covering more countries and regional markets, and it is expected to still have a growth space of three to four times next year.

Narwal at AWE 2024 (Source: Official)

Investor's Views:

Wuxi State-owned Capital Party stated that Narwal is an excellent robot company, with strong technological innovation capabilities in terms of the underlying architecture, technology reserves, and future strategic planning. At the same time, Wuxi's in-depth layout in the field of artificial intelligence also coincides with the development strategy of Narwal Robotics. Therefore, we are very optimistic about Narwal and are continuously supporting such enterprises that actively explore cutting-edge technologies and have the ability to implement technological achievements and enter the mass market.

Shenzhen State-owned Capital Party stated that globally, the supply chain advantage under Made in China is always the most competitive. Especially in this new wave of globalization, more and more new Chinese brands will emerge. Narwal will be one of them, and its own high-tech attributes, excellent production and research, and marketing teams are its strengths. We believe that Narwal can gain a foothold in the fierce market competition. We are willing to give more support to these enterprises, not only to help them "go out", but also to help them "go up" better.