Intelligent warehousing company "Zhishi Robot" has completed tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing. In 2024, the orders of four-way shuttle robots have increased by nearly 300%. | Exclusively reported by 36Kr.

Written by Tian Zhe

Edited by Su Jianxun

36Kr has learned that Shanghai Zhishi Robot Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhishi Robot"), an intelligent warehousing solution provider, has recently completed a tens of millions of yuan Series A financing round, led by Anhui Kechuang and followed by the old shareholder Lianchuang Capital. It is reported that the financing funds will be used by Zhishi Robot for product research and development and global market expansion.

Zhishi Robot was established in 2019 and is a warehousing robot company focusing on the research and development and manufacturing of four-way shuttle vehicles. According to Liu Shaowei, COO of Zhishi Robot, the four-way shuttle robot is still an emerging technology that can use pallets to access and sort goods in a densely packed three-dimensional warehouse, thereby achieving automated three-dimensional storage.

With the integration of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things technology, the four-way shuttle robot is developing in a more intelligent and automated direction, further improving the efficiency of warehouse management. As an efficient and flexible warehousing automation equipment, the four-way shuttle robot is widely used in multiple fields such as e-commerce, manufacturing, and medicine.

Liu Shaowei said that currently, Zhishi Robot has provided product services in more than ten industries such as clothing, food, cold chain, and medicine. Although the types, sizes, and categories of the carried goods are different, when the four-way shuttle robot is handling goods, it relies on the unified carrier pallet in the middle, so it can serve customers in different industries.

Four-way Shuttle Robot

As a product-oriented company in the industry that only focuses on the four-way shuttle robot, its product series is complete and can cover most warehousing application scenarios. Zhishi Robot has carried out innovative optimizations in many aspects such as vehicle body size, load capacity, steering time, safety configuration, and software scheduling. Based on the pain points of the delivery scenario, it is iterated into the product and solution to continuously improve the product's ease of use and user experience.

Liu Shaowei said that one of the reasons for the mass export of products is that Zhishi Robot has spent three years polishing the product details. In order to improve the product's universality, the modularization rate of its four-way shuttle robot exceeds 90%, and all products use an electrically controlled transmission system, which can not only improve the product's stability but also reduce the maintenance cost. With the gradual increase of landing projects, Zhishi Robot is also continuously summarizing the difficulties in project delivery and the pain points of customer use, and will add more than 10 kinds of safety configuration solutions in 2024.

Liu Shaowei told 36Kr that the deployment cycle of the four-way shuttle robot in China is usually two months. Only by completing the four steps of mechanical installation, electrical control implementation, software debugging, and business joint debugging, can the four-way shuttle robot be smoothly connected with the warehouse's hoist, conveyor line, and ERP/WMS system to avoid the risk of "unfinished projects". He said that due to the different logistics and warehouse construction progress of overseas customers, the delivery cycle will be slightly longer, but it still remains within a reasonable range as a whole.

At the same time, in order to serve overseas customers, Zhishi Robot will launch Zhishi Academy in 2025 to empower global partners and build a spare parts center in the corresponding market. In the future, it will also consider investing in the construction of related factories and teams overseas.

In 2024, the order volume of Zhishi Robot increased by nearly 300% year-on-year. With the CE certification of the Zhishi Robot series products and the accelerated expansion of the overseas market, the proportion of overseas orders has reached 1/3, and the project has been implemented in countries such as Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Argentina.

Currently, Zhishi Robot has a production site of approximately 5,000 square meters in Kunshan, Suzhou. The annual production capacity of this factory is 2,000 units, which is sufficient to support the delivery target in 2025. Considering the order growth in the next two to three years, Zhishi Robot expects to build a new factory in 2026 to expand its production capacity.

Image Source: Zhishi Robot

Regarding this round of financing, Cui Lei, the founder and CEO of Zhishi Robot, said: "This round of financing is not only a full affirmation of Zhishi Robot's product capabilities and market potential, but also an important opportunity for us to further break through technical bottlenecks and expand the global market. In the future, we will continue to aim at the customer experience, accelerate the application of the four-way shuttle robot in different scenarios, and inject new vitality into the industry."