Yunjing Secures Another $100 Million in Financing, Led by Tencent and Beijing Robotics Fund, Officially Enters Pre-IPO Stage | Exclusive from Hard Krypton

Author | Huang Nan

Editor | Yuan Silai

Yingke exclusively learned that the household cleaning service robot company "NARWAL Intelligence" recently completed a financing of $100 million. This round was jointly led by Tencent Investment and the Beijing Robot Industry Development Investment Fund, with Sci-Fi Fund and Mingshi Venture Capital increasing their follow - on investments. Gengxin Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor. The funds will be prioritized for the R & D of NARWAL's embodied intelligent products, global market expansion, and multi - category strategic layout.

This is also another round of financing completed by NARWAL after the end of its financing in late 2024. Currently, NARWAL has officially launched the Pre - IPO round of financing, starting the final sprint before listing, and comprehensively accelerating the capitalization process.

Meanwhile, on the product side, NARWAL will officially enter the stage of embodied cleaning from household appliance cleaning. Its first household embodied intelligent product is in the pre - research stage, focusing on one - key solutions to the cleaning and storage needs of the three - dimensional space in the home, realizing full robot - managed operations and truly liberating users' hands. This product is expected to be launched within two years.

Currently, the floor - sweeping robot industry still shows a significant growth trend. In 2024, the domestic floor - sweeping robot market had a year - on - year growth rate of 40%, and the year - on - year increase in the fourth quarter alone was as high as 76%. In overseas markets, countries and regions such as North America and South Korea have also maintained steady development in the past three years, with a compound annual growth rate of about 20%, and the compound annual growth rate of the German market is about 10%. According to forecasts by IDC and others, the global floor - sweeping robot market size is expected to reach $11.2 billion in 2024.

From an overall perspective, the competitive landscape among the leading players in the domestic floor - sweeping robot industry has been stable. From 2022 to 2024, the total market share of the top five brands in the floor - sweeping robot market continued to remain above 93%, with extremely high concentration. It is very difficult for new entrants to challenge the position of the first - tier brands. In contrast, in overseas markets, the product forms of most overseas brands are relatively single, and most of them use single - machine and single - dust - collection technologies. Their product capabilities and functions are limited, and their overall comprehensive competitiveness is at a disadvantage, with an obvious lack of market growth momentum.

Against this background, domestic manufacturers are actively expanding overseas, which is expected to gradually push the global floor - sweeping robot market towards a more mature pattern.

NARWAL Xiaoyao Series (Image source/Enterprise)

Official data shows that in 2024, NARWAL's revenue increased by more than 130% year - on - year, and its overseas market revenue increased by nearly 700% year - on - year. It has achieved stable profitability and ranked first in the market share of floor - sweeping robots during the Double Twelve period.

Different user groups have obvious differences in terms of functional preferences, price acceptance, and appearance aesthetics of cleaning appliances. Based on accurate insights into these differentiated needs, NARWAL provides users with a richer range of product choices by improving its product matrix.

In 2024, NARWAL launched a total of 10 new products, with the number of new products doubling. Both floor - sweeping robots and floor - mopping robots have completed the layout across the entire price range, with clear positioning for different price bands. The revenue of floor - sweeping robots increased by more than 120% year - on - year, and that of floor - mopping robots increased by more than 500% year - on - year.

NARWAL Floor - Mopping Robot S3 Island (Image source/Enterprise)

In the past, NARWAL had significant advantages in the DTC (Direct - to - Consumer) model operation and could quickly open up markets in countries or regions with strong online channels. However, from last year's development, it can be seen that NARWAL's offline expansion is also accelerating.

Currently, NARWAL has completed offline layout in more than 20 provinces and 70 cities across the country, with more than 500 authorized retail outlets, and has become a partner of Hongmeng Zhilian. Overseas, NARWAL has entered more than 50 countries, is the exclusive partner of a global household appliance leader, has entered more than 5,000 offline stores in Europe, and has successfully entered nearly 300 offline stores of large KA channels such as Best Buy and Costco in the North American market.

Yingke learned that in 2025, NARWAL is expected to continue to double its growth. The overseas market is expected to maintain 3 - 4 times growth, and the number of overseas new product launches will increase by 300% year - on - year. At the same time, the number of domestic offline brand stores will also double, and the number of authorized retail outlets will exceed 1,000. On the basis of maintaining stable development in core countries such as China, the United States, Canada, and South Korea, the number of newly added overseas layout countries will exceed 70, and more investment will be made in countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Israel, Australia, and Poland. Local functional teams will be established for better local operation.

NARWAL at AWE 2025 (Image source/Enterprise)

Nowadays, the intelligent cleaning field is highly competitive, and the floor - sweeping robot market is accelerating its reshuffle. The low - end products are gradually being phased out, and user needs are showing trends of being more practical, intelligent, and personalized. This also prompts enterprises to accelerate the transformation of their products and services towards the mid - to - high - end. In terms of specific R & D and functions, embodied intelligent technology has brought about a qualitative leap in the robot's perception, decision - making, and action capabilities, enabling it to understand user needs more accurately.

Since its establishment, NARWAL has precisely targeted household robots as its core development direction. Floor - sweeping robots are the category with the largest shipment volume in the ToC robot field and are currently the only self - moving devices in the home. They have environmental perception and intelligent planning capabilities, making them the first product in NARWAL's layout in the field of embodied household devices.

After years of R & D and product accumulation, NARWAL has laid out multiple technology sectors such as AI binocular vision, robotic arms, human - machine interaction, and AI models. Its next robot product is also targeted at household embodied intelligence.

NARWAL J5 Triple Laser (Image source/Enterprise)

Yingke learned that NARWAL's household embodied products are led by founder Zhang Junbin. The first - generation embodied product consists of a self - developed mobile chassis equipped with a self - developed robotic arm and has a built - in three - dimensional binocular vision perception system. It can extend the cleaning range from 2D planes to 3D spaces and also adds a storage function, which can take over the home's cleaning and storage needs with one key, truly evolving from a household appliance to an all - around space cleaning butler.

Zhang Junbin pointed out that the household cleaning revolution is at the critical point of a historical leap. The current floor - sweeping robots on the market are only in the "iPod stage" of cleaning intelligence. Only household embodied intelligent agents with three - dimensional space cognition and autonomous decision - making capabilities are the key to opening the "iPhone moment" of the industry.

"This is not an iteration of a single device, but a paradigm shift from a functional tool to an autonomous intelligent agent," Zhang Junbin said. "In the future, floor - sweeping robot products should be the cleaning nannies in users' homes. They are intelligent agents, not just cleaning tools. Therefore, AI intelligence will be the key driving force for the next stage of growth in the industry."

Views from Investors:

Zhu Fangwen, Managing Partner of Shoucheng Capital said that the Beijing Robot Industry Fund is optimistic about NARWAL Intelligence's continuous technological innovation and productization capabilities in the field of cleaning robots, as well as the huge market potential of the enterprise in household embodied intelligence in the future. Floor - sweeping robots are currently the largest robot category in the household scenario. They not only have broad growth space but also represent an important development path for household embodied intelligence. Since its establishment, NARWAL Intelligence has made significant technological breakthroughs in each generation of products, and its NPS (Net Promoter Score) has remained at the leading level in the industry. In 2024, the company achieved breakthroughs in multi - product line layout and overseas market expansion. The robot fund will continue to support NARWAL Intelligence's technological R & D, product upgrading, and overseas market expansion, accompany the company's growth all the way, and look forward to NARWAL Intelligence using new technologies to create more freedom and convenience for modern families.