Yunjing Secures Another $100 Million in Financing, Led by Tencent and Beijing Robot 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 $100 million financing round. 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 investments. Gengxin Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor. The funds will be primarily used 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 going public, and accelerating its capitalization process comprehensively.

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 solving the cleaning and storage needs of the household three - dimensional space with one click, realizing full - scale robot custody 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 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 has continuously remained above 93%, with a very high degree of concentration. It is extremely difficult for new entrants to challenge the position of the first - tier brands. In contrast, most overseas brands have relatively single product forms, mostly using single - machine and single - dust - collection technologies, with limitations in product strength and functions. Their overall comprehensive competitiveness is at a disadvantage, and the market lacks obvious growth momentum.

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

NARWAL Freedom 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 floor - sweeping robot market share during the Double Twelve period.

Different user groups have obvious differences in their preferences for the functions, price acceptance, and appearance aesthetics of cleaning appliances. Based on a precise understanding of 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, doubling the number of new product launches. Both its floor - sweeping robots and floor - mopping robots have completed the layout across the entire price range, with clear positioning for different price segments. The revenue from floor - sweeping robots increased by more than 120% year - on - year, and that from 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 operating under the DTC (Direct - to - Consumer) model and was able to 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 layouts in more than 20 provinces and 70 cities across the country, with more than 500 authorized retail outlets, and has become a partner of HarmonyOS Connect. Overseas, NARWAL has entered more than 50 countries, is the exclusive partner of a global household appliance giant, 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 grow 3 - 4 times, and the number of new overseas 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, NARWAL will expand into more than 70 new overseas countries, increase investment in countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Israel, Australia, and Poland, and establish local functional teams for better local operations.

NARWAL at AWE 2025 (Image source/Enterprise)

Nowadays, the intelligent cleaning field is highly competitive, and the floor - sweeping robot market is undergoing accelerated reshuffling. The low - end products are gradually being phased out, and user needs are showing trends of being more practical, intelligent, and personalized. This has also prompted 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 robots' perception, decision - making, and action capabilities, enabling them 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 households. 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 features 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 scope from 2D planes to 3D spaces and also adds a storage function, allowing it to take over the household cleaning and storage needs with one click, truly evolving from a household appliance to an all - around space cleaning butler.

Zhang Junbin pointed out that the household cleaning revolution is at a critical point of historical leap. Currently, the 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 unlocking 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 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 industry growth."

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 company in household embodied intelligence in the future. Floor - sweeping robots are currently the largest robot category in the household scenario, with broad growth space and are an important development path for household embodied intelligence. Since its establishment, NARWAL Intelligence has achieved 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 completed 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 and development all the way, and looks forward to NARWAL Intelligence using new technologies to create more freedom and convenience for modern families.