Anno Robotics Completes Angel Round Financing to Accelerate the Layout of AI Smart Retail Robots | Exclusive Report by 36Kr

Author: Fu Chong

Editor: Su Jianxun

Recently, Anno Robotics (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. announced the completion of an angel - round financing of tens of millions of yuan, exclusively invested by Tongchuang Weiye. The funds from this round will be used for technology iteration, in - depth exploration of scenarios in the catering, cultural and tourism, and commercial service sectors.

Anno Robotics was established in 2017, mainly engaged in the R & D, production, sales, and services of desktop robotic arms and intelligent retail application solutions for AI robots.

The company is a national high - tech enterprise and a specialized, refined, characteristic, and innovative enterprise. It has obtained more than 70 national patents, and its products are sold to more than 100 cities in China and more than 70 countries and regions around the world. The founder, Huang Huang, has worked as an engineer in several robotics and automation technology companies.

Anno milk tea robot at work. Photo provided by the enterprise.

The company's core technologies include high - precision motion control, deep integration of AI and the Internet of Things, and modular and flexible deployment.

Specifically, through motion capture technology, Anno records the barista's latte art movements through visual capture at a 1:1 ratio into the robotic arm, completing 3D modeling and machine learning.

The robot uses an aircraft - grade aluminum alloy body and a harmonic reducer, with a repeated positioning accuracy of ±0.03mm, enabling high - precision motion control in unmanned situations.

With its independently developed control system and motion control algorithm, through the machine learning algorithm and 3D vision system, the robotic arm can monitor the raw material status in real - time (such as coffee oil thickness, milk foam density, etc.) with an error of less than 1%, thus ensuring stable beverage quality.

The high - sensitivity sensor can also achieve precise control of usage and alarm for material shortages.

Through the intelligent cloud management system, Anno can change the menus and ingredients of coffee, cocktails, milk tea, etc. in the cloud without requiring customers to have professional knowledge such as programming. Customers can also view and manage the intelligent retail robots through their mobile phones.

A coffee robot capable of self - making, latte art, and cleaning. Photo provided by the enterprise.

Supported by AI + robotics technology, Anno's latte art coffee machine can replace 3 full - time employees, reducing labor costs by 60%. The latte art eliminates manual errors and improves the symmetry of coffee latte art, and users can upload patterns for the coffee picture.

Currently, Anno's latte art coffee machines have been installed in indoor and outdoor scenarios such as schools, shopping malls, office buildings, and subways, supporting 24 - hour unmanned operation. It can also monitor the status of global devices in real - time through the Internet of Things platform, with a remote diagnosis success rate of 95%.

The funds from this round of financing will be mainly focused on R & D investment in technologies such as "multi - modal perception" and "human - robot symbiosis". At the same time, it will focus on high - demand scenarios in the catering, cultural and tourism, and commercial service industries to launch customized solutions.

In addition, it will also cooperate with upstream and downstream partners to open up technology interfaces, promoting the transformation of AI robots from "single - machine operation" to "system collaboration".

Anno's printed coffee robot. Photo provided by the enterprise.

Huang Huang, the founder of Anno Robotics, told 36Kr that there is also a "data flywheel" effect in the field of unmanned retail robots.

Due to self - research and self - production, Anno Robotics has lower costs and selling prices, so it can ship products to customers in more countries, even some less - affluent regions. The increase in shipment volume will drive more usage data precipitation, which in turn will feed back into the optimization of models and algorithms, further promoting the adaptability and service level of products in the local market.

In the future, Anno Robotics also plans to launch an "AI virtual barista", supporting voice ordering and emotional interaction, and generating personalized beverage recipes through large AI models.

Latte art coffee made by Anno Robotics. Photo provided by the enterprise.

Investor's comment:

Tongchuang Weiye: The Anno team combines the R & D ability of core robot components with commercialization experience. Its "technology platform + scenario plug - in" model perfectly fits the trend of AI + consumption upgrade. Especially in the intelligent retail track, Anno has built a hard - to - replicate competitive barrier. In the future, Tongchuang Weiye will help Anno achieve technological in - depth development, production capacity leap, and global layout.