Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's global parcel tracking platform Cainiao Network and SB China Venture Capital (SBCVC) have led a RMB200 million (US$29 million) series B round in Flahshold, a Shanghai-based logistic robotics company.
Similar to Amazon's Kiva robot, Flashhold has developed a logistic system including logistics robots and movable shelves for warehouses.
It allows human workers to wait at their working station for the logistic robots to bring them the required shelves, and after the goods are taken by the worker, the robots will transport the shelves back. The artificial intelligence algorithm-based system can complete the work of selecting, transporting and sorting.
Earlier this month, a similar logistics robot developer based in Beijing called Geek+ also completed a RMB100 million (US$14 million) series A round from Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd, Banyan Capital and Volcanic Stone Investment.
Founded in 2014, Flashhold focuses on small to medium size warehouses and can cover surface areas of 2,000 square meters to 24,000 square meters. It has partnered with a number of companies including Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, Alibaba's e-commerce platform Tmall, and JD.com Inc, according to a company announcement.
The start-up previously raised a RMB10 million (US$1 million) angel round in 2014, and a RMB40 million (US$5 million) series A round from ZTE Venture Capital in 2015.
Flashhold plans to use the latest proceeds to enhance its research team, establish a manufacturing center and expand its network of partners.
