Foxconn and SoftBank have teamed up to develop robots

Recently, there have been frequent new news about Lexistence, a Japanese startup robot company.

On July 6, the official website of Japanese startup Telexistence announced that it had recently completed a US$170 million Series B financing round . Investors included HH-CTBC (Foxconn Co-GP) Fund, SoftBank, rbus Ventures, Monoful Venture Partnerne, KDDI Open Innovation Fund and Globis Catal Partners.

Gaogong Robot discovered that this is the third round of financing following the two rounds of financing disclosed in 2018 (Round A, undisclosed) and 2021 (Round A-2, US$20 million). Currently, Telexistence has received a total of over US$190 million in financing.

In this round of financing, Telexistence intends to use the funds raised to expand its business scope in North America and its large-scale production operations . It is reported that after this round of financing, Kenhi Yoshida of SoftBank and Ryohei Nomoto of Globis Capital Partners will serve as directors.

Telexistence announced that it has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with SoftBank Robocs Group, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group , to promote global business cooperation between the two parties, with a focus on accelerating its commercialization process in North America. In addition, Telexistence will also start cooperation with Foxconn to establish a production technology system and carry out mass production of its next-generation model "GHOST".

Replenishment Robot TX SCARA****

Public information shows that Telexistence was founded in 2017 and mainly develops driven arms for the retail and logistics industries. Telexistence's official website shows that it has launched the robot TX SCARA in 2021 and deployed it in Family Mart, one of the three largest convenience store chains in Japan. Through this cooperation, it will deploy robot products in 300 Family Mart stores.

Telexistence said that the TX SCARA robot can replace manual labor in replenishing PET bottled drinks or canned drinks of various specifications in the freezer of convenience stores 24 hours a day. Each set of TX SCARA robots can complete the replenishment of about 1,000 bottles of drinks per day.

It is worth noting that long-term replenishment in the low temperature environment of the freezer and in a small space consumes a lot of physical strength of convenience store employees and easily affects their efficiency. Using robots to replace manual labor can avoid this problem.

It is reported that the TX SCARA robot is equipped with Telexistence's proprietary AI system Gordon , which uses a self-scanning module to identify the validity of products on the shelf. It can also calculate the grasping point and generate the path planning of the end effector from grasping to placement. In addition, the AI ​​system Gordon can learn from past sales data and optimize the replenishment timing based on product sales trends that change over time and seasons.

If replenishment is blocked, the TX SCARA robot can switch to "Telexistence" mode , in which the operator can remotely control the robot via the Internet to quickly resume work.

Telexistence CEO Jin Tomioka said that with the support of SoftBank and Foxconn, the company will further accelerate the expansion of its existing robotics business and promote the development of robots with human-level versatility, and take this opportunity to expand its team .

Foxconn and SoftBank are making frequent moves in robot layout

Foxconn said that the company is optimistic about Telexistence's future business potential in Japan's retail industry, and hopes to strengthen its strategic partnership with Telexistence through this investment, and will also assist it in creating the next generation of robot products in the future.

At the same time, Foxconn said that this cooperation is also in line with the group's "3+3" development strategy, namely the three emerging industries of "electric vehicles, digital health, and robots" and the three new technology fields of "artificial intelligence, and new generation mobile communications." In the future, Foxconn will continue to explore various development possibilities in the field of robots.

Gaogong Robot has observed that in recent years, Foxconn and SoftBank have frequently made moves in the field of robotics.

On the morning of April 25, 2023, the unveiling ceremony of Foxconn's new business headquarters was held in Zhengzhou. It is reported that Foxconn's new business headquarters has set up a robot industry development center . In addition, on June 25, it was reported that Foxconn New Business Development Group Co., Ltd. was established in Zhengzhou with a registered capital of 1 billion yuan. The company's business scope includes corporate headquarters management, artificial intelligence basic software development, technical services, automobile sales, battery manufacturing, robot research and development , etc.

Not only that, as early as 2011, Foxconn launched the "Million Robot Plan" ; in 2015, Foxconn incubated Fulian, and in the same year, Foxconn subscribed to 20% of the shares of SoftBank Robotics Holdings Corp, a subsidiary of SoftBank; Foxconn participated in the investment of Dahua Robotics twice (seed round and A round).

In 2021, Fii invested US$4.5 million in Siling Robotics' Series C financing. Then in 2022, Fii announced that it had completed an exclusive strategic investment in Siling Robotics with an investment amount of US$30 million. Fii's total investment in Siling Robotics has reached US$34.5 million.

As Foxconn's "ambition" in the field of intelligent manufacturing and industrial Internet, according to the "2023 Semi-annual Report" of Industrial Internet, in the first half of 2023, Industrial Internet will continue to promote the development strategy of "intelligent manufacturing + industrial Internet" and further expand its business through investment around "big data" and "robots". In terms of patents, Industrial Internet's new development strategy of "big data + robots" has seen a rapid growth in authorized patents, with the proportion increasing from 11.72% in the same period last year to 41.74%.

In addition, in the first half of 2023, Foxconn Industrial Internet enabled collaborative robots through industrial AI, and achieved the transformation from automation to robotization.

**It further increased its investment in NUWA Robotics. **NUWA Robotics will seize the current wave of ChatGPT applications, enhance the AI ​​interaction capabilities of service robots, and meet the extensive needs of the company and customers. Foxconn Industrial Internet said that the company will promote innovative cooperation between NUWA Robotics and Siling Robotics in the field of investment in generative AI technology.

**It is not difficult to find that this is not the first time that Foxconn and SoftBank have made investments in the robotics field in sync. **In addition to Telexistence, Foxconn and SoftBank have also invested in Dahua Robotics and Siling Robotics, and established a joint venture in 2015.

In 2012, SoftBank acquired the French Aldebaran Robotics company and established SoftBank Robotics Holdings Corp. on this basis. In February 2015, SoftBank sold a limited number of 300 Peppers to R&D personnel. On June 20 of the same year, the Pepper robot was officially launched in Japan at a price of 198,000 yen (about RMB 10,650). It is reported that the Pepper robot is mainly produced in China by Foxconn's Yantai factory in Shandong.

In 2015, Alibaba Group announced that it would join hands with Foxconn to strategically inject 14.5 billion yen into SoftBank Robotics Holdings Corp., a robot holding subsidiary of SoftBank Group. According to the agreement, SoftBank holds 60% of the shares, while Alibaba and Foxconn hold 20% and 20% respectively.

In 2016/2017/2019, SoftBank China Capital and SoftBank Vision Fund participated in Dahua Robotics' seed round, Series A and Series B financing respectively.

In 2021, SoftBank Vision Fund II led the C round of financing for Siling Robotics, with participation from Chimera, Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia China, Linear Capital, and other industry investors including Xiaomi Group, Foxconn Industrial Internet, and Mande Investment, which was founded by former Foxconn executives .

Historically, Foxconn and SoftBank have worked together many times and have a deep relationship. Their investment cases involve domestic and foreign companies in the field of robotics. Will there be more cooperation in the future?




Review editor: Liu Qing