China-based cleaning robot manufacturer Narwal Robotics has collected RMB100m ($14.1m) in a series B round co-led by digital media group Bytedance, New Business Trend (NBT) has reported.
Venture capital firm Source Code Capital co-led the round, which also featured existing investors, of which only Infore Capital and Dami Ventures were identified.
Founded in 2016, Narwal has created a self-cleaning robot that vacuums, mops and dries floors autonomously. The product, dubbed Narwal T10, was launched through a crowdfunding campaign in April 2019 that raised $1.1m from more than 1,900 backers.
Narwal has not revealed how it intends to spend the series B funding. China’s robotics sector had seen an increase in demand amid the Covid-19 pandemic, according to South China Morning Post.
CWB Capital provided an undisclosed amount of funding for Narwal in early 2017 before returning later the same year for a pre-series A round sized at tens of millions of renminbi (RMB10m = $1.4m) that was also backed by Mingshi Capital.
The company received an eight-figure renminbi amount from undisclosed investors in April 2019. NBT said its shareholders include strategic investors from the manufacturing, sales and home appliance sectors.
The round comes in the wake of Bytedance co-leading a series A round in the eight-digit renminbi range for China-based collaborative manufacturing robot developer Origitech in January this year with computing technology provider Lenovo’s Intelligent Internet Innovation Fund.
The round also featured Huachuang Capital and it came after Bytedance reportedly paid an undisclosed amount for a 16% stake in China-based 5G technology developer Yunzhi Ruantong in 2016.
