Local services portal operator Meituan-Dianping has featured in an RMB500m ($77.8m) series C round for Pudu Robotics, a China-based developer of commercial services robots, DealStreetAsia has reported.
Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital China also participated in the round, as did an unnamed strategic backer.
Founded in 2016, Pudu has developed a range of autonomous commercial services robots designed for use in a variety of sectors such as hospitality and property management. Its offering includes food delivery robots, disinfection robots and collection robots.
Pudu received an undisclosed amount of angel funding in 2016 before closing a pre-series A round of undisclosed size the following year.
QC Capital then led a $7.8m series A round for the business in 2018 that also featured Rongquan Investment.
Meituan Dianping supplied over $15m of series B funding to Pudu in July 2020, before participating in the company’s $14.5m series B-plus round the following month.
The series B-plus round was led by Sequoia Capital China investing alongside QC Capital, Chengbohan Fund and Changyingxin Investment.
Zhang Tao, CEO of Pudu, is the largest shareholder in the business with a 25.6% stake, followed by Kuxun, a subsidiary of travel media company TripAdvisor (20%), QC Capital (7.87%) and Sequoia Capital China (7.58%).