Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s Vision Fund has agreed to invest in China-based artificial intelligence and robotics technology developer CloudMinds as part of a $300m funding round, Bloomberg reported yesterday.
CloudMinds has built a cloud-based system that can potentially connect to millions of robots, which it also produces, allowing them to access capabilities such as computer vision, advanced navigation and natural language processing.
The technology has potential applications in a range of service industries including retail and healthcare, and chief financial officer Richard Tang told Bloomberg the new funding will support the expansion of a manufacturing line it is building in the city of Shanghai as it looks to scale up production.
The company is also planning an international growth drive, selling a few hundred of its robots, which retail for about $50,000 each, in the US this year before moving into Japan in 2020.
CloudMinds secured $3m in a 2015 angel round before adding $28m in seed funding from SoftBank and contract manufacturer Foxconn the following year.
Undisclosed investors provided an additional $100m for the company in an early 2017 series A round that reportedly valued it at $440m, and SoftBank currently owns a stake in CloudMinds sized at about 30%, according to Bloomberg.
