Led · Series B · Jan 2022

Youibot Robotics is a Chinese developer of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and automation solutions. The company has closed a Series C funding round that is described as backed by a state investor. Following the fundraise, Youibot plans to invest 1.4 billion yuan (about $193 million) to set up new headquarters and manufacturing facilities. The planned investment is intended to establish new HQ and manufacturing capacity to support its AMR and automation product lines. The article does not disclose the Series C's size, other participating investors, or additional financial details. Youibot is identified in the article as a China-based company. YouiBot develops industrial mobile robots and end-to-end software-hardware solutions for industrial logistics, intelligent routine inspection, and operation & maintenance. The company is rooted in precision electronic manufacturing and the energy industry, and it claims a leading position in semiconductor and power-plant scenarios. Its solutions have been applied in semiconductor, 3C, electric power and IDC sectors, including an unmanned workshop deployment of 150 mobile robots and the YOUI TMS system in a 36,000 m2 precision electronics factory. YouiBot counts customers and partners such as LUXSHARE ICT, ASM, CRRC, FAST, China Huaneng, AICC, COMAC and Hitachi, and serves 26 provinces and cities domestically. The company exports products to more than 30 countries, including Japan, Korea, Singapore, Spain and Germany. YouiBot plans to use the new funding to expand operations, accelerate growth and broaden its business reach. Youibot is a four-year-old Shenzhen-based startup founded by a group of PhDs from Xi’an Jiaotong University that develops autonomous mobile robots and proprietary software for factory automation, logistics management, inspection and maintenance. Its robots are used in scenarios such as yard vehicle tire inspection (helping win a Michelin contract) and are noted for strength in electronics manufacturing and electric power patrol. The company is seeing high growth in its semiconductor business, with front-end wafer fabs using its robots for chip packaging, testing and wafer production. China accounts for roughly 80% of Youibot’s revenues, and the firm’s revenues tripled last year from 2020. Youibot went through SOSV’s HAX hardware accelerator and has raised more than 200 million yuan to date. The company plans to spend the latest proceeds on R&D for mobile robots and software, team building and market expansion.

Participated · Series D · Mar 2020

Rancher Labs develops open-source software that enables organizations to deploy and manage Kubernetes at scale across data centers, cloud, branch offices, and the network edge. Its flagship product, Rancher, is the industry’s most widely adopted Kubernetes management platform, with 30,000 active users and more than 100 million downloads. The company reported 169% year-on-year revenue growth in 2019 and has raised $95 million in total funding to date. The Series D proceeds will be used to accelerate product innovation—targeting heterogeneous cluster federation, fleet management, and Kubernetes at the edge—and to expand go-to-market activities. Rancher also plans to increase sales coverage, marketing, finance, operations, customer success and support, and to grow its geographic footprint beyond the 14 countries where it currently operates. It intends to leverage its leadership in Kubernetes at the edge to pursue markets including 5G, digital factories, connected cars, video surveillance, and medical research. Rancher Labs provides open-source software (Rancher) that lets organizations deploy and manage Kubernetes at scale across data centers, clouds, branch offices, and the network edge. In the first half of 2019 the company reported 161% year-on-year revenue growth and a 52% increase in customers; downloads grew 57% and surpassed 100 million, and the company cites 27,000 active users. Rancher 2.2 reached general availability, adding multi-cluster application support and Prometheus-based advanced monitoring. The company continues to invest in open-source projects including Rio, Longhorn, k3s, and k3OS, and has introduced lightweight and edge-focused offerings. Rancher expanded support to leading Kubernetes services in China, doubled international headcount, and now operates in 12 countries. Leadership says it will use additional funding to continue product innovation and drive global expansion. Rancher Labs builds a container management platform supporting both Kubernetes and Docker Swarm. The platform is cloud-agnostic and can run containers in public and private clouds as well as traditional data centers. It is multi-tenant so teams can manage their own clusters, and offers an application catalog to simplify deploying complex applications. The company says it can set up a Kubernetes cluster in about five minutes. Rancher plans to use the new funding to increase sales and marketing capabilities and to keep pace with product demand. The recent $20 million Series B brings the company’s total funding to $30 million. Rancher Labs develops open-source infrastructure software designed to help organizations run Docker containers in production across any cloud. Its stack focuses on container-specific networking, load balancing, monitoring and storage. The company is preparing to launch its flagship Rancher product and is building storage and networking software purpose-built for containers. Rancher plans to use new funding to further product development and expand its engineering and development teams. The team includes founders and leaders from Cloud.com, and the company highlights its roots in that acquired business. The company is headquartered in Cupertino, Calif.