36kr Hardcore Tech | FulltimeRobotics Completes Tens of Millions of Yuan in Pre-A Round Financing and Launches Intelligent Construction Robots for the Global Market
本文转载自36kr硬氪
作者 | 周倩
Hardcore Tech of 36kr has learned that the construction robot company "FulltimeRobotics" has recently completed a Pre-A round financing of tens of millions of yuan, which was solely invested by Capstone Partners. The funds will be used for research, development, manufacturing, and commercial promotion.
Founded in May 2022, FulltimeRobotics focuses on the research, development, production, and sales of construction robots. Its main product is an indoor spraying robot with the integrated functions of applying putty and latex paint. This product has completed the verification of batch project construction and has reached small-scale mass production. Currently, it has received customer orders worth tens of millions of yuan, been applied in more than 20 projects, and the construction area has reached 300,000 square meters.
Li Zike, the founder and CEO of the company, drawing on his more than a decade of work experience in the construction informatization industry, has observed that although informatization products, as management and efficiency tools, have enhanced the work efficiency of construction industry managers in aspects such as drawing, calculation, and project management, the construction process still relies heavily on a large amount of labor. The degree of automation of production tools is low, and there has been no obvious change in production efficiency, costs compared with the past.
After a series of preliminary investigations and technical preliminary studies, FulltimeRobotics took standardized large-scale scene spraying construction as the breakthrough point and took the lead in launching indoor spraying robots. On the one hand, the overall market space for indoor spraying is relatively large, and the working surface is continuous, making it suitable for large-batch construction. On the other hand, in terms of segmented scenarios, FulltimeRobotics focuses on public buildings and commercial buildings, where the working surface is relatively large and the floors are relatively high. Replacing manual labor with machines can bring about significant efficiency improvements.
The indoor spraying robot of FulltimeRobotics applies technologies such as 3D point cloud, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Firstly, it digitizes the construction techniques of traditional workers and integrates them into the robot's technique library, and continuously improves and iterates them during actual operations. Secondly, during the construction operation, through the integration of multiple spatial automation technologies, such as AI visual recognition, normal compensation motion control, high-precision autonomous movement and navigation, it can cope with the complex environment of the construction site, better assist and replace traditional painters, and independently complete the construction operations of putty and latex paint.
In addition, in the face of the main pain point of indoor paint engineering construction: the working height, the product design height of the indoor spraying robot of FulltimeRobotics reaches 4.6 meters. Through the collaborative design of multiple elements such as mobile stability and flexibility, it systematically solves the impact of the working height on the construction efficiency.
According to the current actual measurement data, in putty construction operations, an ordinary worker can complete about 100 square meters per day. However, a combination of one Fulltime indoor spraying robot and two workers, with one person responsible for operating the robot and feeding materials, and the other person responsible for constructing the blind areas that the robot cannot cover, can complete about 800 square meters per day, which is equivalent to the workload of 8 workers in the past. With the assistance of the robot, the work completion of each person is equivalent to that of 4 people before.
In China, FulltimeRobotics, through direct sales and channel cooperation, sells or leases its robot products to construction enterprises and leasing enterprises for public construction projects such as industrial parks, schools, hospitals, and stadiums, as well as commercial buildings like commercial complexes, office buildings, and factories. Overseas, its products are currently mainly applied in the Singapore market. Facing the relatively high labor costs in Singapore, the advantages of its robot products are even more prominent.
There is a significant difference between the local construction techniques in Singapore and the putty construction in China. The materials there have a higher viscosity and stronger water absorption, which also places higher demands on the robot's process control and spraying stability. After on-site inspections, the Fulltime team completed the research, development and testing of the spraying system. The first batch of products has been delivered to customers and used in local projects. It is the first supplier among many domestic spraying robot manufacturers to complete the verification of localized materials and processes and pass the acceptance inspection.
At the same time, FulltimeRobotics also develops robot products that are smaller in size, capable of multi-angle spraying, and have a matching level of flexibility for the standardized residential houses in Singapore. These products are designed in consideration of the characteristics such as the narrow space and interior design of these local residential buildings.
In terms of the team, Li Zike, the founder and CEO of FulltimeRobotics, has 16 years of experience in the construction technology industry. He once served as the vice president of a listed company specializing in construction informatization on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and he has rich experience in product operation and commercial promotion. The construction safety calculation software that he participated in the research, development and commercial operation of currently has the highest market share in this field. The BIM software that he led in planning, research and development organization, and market operation is currently one of the leading suppliers among domestic BIM software manufacturers.The founding team is composed of former senior executives of listed companies in construction informatization, as well as senior technical experts from companies such as SUPCON, Guozhi Robotics, and Gausium. The team members have backgrounds in construction, construction informatization, and robot technology. Core team members all have more than 15 years of working experience in the field of construction informatization.
Sun Jiecong, Executive Director of Capstone Partners, said, "The investment team of Capstone Partners has always been optimistic about the huge market space of intelligent equipment brought about by robots as a new generation of intelligent productivity that improves the production efficiency of various industries. The construction industry itself, as a trillion-yuan-level market, has become one of the most promising vertical industries we are concerned about against the backdrop of a shortage of manual labor and continuously rising costs. The founding team of FulltimeRobotics has been deeply engaged in the construction technology industry for more than a decade and has a successful entrepreneurial experience. In just over a year since entering the construction robot industry, they have efficiently achieved the scenario verification of their first main product and obtained bulk purchase orders from benchmark industry customers both at home and abroad, which reflects the team's profound understanding of construction technology products and their strong ability to commercialize and implement them. FulltimeRobotics has currently successfully achieved commercial implementation at the first stop of its overseas expansion in Singapore. We believe that in the future, it has the ability to become an intelligent construction robot company with a global vision."
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