Robotics AI Firm Dexmal Seeks $3 Billion Valuation in New Funding Round

Dexmal, a Chinese firm developing embodied artificial intelligence to control robots, is seeking a valuation of 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) in a funding round, Bloomberg reported Friday (Aug. 21).

The talks are ongoing, Dexmal Founder Tang Wenbin said in the report.

Previous Dexmal funding rounds were led by eCommerce and AI giant Alibaba Group Holding, according to the report.

It was reported in February that China has more than 140 companies in the humanoid robotics space that are producing these robots at scale and moving them into real-life scenarios in factories, hotels and offices.

The Chinese government aims to lead the embodied AI space in the next five years, and cities like Beijing have set up investment funds of more than $26 billion to finance the industry, according to the report.

Government agencies and state-owned businesses are also getting involved, with robots at work at museums, events and, in some cases, directing traffic.

Several companies in this space in other regions have also been raising capital.

PYMNTS reported in July that Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick’s company Atoms raised $1.7 billion to develop physical AI for all major industrial sectors.

When announcing the fundraise, Kalanick said that industrial AI is set to power the next Industrial Revolution and that the technology can be applied to mining, construction, heavy transport and food production.

U.K.-based robotics firm Humanoid said in July that it became “Europe’s first pure-play humanoid robotics unicorn” after raising $152 million in a Series A round.

Humanoid said the new capital will help it develop and launch its humanoid robotics platform, and help fund long-term commercial deployments with customers in sectors such as logistics, manufacturing and retail.

The Association for Advancing Automation reported Aug. 11 that North American companies ordered 8,940 robots worth $622 million in the second quarter, up 4.3% in units and 21.3% in revenue from a year earlier.

The group said that order value is growing nearly five times faster than order volume, a sign that companies are not just buying more robots but paying more per robot and choosing more capable machines than they did a year ago.

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