According to Investment Journal (ID: pedaily2012), Shenzhen Chasing Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chasing Innovation"), an underwater robot enterprise, recently completed tens of millions of RMB in Series B financing, led by Shenzhen Nanshan Strategic Emerging Industry Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Nanshan Strategic Emerging Industry Investment").
Zhou Changen, Executive Vice President of Chasing Innovation, revealed that after this financing, the company will increase investment in three aspects: technological R&D, brand building, and industrial chain sinking.
Founded in 2016, Chasing Innovation has previously completed four rounds of financing totaling over 100 million RMB, with investors including Shenzhen Venture Capital, Qianhai Mother Fund Huaize Zhongzhao Angel Fund, Investment Holding Donghai, Plum Blossom Venture Capital, etc.
According to product market positioning, mainstream underwater robots can be divided into three categories: consumer-grade, industrial-grade, and military-grade. Chasing Innovation mainly focuses on consumer-grade and light B-end products. This year, its newly launched underwater operation robot "Qian Jiao P200 PRO" and pool cleaning robot "Qian Tun CM600" — the former complements B-end demand with stronger technical performance, while the latter supplements C-end demand with new products targeting scenarios with more users. Currently, 90% of Chasing Innovation's business comes from overseas markets. Meanwhile, Zhou Changen is optimistic about the potential for multiple growth in the domestic market, stating that "we will carry out targeted development mainly for the application scenarios of underwater robots in China."
Underwater operation robot "Qian Jiao P200 PRO" (Image source: Chasing Innovation)
Exploring product application scenarios to achieve track positioning is a common problem faced by players in the underwater robot track. Especially since the underwater robot track has just emerged, how to explore new scenarios and how to select and layout product lines are particularly critical. Zhou Changen said that Chasing Innovation is guided by user research, and after fully understanding user needs, consumption willingness and consumption levels, combined with underlying technical advantages, it carries out corresponding product design.
"Chasing Innovation's underwater robots have very extensive applications in underwater rescue and salvage for emergency rescue. Secondly, in underwater asset inspection, they are mainly used in underwater infrastructure such as bridges, reservoirs, dams, pipelines, and underwater ship hulls," Zhou Changen explained the current main application scenarios of Chasing Innovation's products. In the consumer-grade direction, especially in the current commercial scenarios of overseas markets, Chasing Innovation focuses on scenarios such as pool cleaning and fishery breeding.
Pool cleaning robot "Qian Tun CM600" (Image source: Chasing Innovation)
Once a blockbuster product appears in the track, it will open up a new competitive situation in the underwater robot track. Zhou Changen believes that the underwater robot market has a space of hundreds of billions of RMB, and there is still a certain process for players in the track to meet the huge market demand. "As market pain points gradually become clear, market explosion points will also emerge, and Chasing Innovation is exploring this 'explosion point'."
Technology and industrial chain are the two key words for Chasing Innovation to build competitive barriers. "Chasing Innovation's biggest advantage is that it has long been deeply engaged in the underwater robot track and has built a technical barrier for 'underwater operations' over the years, and this technical barrier can be applied in real scenarios in underwater intelligent hardware. Secondly, in underwater infrastructure, Chasing Innovation has built a relatively comprehensive supply chain and industrial chain advantage," Zhou Changen said. Chasing Innovation currently has three self-built factories, independently researching and producing core hardware including waterproof structural parts. In the future, Chasing Innovation will continue to build technical reserves and strengthen the industrial chain system, and continuously expand its moat through stable supply. Zhou Changen envisions "forming a stable and large-scale underwater robot industrial chain system".
Regarding this financing, Cai Weibin, Chairman of Nanshan Strategic Emerging Industry Investment, believes that Chasing Innovation focuses on the civilian high-end underwater robot manufacturing industry, solving pain points in underwater operations such as fishery breeding, ship hull inspection and safety search and rescue. After years of accumulation, Chasing Innovation has established systematic technical advantages and supply chain advantages in underwater robots. As a winning enterprise of the 2017 "Entrepreneurship Star" Competition in Nanshan District, Nanshan Strategic Emerging Industry Investment is optimistic about Chasing Innovation's development potential in civilian high-end underwater robots, and also hopes to accompany the enterprise to become a unicorn in the underwater robot industry at an early date.
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