Early-stage investor BlueRun Ventures China (BRV China) is close to raising a total of over 5 billion yuan ($763 million) in RMB and USD-denominated commitments as it plans to double down on its dealmaking efforts around China’s robotics space.
BRV China, which made robotics a key part of its investment mandate as early as 2015, remains bullish on the sector’s “booming innovations and rapid development” driven by “some major structural changes” in the Chinese market, said Wei Cao in an online interview with DealStreetAsia.
Cao, a Beijing-based partner who joined BRV China in 2010, said that the country’s structural changes, including its ageing society, rising labour shortage, and major advancements in domestic robotics technologies, had encouraged the firm to search for growth opportunities in the robotics area.
Fast forward to today, these changes are still ongoing, on the top of which are more capital inflows to chase proven robotics business models, as well as Beijing’s heightened policy support to fast-track the country’s transition from “a traditional, labour-intensive market” to “a tech-enabled manufacturing centre powered by intelligent and automated equipment,” he said.
In the robotics sector, BRV China has invested in YOUIBOT, exoskeleton startup RoboCT, commercial floor cleaning robots developer Gaussian Robotics and Mooe Robot.
“You may think that there is an overflow of capital in China’s robotics market as dealmaking heats up this year. But judging from a timeframe of 5-10 years, we think the application and commercialisation of robotics from all walks of life are just taking off in the country,” said Cao.
The new capital raise of over 5 billion yuan is expected to help BRV China stock up more ammunition for future deployment in the robotics space, as well as other focused areas including enterprise services, digital healthcare, and consumer technology. The firm is also an investor in electric vehicle (EV) maker Li Auto, cloud computing platform QingCloud, and insurtech firm WaterDrop.
With a heritage in Silicon Valley before its foray into China in 2005, BRV China started independent operations to primarily focus on the mainland China market in 2014. It now manages over $1.5 billion across three RMB funds and seven US dollar funds. In its last fundraising milestone in November 2019, the firm secured 3.5 billion yuan ($533.7 million) in both RMB and US dollar commitments.
Edited excerpts of the interview:-
