General-purpose intelligent robotics company Flexiv completes over $100 million Series B funding round
Gaorong Ventures led the investment in Flexiv in early 2019 and continued to increase its stake in subsequent funding rounds.
On December 31, 2020, Flexiv, a general-purpose intelligent robotics company, announced the completion of a Series B funding round exceeding $100 million. Major investors included Meituan, Pearl River Group, New Hope Group, manufacturing-focused private equity firm Longwood, Yunfeng Capital, China Merchants Capital, as well as existing investors Gaorong Ventures and GSR Ventures. This round made Flexiv the company with the highest single-round funding total in the global general-purpose robotics sector. Gaorong Ventures had led Flexiv's investment in 2017 and continued to increase its stake in subsequent rounds.
Shiquan Wang, founder and CEO of Flexiv, stated: "With this Series B round, Flexiv has gained strategic backing from industry-leading enterprises and funds across multiple sectors. The capital will primarily be used for scaled commercial deployment, new market expansion, and cutting-edge R&D. Flexiv will continue to deepen its presence in manufacturing while initiating exploration of applications across all industries including consumer services, agriculture, and healthcare — building the most advanced general-purpose intelligence and robotic hardware technologies through broader scenario-based deployment."
Flexiv is a world-leading general-purpose intelligent robotics company dedicated to developing and applying the most advanced human-inspired robotics and AI technologies to empower all industries. Since its founding in 2016, Flexiv has built core technological moats and a complete hardware and software product portfolio, filed for over 100 technology patents, and validated its core business model — laying the groundwork for further scaled commercial deployment.
In 2019, Flexiv completed its Series A+ round, bringing total funding to RMB 150 million; in April of that year, it officially launched Rizon, the world's first adaptive robot, at the Hannover Messe in Germany. The product subsequently received the iF Design Award and the German Innovation Award, gaining international recognition for its product value and design philosophy.
To date, Flexiv has completed production and delivery of hundreds of adaptive robots. Its industrial applications brought to market have achieved multiple deployments after long-term process optimization and on-site validation, with repeat purchase orders from well-known customers in the automotive, 3C electronics, and internet industries. Its business spans China, North America, Europe, and South Korea.
Bin Yue, founding partner of Gaorong Ventures, commented: "By integrating sophisticated force control systems with cutting-edge AI technology, Flexiv's adaptive robots can work in a manner more closely approximating human capability, elevating robotic versatility and intelligence to an entirely new level. Particularly noteworthy is that Flexiv's adaptive robots have already achieved mass production and validated a complete commercial闭环. We believe the products Flexiv creates will empower industries across far broader scenarios."
Flexiv independently designs and develops key technologies including robotic hardware, servo drives, core sensors, operating systems, and algorithms, ensuring the comprehensive performance and product advantages of its adaptive robot systems. Additionally, Flexiv's AI team has had research published in Nature Machine Intelligence, and its paper in the Engineering journal of the Chinese Academy of Engineering proposed a framework for "general intelligent agents." The team has also achieved state-of-the-art results 18 times across multiple well-known public AI datasets.
Oussama Khatib, a core founding figure in force-controlled robotics, president of the International Foundation of Robotics Research (IFRR), and director of the Stanford Robotics Lab, noted: "I am pleased to see Flexiv develop an entirely new hardware and software technology that brings robotic force control capabilities to a new level, operating in a manner distinct from previous force-controlled robots. Rizon represents the first deep integration of novel force control with AI vision technology, pointing toward the future direction of next-generation robotics development."
About Flexiv
Flexiv is a world-leading general-purpose intelligent robotics company focused on the R&D and production of adaptive robot products integrating industrial-grade force control, computer vision, and AI technology. It provides customers across different industries with comprehensive, innovative solutions and services based on the Flexiv robotics system. Founded in 2016, Flexiv's core founding team hails from Stanford University's Robotics and AI Lab. The company currently maintains offices in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Foshan.
