Jaka Robotics plans to accelerate the expansion of its production capacity.
Jaka Robotics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jaka Robotics", Chinese: 节卡), headquartered in Shanghai, China, submitted an application for listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR Market) on May 9, with a valuation of CNY 3.5 billion (USD 504 million) in the last round of financing before the IPO. The company proposed a capital raising of CNY 750 million, with Guotai Junan as the sponsor. This is China’s first collaborative robotics company to hit the market.
Founded in 2014, Jaka Robotics is a high-tech enterprise focusing on the innovative research and development of collaborative robots in industrial scenarios. The company's main business includes the production and development of robot products, integrated equipment and automated production lines, which are mainly used in many fields such as automotive, electronics and logistics.
The prospectus discloses that from 2020 to 2022, the revenue of the Jaka Robot is CNY 48.28 million, CNY 176 million and CNY 281 million respectively, with a compound growth rate of 141.16%; the loss is narrowing in parallel and turning to a small profit.
In terms of overseas markets, Jaka Robotics has established production bases in Japan and Germany, and has worked closely with over 300 excellent automation-related companies from various industries around the globe. To date, more than 10,000 robots have been deployed worldwide. They are flexibly and efficiently serving the production lines of well-known global brands, and are engaged in direct contact with consumers in many new commercial consumer sectors.
According to data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the company's collaborative robots sold 2,267 units in 2021, compared to 39,000 units sold globally, giving Jaka Robotic approximately 6% of the global market. The data also shows that China is now the largest consumer of collaborative robots, with domestic market sales accounting for about 40% of total global sales.
Jaka Robotics is planning to accelerate its capacity expansion. In 2022, the annual production capacity of its collaborative robots was 5,000 units, with a capacity utilization rate of 91%, an increase of 4% and 19% compared to 2021 and 2020. According to the fund-raising plan, Jaka Robotics will deploy CNY 420 million for an annual production capacity of 50,000 units of intelligent robots, the remaining CNY 306 million for the R&D center construction project, and 24 million yuan for additional working capital. The production capacity is expected to expand 10 times by then.
The main competitors of Jaka in the collaborative robotics industry include Chinese companies such as DOBOT (Chinese: 越疆), AUBO (Chinese: 遨博) and ELITE (Chinese: 艾利特), as well as international players such as Universal Robots from Denmark, ABB from Switzerland, and KUKA from Germany.