The largest scale of strategic financing in AR field has recently completed, contributing to the construction of Hefei R&D center.
Recently, AR startup Rokid successfully completed a Series C+ round of financing of approximately CNY 500 million. This round of financing was led by the Hefei municipal government, with participation from multiple financial and strategic investment institutions. It is the first time that Hefei has entered the AR glasses industry and represents the largest strategic financing in the AR field in China in recent years.
During this transaction, CEC Capital acted as Rokid's exclusive strategic business advisor and financial advisor. Following this financing, Rokid will officially sign an agreement with the Hefei Xinzhan High-tech Zone and establish three major projects: the Industrial Metaverse Headquarters, the Ecological Center, and the Research and Development Center.
Rokid founder and CEO Mingming Zhu stated that Hefei is one of the most developed regions for industrial manufacturing in China, with abundant resources in integrated circuits and the automotive industry. Rokid will continue to focus on technological breakthroughs and ecosystem enrichment, providing a favorable development environment for developers and delivering excellent product experiences to consumers and customers.
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Hangzhou, Rokid is a domestic product platform company that focuses on next-generation human-machine interaction technology. Currently, Rokid's AR glasses are being commercialized in three main directions: cultural tourism, consumer applications, and industrial use. Rokid's smart glasses lineup includes the Glass series, Vision series, and Air series. Last year, Rokid released the Rokid AR Studio, an AR spatial computing kit that includes the Rokid Max Pro AR glasses and Rokid Station Pro computing host, priced at CNY 4,999 and CNY 3,999, respectively.
In terms of revenue, Rokid's revenue in 2023 increased by 200% compared to the previous year, with the industrial sector experiencing the fastest growth, accounting for one-fourth of Rokid's overall revenue and showing strong growth momentum. Revenue from the industrial sector increased remarkably by 100% in 2023. The industrial applications cover various scenarios such as digital training, remote assistance, and digital twins, which help enhance industrial collaboration immersion and work efficiency.
Currently, Rokid's products have been implemented in various projects, including China General Nuclear Power Group's Ningde Nuclear Power Project, State Grid Corporation of China's AR Operation and Maintenance Inspection, CNPC's AR Intelligent Inspection, Midea Group, Changan Automobile, and CHN Energy Investment Group Co., Ltd.'s Dongcuncaota Coal Mine, and CRRC Co., Ltd.
In addition, Rokid is accelerating its international expansion. In August of last year, Rokid partnered with Google to launch an AR version of portable Android TV, the world's first Google-certified AR portable Android TV terminal. Based on this, Rokid gained recognition, authorization, and content from the Google ecosystem, including YouTube, Hulu, Disney+, TVer, and AbemaTV. In November of last year, Rokid reached a strategic cooperation agreement with Japan's largest telecommunications company, NTT Docomo. Rokid's related products will be available in Docomo's online platforms and 261 offline stores nationwide. Rokid will continue to expand internationally, and it is expected that its overseas revenue will exceed domestic revenue in 2024.
Fang Hong, Chairman of Hefei New Venture Capital Control Co., Ltd., illustrated that, "The cooperation between Rokid and Hefei is a starting point for in-depth innovation and technological innovation in the metaverse scene, based on the shared vision of both parties to cultivate the XR industry ecosystem. In the future, both parties will jointly promote industry progress and ecological synergy."
Yikai Capital stated, "As a leading human-machine interaction company in China and even globally, Rokid has maintained a leading position in the industry in recent years. Hefei, known as the 'city of venture capital' in China, has formed a mature industry ecosystem in several strategic emerging industries. The strong alliance between the two parties aims to jointly plan the long-term development of the metaverse industry."
Currently, the main Chinese players in the industry are RayNeo, Xreal, Rokid. Public data demonstrate that the market share of these three corporations in the first quarter of 2023 was 44.8%, 31.5% and 15.4% respectively.
IDC reported that 2024 could be the year of recovery for the industry, with AR / VR headsets shipments expected to increase by 46.4%. Meanwhlie, with the continuous improvement of connection adapters and application adaptability, tablet computers, console game consoles and smart cars will be connected with AR / VR devices more efficiently in the future, so as to smoothly integrate into the intelligent terminal ecology, and provide users with a more convenient experience in travel, productivity enhancmemt and entertainment scenarios.