HONG KONG, Dec 1, 2023 - (ACN Newswire) - UBTECH ROBOTICS CORP LTD ("UBTECH" or the "Company", together with its subsidiaries, the "Group") today officially announced that it has passed the listing hearing by The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the "Stock Exchange").
UBTECH is one of the few market players in the global humanoid robot industry and has been at the forefront of commercializing humanoid robots. As of 30 June 2023, UBTECH has served more than 900 corporate clients in over 50 countries and regions worldwide and sold over 760,000 robots. It achieved commercialization of humanoid robots relatively early, considering that the global humanoid robot industry remains at the early stages of technological exploration and development. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, UBTECH's revenue amounted to RMB740 million, RMB817 million and RMB1,008 million, respectively, representing an average annual growth rate of 16.7%, with a year-on-year growth rate of 23.4% in 2022, demonstrating accelerating growth in annual revenue during the reporting period.
The contribution of the humanoid robot business to UBTECH's revenue continued to increase. In the first six months of 2023, this business segment contributed revenue of RMB7.24 million, showing a significant increase compared to the same period of last year. In 2022, the humanoid robot business contributed revenue of RMB51.84 million, more than tripled year-on-year, accounting for 5.1% of the Company's total revenue, a significant increase as compared to 2020 and 2021. Benefiting from the higher technological barriers of humanoid robots, the business related to humanoid robots maintained a gross profit margin of over 50% in both 2022 and the first six months of 2023.
During the reporting period (in the financial years of 2020, 2021 and 2022, and the first six months of 2023, same hereinafter), UBTECH recorded total revenue of approximately RMB2.83 billion. The total research and development investment amounted to nearly RMB1.6 billion, with an average research and development expenditure accounting for 56.5% of the total revenue. UBTECH's full-stack technologies, backed by more than 1,800 robotic and AI-related patents as of 30 June 2023 of which more than 380 are overseas patents, is a combination of robotic technologies (robotic motion planning and control technology and servo actuators) and AI technologies (computer vision and voice interaction technologies), which together power a number of integrated robotic and AI technologies (SLAM and autonomous technology, visual servo operation and human-robot interaction), rounded out with and controlled through Robot Operating System Application Framework (ROSA), a proprietary robotics application framework.
Currently, UBTECH focuses on three major application scenarios for humanoid robots, including industrial manufacturing, commercial services and household companionship. In particular, intelligent manufacturing will become the first area of large-scale application of humanoid robots, which will redefine the workers of the AI era, liberating humans from repetitive labor. In 2023, UBTECH developed the humanoid robot Walker S for industrial applications and collaborated with several leading companies in the new energy automotive sector to plan for the application of humanoid robots in manufacturing scenarios in phases. The commercial service sector is the first market to apply humanoid robots, and UBTECH's first batch of humanoid robots, Walker X, have been deployed in NEOM in Saudi Arabia, becoming the first generation of large-scale humanoid robot citizens to provide intelligent services. Meanwhile, the household scenario emerged as the most promising market for humanoid robot applications.
On 20 October, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Innovative Development of Humanoid Robots", providing a comprehensive and clear strategic plan for the development of humanoid robots for the first time in a standalone document. The opinions point out that humanoid robots, integrating advanced technologies such as AI, high-end manufacturing and new materials, are expected to become disruptive products following computers, smartphones, and new energy vehicles. They have the potential to profoundly transform the way of life and production and reshape the global industrial development landscape. As part of the "national team" for humanoid robots, UBTECH is expected to gain more development opportunities in technological breakthroughs and application expansion.
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