Dialogue must be selected Zhou Jian: the company will achieve 5 billion US dollars in the era of weak artificial intelligence

May 3 news, artificial intelligence and humanoid robotics company Union Brother (UBTECH) officially announced the completion of C round of financing of $ 820 million valuation of $ 5 billion, a move that once again set a Chinese start-ups in the global field of AI Single round financing record.

This round of financing was led by Tencent, Industrial and Commercial Bank, Haier, Minsheng Securities, Telstra, Real Home, Thailand Zhengda Group, Minsheng Bank, Wenhua Huaxia, CGNPC, Tietou Group, Songhe Capital, Haishu, Jin Axe and other investment, B round led the investment of Dinghui Capital additional investment.

For a six-year-old robot company, the financing of this "Pre-IPO" volume can not be said to be a timely rain, nearly two years from the previous round of B-round financing into the Unicorn camp. Founder Zhou Jian also felt that some of them were “out of expectations”, both in terms of financing scale and spanning cycle.

In this context, Geek Park interviewed Zhou Jian, founder and CEO of You Bi. He talked about the details of the "highest financing" and also revealed the listing plan and progress as a quasi-unicorn company. In the past 3 years, the average annual growth rate of Ubility has exceeded 500%. But for the future, how to continue to maintain rapid growth in many uncertain market conditions is still an eternal topic.

Although the scale of the industry application market is more impressive, Zhou Jian is convinced of the initial intention of "letting robots enter thousands of households." In the face of the team size of thousands of people, he wrote this principle into the company's philosophy.

Speaking of the industrial environment, Zhou Jian repeatedly stressed that “it is still in the stage of weak artificial intelligence and weak integration”, emphasizing the necessity of extending from the robot ontology to the market of entertainment, education and service industries; The 8-10 year "anti-play" concept shared the strategy of building a robot industry moat and the logic of product iteration.

This makes robot entrepreneurship a process that is both contradictory and requires a constant look at the stars, but has to be down-to-earth.

Investor with order

Cartography / April

In the list of preferred C-round investors, the significance of strategic investment is very obvious. Whether it is the traditional offline brand home, or the Internet traffic portal Tencent, and the traditional banking giant, it is like taking the order as an investor. While the new retail concept has landed, it has also created important opportunities for service robots to develop the B-end market.

Geek Park: What imaginary space will the Internet giant Tencent join as a lead investor? Will new retailing be an important direction?

Zhou Jian: The offline retail scene will be one of the aspects, and the two sides are still in the process of exploration. In addition, starting in 2017, we and Tencent have already cooperated on product level for small and micro voice assistants, jingle AI assistants, and Tencent Cloud.

In the B-end market, in the future, you may see the cooperation between You Bi and Tencent at the airport; in the C-market, you will cooperate with Tencent in the IP field.

On the third level, the two sides will conduct more in-depth technical cooperation. Based on our technology precipitation in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence, we will have in-depth cooperation with Tencent AI Lab and the future Tencent Robot Lab.

Geek Park: Is there a plan for the project?

Zhou Jian: I will not disclose specific projects for the time being. It can be said that the future cooperation between You Bi and Tencent will be comprehensive.

Geek Park: Introducing the offline home chain brand home, what level of consideration?

Zhou Jian: Online retail scene and artificial intelligence application level, the actual home will cooperate with Youbie. They (the actual home) are undergoing a full digital transformation, and there is a great demand in this regard. The introduction of Ali and related investors this year is also a focus on the promotion of the new retail model.

Geek Park: refers to the mode in which the robot enters the offline store?

Zhou Jian: Right. Our first batch of cooperation projects included 2,150 intelligent cloud platform commercial service robots Cruzr. Starting this year, this robot team will continue to work in the home of the family. In the future, we will carry out a wider range of cooperation, such as offline stores, new retail experience stores, etc., will see the products of the best choice.

Geek Park: What are the real effects of service robots for the establishment of new retail scenes?

Zhou Jian: There are two main levels. First, robots will play a role in replacing manpower, because China's labor costs will continue to rise for a long time to come; in addition, robots can accurately identify ordinary customers and VIP customers in offline stores. Based on the user data collected by the mobile camera on the robot, an accurate user portrait is created to help the offline store to better identify and identify the customer group.

Geek Park: Is it a financial investment for a number of banking institutions to take shares, or is it taking into account business synergies?

Zhou Jian: The first factor we consider in this round of financing is strategic resources. Investors are almost all strategic investors, and we do not accept investment at the pure financial level.

The entry of banking institutions is also based on this principle. In the future, Ubility will cooperate in robots at the offline terminal outlets of banks such as ICBC and Minsheng Bank. In the future, artificial intelligence based technology may also go deep into the financial business. In particular, the cooperation between Ubisoft and ICBC will be comprehensive.

Geek Park: The final size of this round of financing, the post-financing valuation is greater than the number disclosed in your previous interview; the financing cycle spans nearly two years. Does it look like "exceeding expectations"?

Zhou Jian: It is indeed. In April 2016, we announced the completion of Series B financing, but did not rush to the next round. The C round of financing was officially launched in mid-2017. The planned financing scale is 3-4 billion US dollars.

Finally, because of the trust of all parties in the selection of the best, and at the same time optimistic about the future of the AI+ robot industry, more strategic parties are involved. The amount of financing is more than doubled than we expected, and the timeline has been pulled longer. There are indeed some that exceed my expectations.

Rapid growth sustainability

Geek Park: You must have been very confident in business revenue, and the sales data for 2014-2016 has been made public. So what is the performance in 2017?

Zhou Jian: Because the company has a listing plan, the company is making audit adjustments. Revenue data for 2017 is not yet available. However, the future will continue to disclose business data.

Geek Park: This year's revenue target?

Zhou Jian: more than 2 billion yuan. We hope to maintain a steady growth.

Geek Park: Profitability has always been a consideration for the capital market. How do you think about it?

Zhou Jian: Profit is not our primary goal, and the specific profit plan is not convenient for disclosure. But what I want to emphasize is that the choice of this financing is to really integrate the money into the company, rather than taking unconventional loans, mortgages, etc., which is different from the financing form of some startups.

Geek Park: From the published revenue data, the revenue in 2014 is 2 million yuan, the revenue in 2015 is 50 million yuan, and the revenue in 2016 is 300 million yuan. Ubisoft has maintained an average growth rate of more than 500% in the past three years. Under the premise that the base is already large, is there any pressure on performance growth?

Zhou Jian: Indeed. In the past three years, Ubunt has completed high-speed growth from millions to tens of millions to hundreds of millions. But at the same time, we also realized that the current robot industry is still in the stage of weak artificial intelligence and weak integration. Robots have a long way to go when they enter the family and become just as needed. Therefore, in addition to the field of home service robots, the excellent selection will also lay out the entertainment, education market, and To B scene.

I am still optimistic about the growth rate of the future market, but ultimately it depends on the progress and breakthrough of artificial intelligence and robotics, as well as the degree of commercialization of the market. If there is a big breakthrough, I believe that we can still see the growth of the order of magnitude.

Geek Park: Multiple data shows that To B's demand for service robots is much lower than the C-end market, but sales are still the main force in the total robot market. How to look at the layout and importance of the excellent selection in the B-end market of robots?

Zhou Jian: From the very beginning of the founding to the present day, including the future, the core goal of my personal and company is the C-end market. There is no doubt about this. It can be said that To C is always the most important market for the best choice, and we are also doing some ecological level layout.

But as I mentioned earlier, limited by the stage of technology development, I think the B-end market is a strategic entry in the robotics industry. In the next 3-5 years, the application of To B will still be an important support.

We are optimistic about the B-end market in the short to medium term, and the B-end business will have a relatively fast growth in 2018-2019, no less than the C-end market.

Geek Park: What percentage of the overall business is it?

Zhou Jian: It is estimated that this year's B-end business will account for 40% of global revenue.

Geek Park: Before you mentioned that it is expected to be listed in China in 2019 or 2020, is there a clearer plan now?

Zhou Jian: A shares are the first choice. We mainly look at the domestic market resources, but the time is temporarily not convenient to disclose. Recently, there have been many new policies. Both the national government and the China Securities Regulatory Commission have shown an open attitude. For some excellent unicorn companies, the requirements for equity payment and profitability may be relaxed. This is a good sign. It can be seen that The state is very supportive of the R&D investment of innovative companies in the early stage.

For the best choice, we must also look at the degree of advancement of our share reform and other work.

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Platformized possibility

Cartography / April

From the launch of the first humanoid robot Alpha in 2012 to this year, the company has completed the product layout of the four business segments of home service robots, IP entertainment robots, business service robots, and STEAM educational robots, which are basically maintained at every 1- 2 years to update the rhythm of a product.

However, the expanded imagination of the product line alone is limited. Whether it can be tapped into the operating system and platform level will be one of the variables.

Geek Park: You mentioned that you want to launch a robot operating system. The main idea is?

Zhou Jian: The prototype of this system comes from the company's internal "public technology platform", mainly to enable more efficient product development, and to facilitate modular functions to operate on different product lines. For example, each product group can directly select the visual technology, voice technology, servo steering technology and other modules on this platform, and flexibly assemble it into its own products.

This is a test of our software and hardware integration capabilities, and is still in version 1.0, we will gradually open in the future. The landing of the plan depends mainly on our technical accumulation, and the team has been working hard to build.

Geek Park: Will it be an open source form?

Zhou Jian: Part of the open source.

Geek Park: Whether it is a product or a platform, will there be a certain conflict of interest?

Zhou Jian: Incomplete conflict, I think this is a matter of course, because Ubuntu has the ability to launch this operating system or platform. Open source facilitates faster iterations of the products, and is aimed at more consumers, including products with developers and industry partners.

Geek Park: Motion control has always been a core advantage of the selection. Will this part try to open source?

Zhou Jian: The servo steering hardware technology, algorithm capabilities, machine vision and other capabilities will be integrated into our operating system, but to what extent the specific open source, internal discussion.

Geek Park: You must choose the Walker for walking robots for the first time at this year's CES, which has received great attention from the industry. When will this product land?

Zhou Jian: This robot integrates our most advanced technology. The most critical servo steering unit, including large motion units with a torque of 500 kg, the motion control algorithms are developed independently. The cost aspect is close to commercialization, and my personal goal is that the cost of Walker can be controlled within 200,000 RMB.

But the real landing I think it will take 2-3 years, because after adding the arms, the machine vision, motion algorithm, hardware form and other aspects should be further optimized.

Geek Park: The final form will be "double feet + arms"?

Zhou Jian: Right. Our goal is to serve humanity and not be able to carry out many substantive services without flexible arms. The bipedal robot project is mainly used to demonstrate the maturity of technology, but to become the first commercial large-scale humanoid robot also needs a more complete product form.

Geek Park: What plans will there be for other product lines this year?

Zhou Jian: In addition to the new products, the B-end market is more about the exploration of specific scene applications; the C-end market is expected to have a heavy product this year.

The team wants to "resist"

Geek Park: In the past year, the team has grown rapidly to a thousand people. What adjustments will be made to the team management approach?

Zhou Jian: I have always valued team building. In the past three or four hundred people, the main use of extensive growth, ignoring the construction of cultural values. Since the end of last year, I have started to invest more energy in this area. This year, we added the concepts of "returning to the beginning" and "skin" to the company culture.

Despite the many external temptations and the rapid expansion of the company, I emphasize that you should not start a business because of wealth. I still hope that you will not forget the original heart, and can truly bring robot products into thousands of households and become a leader in the field of global service robots.

Geek Park: How do you understand the "pure"?

Zhou Jian: As an excellent employee, you must be able to be beaten. Because the robot is a long road, if it is not enough for the short-term goal, I hope that the staff can build a long-term struggle spirit, can withstand the temper, and have long-term ideal support.

Geek Park: Talent introduction is an important aspect of team building. What are the recent gains?

Zhou Jian: This piece I recently focused on. I believe that the introduction of talents not only depends on their ability, but also on the company's cultural values. On this basis, we have introduced several big cows this year.

Including the professor of the University of Tokyo, the father of Robi robot, Tomotaka Takahashi will be the chief product officer of the excellent selection; Zhang Wei, who has won the new wealth gold medal secretary for three consecutive years, is now the CFO and the secretary of the board of directors; Introduced former Ogilvy Fashion CEO and Michael Tam, President of Ogilvy & Mather China, as the Chief Brand Officer.

Adapt to the local industrial environment

Geek Park: In the previous interview, you also explained why the reason why you can grow at a high speed. After the valuation reached $5 billion, I would like to ask again.

Zhou Jian: This round of financing and valuation of UBS is difficult to see in the global AI and robotics fields. Behind this is our strategic thinking.

First of all, the depth of layout and consideration of the strategic level is very important. Although the product is very important, if you only focus on the polishing of the products in front of you, the horizon is very easy to be limited. It is not good for leading the company to maintain rapid development, and should always be sensitive to market boundaries.

The second point is the integration of product landing ability and landing resources. There are many hardware teams in China, and there are good product teams and technical talents. However, there is a lack of strategic thinking on resource integration and commercial operation, which is limited to the product itself. Finally, the final product homogeneity is seriously affected by the market.

Geek Park: What do you think about this?

Zhou Jian: Where will the company go in the future, whether the market is big enough, and to what extent, and then work hard for it, all things are done for a bigger market in the future. I believe this round of financing also reflects the recognition of the future market and potential of the company.

Geek Park: You start to mention the same product problems. After the excellent selection, there have been many projects in the country to do desktop-level humanoid robots. How do you treat them?

Zhou Jian: This is still going to return to the first question, and it is also the place where the distinction must be made. First of all, the imitation of only the product level and the market trend can not make a big company, because there is no long-term thinking behind the strategic level.

Secondly, Ubbe has established a threshold for the development and design of servo steering gear, the commercialization of humanoid robots, factory automation, mass production capability and stability.

We will choose to work with top global companies such as Disney, Apple, Amazon, Tencent, etc., also because we need to build a higher moat.

Geek Park: What does the moat mean?

Zhou Jian: Companies that lack independent thinking will struggle to catch up with us.

Geek Park: In addition to humanoid robots, IP-based entertainment robots are also the first of its kind. What is the logic of this category?

Zhou Jian: First of all, when I first started my business, I tried the productization of animation characters such as Transformers and Gundam. This has always been what I want to achieve. Second, in the current weak artificial intelligence and weak integration stage, this It will be a very big market. Disney's annual revenue in IP derivatives is tens of billions of dollars.

When we have the resources and mature technology, I started to work with the executives in the first place, and actively contacted the international IP resources to promote this.

Geek Park: So this is an IP-based, robot-assisted product?

Zhou Jian: At the level of detail of the product function, we made a choice. Considering the positioning and audience of IP products, its cost needs to be more controlled. Therefore, we have not integrated all the technologies and functions of robots on this product. At this stage, we still prefer software-level interaction. .

As the market is further educated and commercialized, more intelligent products will be introduced. In the long run, I don't think there will be pure IP products in the future. All active dolls may be robotized, but the degree of realization and time are different.

Geek Park: Many people have mentioned that Shenzhen has unique advantages in hardware manufacturing, talents and market. It is the most suitable place for hardware innovation and entrepreneurship. But in fact, after the wave of smart hardware, there are only a handful of hardware innovation companies, how do you view such an industrial environment?

Zhou Jian: First of all, in the selection of the company's direction, Chinese entrepreneurs still prefer model innovation and some relatively less tiring areas. The hardware atmosphere in Shenzhen is still quite strong, and there are more companies in the city model innovations such as Beihanghang.

In addition, the hardware startup itself determines that it will be a very difficult process involving software and hardware integration, control operations and other aspects. Whether it is Dajiang or Ubisoft, it has been confirmed that it takes 8-10 years for intelligent hardware to precipitate and break through.

In addition, the investor's own long return period for hardware projects is relatively conservative, which may also affect the rapid development of intelligent hardware.

Geek Park: Is there a large-scale hardware innovation project?

Zhou Jian: Since 2012, the country's innovation atmosphere has become more and more strong. By 2020, there should be a good group of companies.

Geek Park: After the large-scale capital accumulation, will the UBS choose the external capital layout?

Zhou Jian: Yes. The industrial chain of robots is very long and heavy. Due to our volume considerations, we have the will and responsibility to lay out some upstream and downstream related enterprises.

Geek Park: Will you invest by yourself?

Zhou Jian: Or in cooperation with the fund, both forms are possible.