Robotics and AI startup, Rokid, announced closing $65 million in Series B funding, lead by IDG Capital Partners and Walden International.
Robotics and AI startup, Rokid, announced closing $65 million in Series B funding, lead by IDG Capital Partners and Walden International.
Founded in 2014, the San Francisco and China-based team has been awarded the most innovative products at CES 2016 for its smart home family AI device – Rokid.
First, Rokid works like a smart home hub. It can turn on the lights and play a song from the playlist when the user gets home. It tells the user about today’s weather and reminds as an appointment is scheduled today. For control abilities, Rokid supports voice, facial, touch and motion recognition skills to interact with its users.
With the built-in artificial intelligence technology, Rokid learns the user’s living habit over time. And with a 12px camera installed in the device, it is able to pick up visual cues from the user.
Started from the U.S., Rokid has built partnerships with Alibaba, opened another headquarter in Hangzhou, China, and launched its product first in the Chinese market. The company now operates offices in San Francisco, Hangzhou and Beijing, with a team over 60 people.
After this round of funding, according to Rokid, the startup plans to introduce its product in the U.S. around Q1 of 2017. The new round of funding brings the startup’s valuation to $85 million.
CES 2016 has awarded Rokid as the most innovative products of the year for its hardware design and software integration. According to the announcement, most of the device’s hardware is independently designed or highly customized to offer unique and optimal performance.
Home assistant and home management market sector is getting crowded. Big players such as Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, Wink and Nest heavily invest in the market while small ones, like Ivee or SoundHound, also try to get its presence through crowdfunding platforms. Rokid, is also becoming one of the names in this sector.
According to research firm Tractica, virtual digital assistants market revenue, including smart watches, PCs and smart home systems, is expected to grow to $15.8 billion and its unique active consumer users will grow to 1.8 billion worldwide in 2021.