Clobotics, a startup using robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) to capture and analyse images for energy and retail companies, has raised US $11 million in another round of funding. The two-year-old company, with headquarters in Shanghai and Bellevue, Wa, USA., has raised a total of US$ 21 million and grown to nearly 80 employees.
With the new infusion of cash, the company is planning to hire more employees, namely those with expertise in AI. The business deploys drones and other robotics to take precise photos for customers. For wind-power companies, a fleet of drones will survey wind turbine blades, snapping photos that look for weather damage that can weaken the blades. The machines send the images back in real-time and Clobotics analyses the pictures using machine learning to detect. The new investors include Nantian Infotech Venture Capital, a subsidiary of the China and Silicon Valley-based IPV Capital, and China’s Wangsu Science and Technology Co. Previous funding came from South Korea’s KTB Network, California’s GGV Capital and the Capital Development Investment Fund Management in Beijing.
