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According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the cumulative output of industrial robots nationwide from January to October 2021 was 298000 units, up 51.9 percent year-on-year. Affected by the upgrading of the manufacturing industry and the catalytic impact of the epidemic, new energy vehicles, 3C electronics and other fields of "machine substitution" demand continued to release, domestic industrial robot production increased significantly, and gradually to medical, photovoltaic, metal products, warehousing logistics, home appliances and other applications penetration, the market potential incremental space is considerable. Industrial robot investment activity is high, 2021 more than 100 million investment cases, Boshi shares, Easton, Mekamande and other enterprises to obtain hundreds of millions of yuan of financing.

The global industrial robot market has long been occupied by foreign capital, with Japan's Fanaco, Switzerland's ABB, Japan's Yaskawa and Germany's Kuka "four families" accounting for more than 50% of the market. In recent years, the competitiveness of domestic independent brands has been significantly improved, but there is still a certain gap in technical strength (especially core components) and international popularity. China has been the world's largest consumer of robots for many years (accounting for about 40% in 2020). As foreign giants such as ABB and An Chuan compete to increase the Chinese market, traditional robot manufacturers, technology giants, manufacturing giants and start-ups have entered the market one after another. Key technologies such as core components and intelligent devices have made breakthroughs. The replacement process of domestic robots has further accelerated and the market may enter an era of "close combat.

Recently, the Qingke Research Center under Qingke Venture (01945.HK) released the "2021 China Industrial Robot Industry Investment and Financing Analysis Report". The report analyzes the market scale and competition pattern of industrial robots at home and abroad, combs the industrial chain map, and conducts in-depth research on the market conditions and representative manufacturers of core components such as reducers, ontology manufacturing, system integration and application. In terms of equity investment, from the investment scale, rounds, stages, types of institutions and other multi-dimensional analysis, and the development of industrial robot industry trends and trends are predicted.

Industrial robot refers to the industrial field, through programming or teaching to achieve automation, with anthropomorphic form and function, can replace the manual to complete all kinds of heavy, boring or harmful environment manual labor of mechanical devices. According to the characteristics of the mechanical structure, industrial robots can be divided into 4 categories. Vertical multi-joint and collaborative robots have the widest working range, and assembly is a more common application scenario.

Global industrial robots have basically formed a development pattern dominated by Japan, the United States, South Korea, Germany and China, with the market share of the "four families" exceeding 50%. The stock of industrial robots has grown steadily, and the installed capacity of domestic industrial robots ranks first in the world, but the installed density is still low. The market has the greatest demand for handling and welding functions, with the focus on automotive and electronic equipment manufacturing.

China's industrial robot industry has gone through four stages, from research and prototype development to gradually form an industrial cluster, and the localization of core components is accelerating. According to IFR, China's industrial robot market will reach 44.57 billion yuan in 2021; by 2023, the domestic market will further expand and is expected to exceed 58.9 billion yuan. The domestic robot industry is mainly concentrated in East China and South China, forming industrial clusters through industrial parks.

At present, the domestic market is still dominated by foreign manufacturers dominated by Japanese brands, but the proportion of foreign brands is decreasing year by year; the problem of homogenization of the competitiveness of domestic independent brands has improved and gradually differentiated into three echelons, among which Eston, Xinshida, Efter and other manufacturers have strong technology and market competitiveness, ranking in the first echelon.

From the perspective of all links in the industrial chain, 1) upstream: reducer, technical barriers are the highest among the core components of industrial robots, RV reducer is more difficult to be localized, Nabotsk leads the global market share, and the localization rate of harmonic reducer is higher. Many domestic manufacturers led by green harmonic have realized mass production. Servo system, the domestic market share has been dominated by foreign brands for a long time, and the market share of domestic brands has steadily increased. Controller, the domestic market share is mainly occupied by foreign-funded enterprises, and the technical difficulty is low. The main increment of the controller market comes from domestic manufacturers, focusing on low-end applications. 2) Midstream: body manufacturing, including pillars, bases, arms, wrists, etc., mainly multi-joint robots and SCARA robots. 3) Downstream: system integration-handling and welding applications accounted for a relatively high, application industry-automotive manufacturing and electronic and electrical accounted for a relatively high, application scenarios from automotive and other fields gradually shift to general manufacturing and emerging industries, the domestic incremental market space is broad.

According to PEDATA MAX data of Qingke Venture, from 2016 to 2021H1, 692 investment events were disclosed in China's industrial robot field, with the disclosed investment amount of about 43.59 billion yuan. The investment in parts manufacturing and integrated application is relatively hot. Round A, angel round and round B account for nearly 70% of the total number of cases. Guangdong, Beijing and Yangtze River Delta are hot spots.

On the whole, the penetration rate of multi-application fields downstream of industrial robots has increased year by year, and "robot substitution" has become an inevitable trend. Industrial robots are continuously improving and optimizing in core components, inclusive technology, cloud technology, etc. The process of import substitution is accelerating, and the share of domestic manufacturers continues to rise. The amount of investment disclosed in the field of industrial robots has increased year by year, and the investment heat has maintained an upward trend.