Amidst the explosive growth of the global AI industry, star products such as Tesla's Optimus robot and Boston Dynamics' Atlas frequently dominate social media, and capital markets have never been more enthusiastic about the concept of "embodied intelligence."

A recent report by data analysis firm Dealroom reveals that global AI investment witnessed a surge in 2024, with AI startups raising a total of $110 billion—a 62% increase from the previous year, setting a new record. In contrast, venture capital investment in other technology sectors declined by 12% year-on-year.

Against this backdrop, Beijing CloudMinds Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "CloudMinds Technology") officially filed for an IPO in Hong Kong. This not only marks the sixth specialized technology company to submit a prospectus under the "Chapter 18C Listing" reform rules but also signifies that China's service robot sector is poised to welcome its first listed company with "robot service intelligent agents" as its core asset.

Can CloudMinds Technology, a decade-old company, carve out a sustainable business model in the multi-billion-yuan market with its accumulated practical experience of 500 million service dispatches?

The Enigma of High Growth and High Losses for the "First Stock of Robot Service Intelligent Agents"

According to Tianyancha, CloudMinds Technology was established in Beijing in 2014. As a specialist in commercial service robot R&D, it primarily offers products to customers through direct sales or leasing. These products have a wide range of applications, covering hotels, commercial buildings, medical institutions, restaurants, and other fields.

During the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, CloudMinds Technology's robot intelligent agents shone, undertaking tasks such as guiding, delivering items, answering inquiries, and waste collection in the Olympic Village and Media Center.

Currently, CloudMinds Technology has successfully launched three generations of robot products, including the "Run" series, "Gege" series, and the multi-mode "UP" series introduced in 2023.

According to prospectus data, from 2022 to 2024, CloudMinds Technology's revenue reached RMB 160 million, RMB 150 million, and RMB 240 million, respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 23.4%. Gross margins were 24.3%, 27.0%, and 43.5%, respectively, while net profits were -RMB 370 million, -RMB 260 million, and -RMB 180 million, respectively. Overall, there is a positive trend of increasing revenue and gross margins year by year, with narrowing losses.

In terms of revenue scenarios, the hotel sector has consistently been CloudMinds Technology's primary source of income. From 2022 to 2024, the proportion of hotel scenario revenue was 70.1%, 95.1%, and 83.0%, respectively.

According to Frost & Sullivan, based on 2023 revenue from the hotel scenario in China, the combined market share of the top five participants was 27.6%. Among them, CloudMinds Technology ranked first in the industry with a market share of 12.2%.

The hotel cleaning robot UP boasts powerful functions, capable of autonomously completing tasks such as delivery, public area cleaning, waste recycling, and precisely dispatching tools based on guest needs, significantly enhancing service efficiency.

In 2024, the daily peak number of CloudMinds Technology's simultaneously online robots exceeded 36,000, and the robot intelligent agents cumulatively completed over 500 million services throughout the year.

While CloudMinds Technology has gained a certain advantage in the field of hotel service robots, industry competition remains fierce, with companies like UBTECH and ECOVACS also being strong competitors. How to maintain differentiated advantages in technology, cost, and service has become a key issue for CloudMinds Technology to address urgently.

Additionally, CloudMinds Technology's revenue primarily depends on corporate clients, with relatively insufficient development in the C-end consumer market. This single market dependency may expose it to risks during economic downturns or when corporate client budgets are reduced.

With Support from Tencent and Alibaba, Can CloudMinds Technology Balance Scale Expansion and Profitability Challenges?

As a global leader in hotel scenario intelligent agents, CloudMinds Technology demonstrated strong market dominance in 2023, with a global market share of 9% and a Chinese market share of 12.2%, firmly occupying the top position in the industry.

Its core product, the "UP" series of robots, features multi-mode functionality, enabling efficient completion of tasks such as delivery, cleaning, waste recycling, and more. In 2024, the daily peak number of "UP" series robots online exceeded 36,000, and the cumulative number of services throughout the year successfully surpassed 500 million.

In terms of technological innovation, CloudMinds Technology's self-developed HDOS system is groundbreaking. This system upgrades hotels into "intelligent agents," endowing robots with comprehensive problem-solving capabilities, realizing an end-to-end service loop from perception, cognition, decision-making, execution to feedback.

This innovation not only creates a new scenario intelligent agent that integrates offline and online, is operable, and collaborative but also lays a solid foundation for future flexibility and scalability in adapting to multiple scenarios.

Since its establishment in 2014, CloudMinds Technology has been favored by the capital market and has completed a total of eight rounds of financing. Numerous well-known investment institutions have entered the fray, including Alibaba, Tencent, Ctrip, Legend Capital, iFLYTEK, China Jinmao, Qiming Venture Partners, Henan Science and Technology Innovation, etc. Before the IPO, CloudMinds Technology's valuation reached RMB 4.1 billion.

In terms of specific shareholding structure, Linzhi Tencent is 100% owned by Shenzhen Tencent Wisdom Investment Co., Ltd., with Tencent holding 9.09% of its shares; Hangzhou Haoyue belongs to the Alibaba Group, with Alibaba holding 2.94% of its shares; Legend Capital holds 4.22% of the shares; QM165 and Beijing Qiming, under Qiming Venture Partners, collectively hold 5.39% of the shares; Shanghai Kehui is an investment company of Ctrip, with Ctrip holding 2.69% of the shares; Maoji is an investment company of China Jinmao, with Jinmao holding 4.06% of the shares.

In the field of urban investment, CloudMinds Technology successfully obtained investments from Anhui and Henan. Anhui Artificial Intelligence Company's shareholders include Hefei Industrial Investment Holding (holding 60%), Anhui Investment Group (holding 26.24%), and iFLYTEK (holding 12.54%). Before the IPO, Anhui Artificial Intelligence Company held a 9.58% stake in CloudMinds Technology, and Henan Science and Technology Investment held a 1.96% stake.

This time, CloudMinds Technology chose to list under the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's Chapter 18C. According to relevant regulations of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Chapter 18C is specifically designed for "specialized, innovative, and high-tech" companies in the five major fields of new-generation information technology, advanced hardware and software, advanced materials, new energy, energy conservation, and environmental protection, as well as new food and agricultural technology, that have no revenue or have not yet achieved profitability, to provide opportunities for listing in Hong Kong.

Through this IPO, the funds raised by CloudMinds Technology will be primarily used to enhance R&D capabilities. The aim is to further optimize robot intelligent agent technology, enhance the versatility and adaptability of products and services, and simultaneously improve commercial operation capabilities both within and outside China.

Under the Dominance of Hotel Scenarios: A Paradigm Shift from "Tool Replacement" to "Intelligent Collaboration"

Although the company has deployed in medical, building, and other scenarios, its core functions still revolve around logistics and distribution, lacking sufficient technological differentiation compared to leading players in vertical fields such as medical surgical robots and industrial collaborative robots. Relevant data shows that the market for robot service intelligent agents in hotel scenarios in China has grown significantly.

In terms of revenue generated in China, the market size of the robot service intelligent agent market in hotel scenarios increased from RMB 500 million in 2019 to RMB 1.1 billion in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 20.8%, indicating the rapid expansion of robot intelligent agents in hotel scenarios.

Currently, to save labor costs, more and more hotels are utilizing intelligent products such as delivery robots, which may also bring more opportunities for CloudMinds Technology.

Moreover, the market size of robot service intelligent agents in China is expected to reach RMB 9.7 billion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of 18.7%. However, this sector has already attracted strong competitors such as UBTECH and ECOVACS, with the former entering diversified scenarios with humanoid robots and the latter accelerating its layout by leveraging the C-end advantages accumulated through household robots.

Facing this new trend, CloudMinds Technology aims to seize this dividend and further gain the favor of the capital market through listing. Currently, although CloudMinds Technology has a head start in hotel scenarios, insufficient technological versatility and the absence of the C-end market may hinder its share expansion.

Overall, CloudMinds Technology's IPO process is essentially an in-depth discussion on "when the value of technology will be monetized." Amid the capital market's frenzied pursuit of AI concepts, this company, with its continuously narrowing loss curve and improving operational efficiency, provides a valuable practical sample for the industry.

When the policy dividend of Hong Kong Stock Exchange Chapter 18C meets the industrial cycle of AI robots, whether CloudMinds Technology can become a true leader in "new infrastructure for intelligent services" may be revealed in the next technological iteration cycle.