Hong Kong Robot Startup Raises $10 Million From Foxconn To Power Elderly Care Expansion

Forbes

8 hours ago

Robocore sells robots under the temi brand for industries from healthcare to education, hospitality, property management and exhibition. Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Foxconn Technology Group, the world's largest electronics manufacturer controlled by Taiwanese billionaire Terry Gou, has invested $10 million in Hong Kong-based robot startup Robocore Technology.
The investment was the first tranche of Robocore's Series D round, under which Foxconn has the option to pour two more tranches of $10 million each in 2026 and 2027, respectively, the startup said on Wednesday. The initial investment saw Foxconn taking a 6.6% stake in Robocore, valuing the startup at $151.5 million. Robocore said the valuation for the remaining investment from Foxconn will be subject to change based on mutual agreement or third-party assessment. Its previous backers include Fenghe Group, a Singapore-based hedge fund cofounded by ex-Alibaba CTO John Wu, and Joy Capital, a Chinese venture capital firm whose portfolio includes electric car maker Nio and Starbucks rival Luckin Coffee.
Foxconn's capital injection into Robocore is its latest investment in robotics. Formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, the Taiwanese electronics giant is said to be in talks with U.S. AI chip behemoth Nvidia to deploy humanoid robots at a factory in Houston to produce Nvidia AI servers, Reuters reported in June, citing unnamed sources. Foxconn has partnered with Shenzhen-based UBTech Robotics to deploy humanoids at its factories.
Robocore, founded in 2018 by Roy Lim, a trained engineer, started out as the sole distributor in Hong Kong for Temi's wheeled assistant robots, and went on to acquire the Israeli company last year. Robocore sells robots for industries from healthcare to education, hospitality, property management and exhibition in 33 countries, including the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Spain. It also operates a software platform that allows the monitoring of not just its own robots, but also robots of other companies, including HongShan-backed Pudu Robotics and SoftBank-backed Gausium, both specialize in cleaning robots.
'Our robots are based on Israeli military technology, so their algorithm is top of the market,' said Roy Lim, founder and CEO of Robocore, in a phone interview. 'We are the only company that successfully deployed the [multi-robot] platform…when companies buy robots nowadays, they issue multi-million dollar tenders that involve multiple robot brands, so joining our platform allows them to win big tenders.'
Roy Lim, founder and CEO of Robocore. Robocore Technology
Lim said Robocore will use the proceeds to manufacture 30,000 robots for nursing homes in the U.S., while expanding into Japan's elderly homes and China's households of elderly who live alone. Healthcare is Robocore's biggest revenue stream, he said. Many of the company's clients are elderly homes, which deployed the bots mainly for telemedicine. Those bots, equipped with medical devices such as blood pressure sensors and thermometers, allow patients to consult doctors remotely.
'In America, each trip from the nursing home to the hospital could cost $1,200 because of the ambulance cost,' said Lim. 'This money is actually paid by the insurance companies. So instead of paying all these expensive transportation costs, the insurance companies now pay us $30 each time when we promote a doctor seeing a patient through our robot.' He added that Robocore generated $1.8 million in revenue just from the telemedicine services of its 130 bots at New York's nursing homes last year.
Robocore's second-biggest revenue stream comes from education, followed by exhibitions, Lim said. Some 1,300 schools globally are paying a monthly fee to rent Robocore's bots that come with its self-developed STEM curriculum for students to learn programming, he added. Meanwhile, its bots are deployed at exhibitions to display advertisements, helping with registration and security patrolling.
'Selling hardware nowadays in the whole world, with all these different robot brands coming from China and America, its profit is very, very slim,' said Lim. 'So we changed the business strategy to provide our own services, especially in the healthcare, education and exhibition industries.'
Lim said he's eyeing to list Robocore on the Nasdaq in three to five years. To boost its competitiveness ahead of a potential IPO, Robocore is working on embedding AI into the bots so that they can 'self-program'—responding autonomously to real-world situations, such as offering assistance when detecting someone carrying a heavy object, Lim said. He's also working on robots that can move up stairs and navigate terrains such as lawn and pebble-covered ground.
While humanoids are now touted as the next major leap in robotics, Lim said he will continue to focus on wheeled bots. 'We are looking very closely into more inventions. Definitely not humanoids because we want to help people. We don't want to make stunts,' he said. MORE FROM FORBES Forbes Meet Asia's 30 Under 30 Entrepreneurs Making Robots And Rockets By Yue Wang Forbes Naver-Backed Motion Capture Startup Movin Expands Into AI Training Datasets For Humanoid Robots By John Kang Forbes Hong Kong AI-Powered Workplace Safety Software Startup Viact Raises $7.3 Million Round By Zinnia Lee