News Summary

• The facility, which spans an area of 13,000 square feet, has quadrupled the company’s annual production capacity from 500 to 2,000 robots.With a starting market price of $9,000, Rice’s robots utilize the popular simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology for navigation.
• In the case of Hong Kong–based Rice Robotics, the important order has come from SoftBank.Since January 2021, Rice’s robots, with their cute, cartoonish blinking eyes, have been delivering 7-Eleven products to SoftBank staff at the company’s new headquarters in Takeshiba, Tokyo.
• The robots can operate continuously for 12 hours and can recharge within one hour.Recognition from SoftBank and other customers has convinced several investors to back Rice’s latest $7 million pre-Series A funding round.
• Furthermore, the Hong Kong government is actively trying to attract advanced manufacturing to diversify an economy that’s losing its appeal as a financial hub for Asia.A portion of Rice’s new funding has been deployed to establish a production plant in Hong Kong.
• Aside from SoftBank, Rice also counts Toyota, Japan Post and Mitsui Group among its Japanese clients.Japan has been a favored destination for China’s robotics companies seeking to expand internationally, given its aging population and openness to new technology.
• The ByteDance-backed warehouse robot maker Syrius Robotics, for example, made a foray into Japan at an early stage.South China is no doubt the home to the world’s leading hardware supply chains.