Source: Lieyun Selection Author: Wang Fei
JD.com, the AI map has fallen again.
Following tens of millions of yuan in the A round of investment in December last year, recently, JD.com invested nearly 200 million yuan in Oak Deer Technology (formerly known as: Oak Heron Technology), an AI stir-fry robot company, and reached a comprehensive strategic cooperation.
According to the official announcement of the investment, based on the AI technology and industrial advantages of both parties, the two will jointly promote the high-quality development of the "robot +" industry.
AI technology + robot industry may be the underlying logic of JD.com's increased investment in Oak Deer Technology.
聚焦“Robot+Food”，腾讯京东相继投资
JD.com's investment in Oak Deer Technology is inseparable from the two managers.
In September 2020, Yang Jiancheng, who graduated from Peking University and served as the product director of Qunar and CTO of Shangri-La Group, founded Yuanjing Technology, a hotel service robot company.
Far Whale Technology has developed and produced two multi-cabin delivery robots: Whale Xiaoyuan Hotel Service Robot H2 and Whale Xiaoyuan Hotel Service Robot H9. As of September 2021, the former has more than 10 cooperative hotel groups, including well-known hotel group brands such as China Lodging, BTG Homeinns, Jin Jiang International, Luyue, Qiuguo, and Powerlong.
At that time, in the context of fighting the epidemic, service robots once again entered the public eye and were widely sought after by capital. According to the Tianyancha App, Far Whale Technology received an angel round of investment from Dongcheng Hotel Group in November 2020, and received a Pre-A round of financing from Source Code Capital in August 2021 (not officially announced).
It was also in 2021 that Yang Jiancheng, who is quite "ambitious", no longer limited his attention to the hotel scene. In July of that year, he registered and established Oak Deer Technology and served as the company's legal person. As a robot R&D and application company oriented to life service scenarios, the company has incorporated Far Whale Technology into its subsidiary, and continues to export products in categories such as hotel self-service terminals and delivery service robots.
Soon, Yang Jiancheng found the trader of Oak Deer Technology's "broadening the boundary" - Lao K, a member of the S-team at the top decision-making level of Meituan, and the executive chairman of the sales committee.
According to the data, Meituan established the hotel division in 2014, and Lao K joined Meituan for seven years at this time, and was successively responsible for Meituan's accommodation, ticket vacation, homestay, cycling and other businesses.
Under the leadership of Lao K, Meituan's hospitality business not only completed the construction from 0 to 1, but also achieved the world's No. 1 record in 2021, setting a historical peak for the business. He is also known as one of the founders of Meituan's management methodology.
With this, Lao K, who left Meituan, was invited by Yang Jiancheng, founder & CEO of Oakdeer Technology, to serve as co-founder &CEO, and the latter was reappointed as co-founder &CPO.
Thanks to his past experience, Mr. K knows how to grasp the rhythm of the company's business development through the judgment of the business life cycle. Under his leadership, Oak Deer Technology's main business has successfully expanded from hotel robots to stir-fry robots, focusing on "Robot+Food" and focusing on improving the quality of catering supply.
Half a year after Lao K joined, Oak Deer Technology completed hundreds of millions of yuan in Pre-A round of financing in April 2022, led by the head industrial capital (Tencent) and well-known VC (IDG), and followed by the old shareholder Source Code Capital.
As of December 2023, Oakdeer Technology has served more than 100 leading catering companies at home and abroad, covering more than 10 countries and regions. Just over three months later, according to Red Meal.com, the company has served more than 1,500 restaurants and 3,000 geek chefs are in use, which shows the speed of development.
Yang Jiancheng, co-founder of Oak Deer Technology, revealed that the company's AI stir-fry robot has achieved a reduction of more than 98% of dishes, an 80% increase in human efficiency, and a 50% reduction in energy consumption.
Just after Oak Deer Technology was on the right track, Lao K, one of the heroes, began to "retire" from this company.
Tianyancha App shows that after withdrawing from the ranks of shareholders in 2022, in April this year, Lao K successively stepped down as the legal representative and executive director of Oak Deer Technology, and also stepped down as the executive director of Oak Deer Robot (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd.
Source: Tianyancha
In response to the latest trends of Lao K, Lieyun.com asked Oak Deer Technology for verification, but has not received an exact reply yet.
AI technology, "robot +" industry, JD "1+1=3"
It stands to reason that Oak Deer Technology, a stir-fry robot company, is not so synergistic with JD.com's main business, and the latter does not seem to have to increase investment.
Aside from the specific catering scene of "stir-frying", the AI technology behind it and the "robot +" industry may be the key.
First of all, at the level of AI technology.
As one of the earliest R&D large model companies in China, JD.com will launch the Yanxi large model in 2023. JD.com continues to deepen the R&D and product application of large-scale model-related technologies, and has developed a series of AI applications including digital humans, intelligent outbound calls, and intelligent customer service in combination with industrial application scenarios, supporting external enterprises and upstream and downstream ecological partners.
At the beginning of this year, Liu Qiangdong mentioned in the all-staff letter that he would upgrade JD.com's mission to "technology-based, make life better". He further emphasized that facing new dreams and futures, he believes that technology will eventually change everything.
Through strategic investment, JD.com exports its AI capabilities to Oak Deer Technology, which is an excellent opportunity for itself to "train" and a positive exploration.
It is worth mentioning that just today, Oak Deer Technology announced that its Meishan Lion AI stir-fry robot will launch the edible oil kerosene detection function to assist customers in relevant ingredient testing. After joining hands with JD.com, similar practical functions and innovations will only increase.
There is reason to believe that JD and Oak Deer Technology also have room for imagination in business collaboration:
Dada Group, a subsidiary of JD.com, can empower the "standardized food supply" of Meishan Lion, a subsidiary of Oak Deer Technology; As the vanguard of JD.com's omni-channel retail, Seven Fresh, a subsidiary of Seven Fresh, can naturally become one of the sources of "standardized ingredients" for Meishan Lion......
Secondly, at the level of the "robot +" industry.
It is understood that Jingdong's robot layout mainly has three paths: self-research, cooperation and investment.
Among them, founded in 2013, the JD X Division, formerly known as the logistics laboratory, undertakes self-research tasks, unmanned vehicles, unmanned warehouses, drones, as well as unmanned supermarkets and unmanned stores, which are all projects related to unmanned machinery and artificial intelligence that the division is responsible for.
In addition to self-research and cooperation with robot companies such as SIASUN, EFORT, and Xinshida, JD.com also led the investment as early as November 2017, and the 60 million yuan A round of financing of logistics robot company Malu Innovation.
The recent successive investments in Oak Deer Technology are the latest cases of JD.com in the robot industry.
In the era of AI 2.0, with the blessing of large models, the imagination space of AI+ robots needs to be further activated and extended.
In the future, it will take time to give an answer to what kind of return Jingdong's increased investment in Oak Deer Technology can bring to both parties.
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