36 氪首发 | 打造消费级智能教具，「鲸鱼机器人」完成新一轮融资

36 氪获悉，STEM 综合服务商「鲸鱼机器人」完成了新一轮融资，由普维资本领投。这是「鲸鱼机器人」成立 2 年内完成的第 4 轮融资，融资总额超 1 亿元人民币。本轮融资主要用于拓展消费业务与产品深度技术研发。

鲸鱼机器人成立于 2018 年，目前公司核心业务包括 1）「鲸鱼机器人」系列智能硬件机器人、2）海平面线上内容平台以及 3）ENJOY AI 全球青少年人工智能普及活动。智能机器人产品覆盖 3-18 岁年龄段，依照操作难度划分产品线；ENJOY AI 竞赛作为出口将教育结果可视化，从参加人数，举办频数，和媒体影响力三个角度打造普及活动的专业性。

从市场的角度来看，智能机器人赛道兼具娱乐和高新科技的属性，因此除了教育公司在积极布局，乐高和大疆也在向赛道进行品类扩展。同时，行业内 toB 模式的玩家普遍受到市场规模上限的制约，向更广阔的 C 端市场转型是多数企业的策略。

普及消费级机器人，消除新技术畏惧

鲸鱼机器人销售负责人表示，国内 C 端教育机器人的平均售价超出了一般家庭的消费水平，普遍在数千元左右，而鲸鱼的消费级机器人最低定价在 500 元以内。公司凭借产品开发经验，计划推出极具性价比的消费级机器人产品。希望以薄利的定价策略进入市场，更好地实现产品普及，在成本基础上的利润加成远低于行业水平。

鲸鱼机器人在 G 端和 B 端都进行了业务拓展。G 端来看，经济较为发达的区域例如江浙沪地区对教育前沿方向的探索是积极主动的，合作模式主要为给区域内公立学校提供基于「鲸鱼机器人」软硬件产品的人工智能实验室系统解决方案，包括硬件铺设，教师培训，能力认证等，目前已经进入约 2000 所学校。

B 端来看，为 K12 以及 STEAM 机构提供基于「鲸鱼机器人」的产品、课程及水平认证解决方案，目前已进入超过 3000 家培训机构。「鲸鱼机器人」和百度智能云达成了深度合作，借助百度强大的算法团队给公司技术研发赋能，用户使用百度生态的硬件产品可以操控鲸鱼系列机器人，为用户提供更为完整的 AI 产品体验。

与百度智能云合作，提升人机交互体验
人机交互与情境感知是智能产品设计中最关键的技术之一。目前行业主要借助传感器，识别用户的手势、语音、表情完成交互。儿童智能机器人对语音语义的理解还停留在浅层，依赖成人语音习惯设计儿童产品存在不合理性，未来儿童语音数据库有待建立；5G 技术的普及也让云端计算成为可能，C 端机器人产品可以将运算模块省去，仅保留传感和执行组件，可以进一步提升用户对 AI 产品的体验。

智能机器人需要面对开放环境应用的挑战，以适应更加广泛的教学场景。目前，计算机在封闭环境中的运算稳定性非常可靠，但在开放环境中，过多的要素干扰了处理器的运算结果。「鲸鱼机器人」结合百度技术团队，积极探索视觉算法的优化。

营收结构上，「鲸鱼机器人」2019 年收入主要来源为 G 端与 B 端，最大的开支为研发团队支出。这主要是由于公司尚处在起步阶段，随着 2020 年产品线的进一步完善，C 端收入有望在今年大幅提升。与营收结构相一致，2019 年公司投放方式为行业垂直论坛等面向 G、B 端客户的渠道。

鲸鱼机器人表示，公司的使命是让全球所有青少年都拥有拥有属于自己的智能机器人。我们不希望未来的儿童是畏惧科技，拒绝变化的。公司目前产品覆盖全国，ENJOY AI 在全国 20 个省举办，海外有 18 个国家设立了代理商。公司今年将建设更丰富的产品线，实现销售渠道全覆盖，用更低的价格触达消费者，举办更专业的赛事和课程提升学生能力。Krypton learned that stem integrated service provider “whale robot” has completed a new round of financing, led by PwC. This is the fourth round of financing completed within two years after the establishment of whale robot, with a total financing amount of more than 100 million yuan. This round of financing is mainly used to expand consumer business and product deep technology research and development.
Whale robot was founded in 2018. At present, the company’s core business includes 1) whale robot series of intelligent hardware robots, 2) online content platform at sea level and 3) enjoy AI Global Youth artificial intelligence popularization activities. Intelligent robot products cover the age range of 3-18 years, and the product line is divided according to the operation difficulty; the enjoy AI competition, as an export, visualizes the educational results, and creates the professionalism of popularization activities from three perspectives: the number of participants, the frequency of holding, and the influence of the media.
From the perspective of market, the intelligent robot track has the attributes of entertainment and high-tech, so in addition to the active layout of education companies, Lego and Dajiang are also expanding their categories to the track. At the same time, the players of Tob mode in the industry are generally restricted by the upper limit of market scale, and the strategy of most enterprises is to transform to a broader C-end market.
Popularize consumer robots and eliminate fear of new technologies
According to the head of whale robot sales, the average price of domestic C-end educational robots exceeds the consumption level of ordinary families, generally around thousands of yuan, while the lowest price of whale consumer robots is within 500 yuan. With the experience of product development, the company plans to launch a cost-effective consumer robot product. We hope to enter the market with a low profit pricing strategy, better achieve product popularity, and the profit markup on the basis of cost is far lower than the industry level.
The whale robot has expanded its business in both the g-end and the b-end. In terms of g-end, economically developed regions such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai are active in exploring the frontier direction of education. The cooperation mode is mainly to provide artificial intelligence laboratory system solutions based on “whale robot” software and hardware products for public schools in the region, including hardware laying, teacher training, ability certification, etc. currently, it has entered about 2000 schools.
From the B end, we have provided products, courses and level certification solutions based on “whale robot” for K12 and steam institutions, and now we have entered more than 3000 training institutions. “Whale robot” and Baidu AI Cloud reached a deep cooperation with Baidu’s powerful algorithm team to give the company technology research and development empowerment. Users can use the Baidu eco hardware products to manipulate the whale serial robots, providing users with a more complete AI product experience.
Cooperate with Baidu AI Cloud to enhance human-machine interaction experience
Human computer interaction and situational awareness is one of the most critical technologies in intelligent product design. At present, the industry mainly uses sensors to recognize users’ gesture, voice and expression to complete the interaction. Children’s intelligent robot’s understanding of speech semantics is still at a shallow level. It’s unreasonable to design children’s products relying on adults’ speech habits. In the future, children’s speech database needs to be established. The popularity of 5g technology also makes cloud computing possible. C-end robot products can save computing modules and only retain sensing and executive components, which can further improve users’ AI Product experience.
Intelligent robots need to face the challenges of open environment applications to adapt to a wider range of teaching scenarios. At present, the computing stability of the computer in the closed environment is very reliable, but in the open environment, too many elements interfere with the computing results of the processor. “Whale robot” combined with Baidu technology team, actively explore the optimization of visual algorithm.
In terms of revenue structure, the main revenue source of whale robot in 2019 is g-end and b-end, and the largest expenditure is the R & D team expenditure. This is mainly because the company is still in its infancy. With the further improvement of the product line in 2020, the C-end revenue is expected to increase significantly this year. Consistent with the revenue structure, the company’s delivery mode in 2019 is the industry vertical forum and other channels for G and b-end customers.
Whale robot said that the company’s mission is to let all young people around the world have their own intelligent robots. We don’t want future children to be afraid of technology and refuse to change. At present, the company’s products cover the whole country, enjoy AI is held in 20 provinces, and 18 countries have set up agents overseas. This year, the company will build a richer product line, achieve full coverage of sales channels, reach consumers with lower prices, and hold more professional competitions and courses to improve students’ ability.