Hibot Bolsters RaaS Business with New Funding from Innovations & Future Creation and Fuyo General Lease
Scaling of its AI-based platform HiBox will allow easier inspection and maintenance of infrastructure globally.
HiBot Bolsters RaaS Business with New Funding
(Tokyo, March 26) HiBot Corp., an innovative robotics start-up pioneering infrastructure maintenance applications, announced today that it has acquired new funding and entered into a new capital and business agreement with Innovations and Future Creation Inc. (Mirai Souzou) and Fuyo General Lease Co., Ltd. (Fuyo Lease). This partnership will allow HiBot to scale delivery of its new AI-based data platform service HiBox, which performs inspection and maintenance of infrastructure in hazardous or confined spaces such as power plants, aircraft fuel tanks and chemical factories.
HiBox is a new AI-based data platform capable of integrating smart devices such as mobile robots with autonomous data-processing services in such environments, thereby allowing creation of a digital copy of the infrastructure. The data collected and processed by the cloud-based HiBox will allow remote visualization of inspections and the likelihood of failures and defects to be predicted through processing of the accumulated data using artificial intelligence.
The key advantages of HiBox are a reduction in infrastructure downtime and of inspection work and cost, as well as increased safety and efficiency. HiBot is already working with global leaders in the fields of power generation, aeronautics and chemicals with trial inspection missions using HiBot’s smart tools and HiBox.
“HiBot has been operating for 16 years, and this funding marks a rebirth for us. Partnering with strategic global players will allow us to expand our RaaS (Robot as a Service) model in the field of inspection and maintenance of infrastructure all around the world,” said Michele Guarnieri, co-founder and CEO of HiBot. “As an innovative company of talented engineers from many different countries, our target is to contribute to the realization of a safer and more sustainable world by providing our robot solutions on a global scale.”
The partnership with Mirai Souzou and Fuyo Lease is expected to provide new value-added services for the maintenance of infrastructure. Mirai Souzou and Fuyo Lease will work jointly with HiBot to address challenges such as the shortage of labor and the need for cost reduction in the field of infrastructure maintenance, both common issues across the customer base of Fuyo Lease. The new agreement also sees the appointment of Tomokuni Takayama of the Mirai Souzou group as an external director of HiBot.
Commented Hiroyuki Okada, CEO of Mirai Souzou, “Robots must integrate existing technologies in a comprehensive manner. HiBot has a wide array of technical capabilities in the field of robots, they understand customer issues and are able to design practical solutions. We hope to become a global hub for the harnessing of various different robot technologies through HiBot, and to use these to solve customer issues in the future.”
Hiroaki Oda, Managing Executive Officer of Fuyo Lease, expressed a similar view. “HiBot has a strong technical background and a flexible development system. In addition, it runs its business based on a firm grasp of market needs. We aim to provide high-value services by tackling the issues arising within our wide range of customers with HiBot's robot solutions.”