Ever wonder who made that robot that assisted you with your check-in or delivered food to your room during your last hotel stay? The answer could quite possibly be Beijing Yunji Technology Co. Ltd. (2670.HK), which has quietly carved out a place as China’s leading supplier of scenario-based robots providing a growing range of services in hotels, such as in-room service, on-demand item delivery, guest assistance and fulfilling service and maintenance requests.
Now, that same company is hoping investors will check in to its stock with its new Hong Kong listing on Thursday, welcoming them down a red carpet whose A-list of previous backers have included leading names such as Alibaba Group, Lenovo Group, Tencent, Qiming Venture Partners, Trip.com, and FountainVest Partners, among others.
The IPO makes Yunji the first to list in Hong Kong from an emerging generation of companies providing robots to perform services in venues like hotels, commercial buildings, healthcare facilities and factories. While Yunji is losing money, like many of its peers, it’s being allowed to list under a two-year-old Hong Kong Stock Exchange rule allowing IPOs by “specialist technology” companies that would otherwise fail to meet the usual profitability requirements. Notably, it is the first listing under that rule, called Chapter 18C, this year.