[Click eStock] Rainbow Robotics Aims to Become Next Year's 'Robot Leader'

▲Hubo. [Photo by KAIST]

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] NH Investment & Securities predicted on the 2nd that Rainbow Robotics, a South Korean robot development company, will experience full-scale growth next year, supported by factory expansion and overseas market entry.

The company's sales in the first half of the year reached 6.99 billion KRW, a 148.2% increase compared to the previous year, and operating profit turned positive at 810 million KRW.

Starting next year, the factory will be expanded, increasing the production capacity of collaborative robots from the current 1,000 units to 3,000 units. Overseas market entry, which was delayed due to COVID-19, will also resume. Accordingly, NH Investment & Securities expects the company to enter a full-scale performance growth trajectory. The projected annual sales for next year are 24.43 billion KRW, with operating profit expected to reach 5.13 billion KRW.

Researcher Kyunggeun Kang of NH Investment & Securities explained, "Based on the core element technologies internalized through the development of bipedal robots (in sourcing), the company has secured price competitiveness and business scalability. They have completed product launches ranging from ultra-precision directional mount systems for astronomical observation to collaborative robots," adding, "They are expanding their product lineup to include autonomous mobile robots, medical robots, and quadrupedal robots."

He continued, "Since the company develops and uses core robot components and software directly, the cost ratio is low, resulting in a gross profit margin (GPM) exceeding 50%. Collaborative robots internalize core components that account for about 60% or more of the cost, enabling supply at prices 30-50% lower than domestic and overseas competitors," he analyzed.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Robotics was spun off in 2011 from Hubo Lab, a research institute within KAIST. The company developed 'Hubo,' South Korea's first humanoid bipedal robot. Hubo is recognized as one of the world's top three bipedal robots alongside Japan's Honda ASIMO and Boston Dynamics' Atlas platform. The company also won the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), the world's first robot competition organized by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the U.S. Department of Defense.