Recently, Jiangsu Zikoo Smart Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “ZIKOO”), a benchmark enterprise in the pallet storage robot sector, officially announced the completion of a new funding round totaling hundreds of millions of RMB. This fresh capital will be fully allocated to accelerate core technology R&D iterations, refine its full range of products, and deepen its global market expansion. Concurrently, the funds will be used to upgrade its talent pipeline and organizational efficiency, continuously consolidating the company’s technical barriers and core competitiveness to steadily increase its global market penetration and industry share.
Strong Alliance: Exclusive Strategic Investment from KION Group and Continued Backing from Suzhou State-Owned Capital
This funding round consists of a Series B round and an Industrial Strategic round. The Series B round was led by Suzhou Capital Group, with continued follow-on investment from existing shareholder Zhangjiagang Capital Group. The Industrial Strategic round was exclusively funded by global intralogistics giant KION Group. With this, ZIKOO has successfully closed a three-round capitalization loop, gaining high recognition from the capital markets. This fully validates the company’s solid technical strength, mature commercialization capabilities, and long-term growth value in the pallet storage robot niche, earning the mutual favor of both industry leaders and state-owned capital.
Empowered by Giants: KION Group — Leading Global Logistics Automation
KION Group is a global leader in intralogistics and supply chain automation. It is the largest in Europe and the second-largest industrial truck manufacturer globally, firmly positioned in the top tier of global warehouse automation solutions. Its business covers industrial trucks, integrated automation technologies, AI-based solutions, and related software and services, spanning over 100 countries and regions. KION owns a portfolio of top-tier global logistics brands, including Linde, Dematic, and STILL. In 2024, KION Group ranked first in industrial truck sales in the EMEA region, and by the end of 2025, its global total sales are projected to exceed two million units. Based on 2024 revenue, KION ranks among the top foreign-owned peers in China and third when including local Chinese manufacturers. In the warehouse automation market, KION Group also holds a leading global position based on 2024 revenue, with expected revenue of approximately 11.3 billion euros in 2025.
As a global leader in high-end material handling and comprehensive smart warehousing solutions, KION has long been committed to integrating automated logistics ecosystems, driving synergistic innovation in cutting-edge technologies, and empowering global distribution networks. This exclusive strategic investment in ZIKOO is not only a crucial move for KION to perfect its flexible warehouse automation footprint in the Asia-Pacific region, but also a milestone collaboration that deeply binds a multinational giant with a domestic “hidden champion.” This comprehensive synergy of “Technology + Brand + Channel” will fully assist ZIKOO in penetrating the global high-end market, accelerating the global implementation of its technology, and building a world-class smart warehousing ecological barrier.
Hardcore Strength: ZIKOO — Deeply Cultivating the Pallet Storage Robot Track
Founded in 2017, ZIKOO focuses on the independent R&D of core technologies for pallet storage robots, aiming to enhance warehousing operational efficiency, flexible scenario adaptation, and high-density storage capabilities. Centered on technology and solution innovation, the company has developed storage robots such as six-way shuttles and omnidirectional stacker robots. Paired with its proprietary integrated software platform for warehouse management, equipment execution, and intelligent robot dispatching, ZIKOO offers a full-stack smart pallet storage solution. Notably, its flagship product—the six-way shuttle automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS)—has maintained a growth rate of over 40% in recent years. Industry forecasts suggest that related product sales will surpass 10,000 units by 2027-2028, pushing the market size into the tens of billions, with the long-term potential to grow into a 50-billion-level golden track.
Relying on its hardcore technology and exceptional solution-delivery capabilities, ZIKOO has achieved counter-trend, leapfrog growth, with year-over-year order growth stabilizing at a high level of 70%. The company deeply serves top-tier industry clients such as State Grid, JD Logistics, Geek+, Linde (China), CIMC Logistics, CNDI , Zhongtian Group, and China Jack, continuously securing large-scale repeat orders. Simultaneously, its overseas business is rising rapidly, accounting for nearly 30% of total orders over the past two years. Its projects now cover dozens of countries and regions globally, including Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America. To date, ZIKOO has successfully implemented over 500 projects worldwide, widely applied across more than 20 sub-industries such as power utilities, food, smart manufacturing, pharmaceutical cold chain, new energy, third-party logistics, and e-commerce retail.
Strategic Synergy: Global Premiere of the AI Smart Warehouse Solution Powered by KION
Concurrently, ZIKOO, in collaboration with KION Group’s core brand Linde (China), globally debuted a new-generation pallet storage solution—the AI Smart Warehouse. This solution adopts an innovative omni-domain flexible shuttle architecture to deeply optimize the running speed and global path planning of storage robots. Relying on self-developed AI intelligent algorithms, it dynamically analyzes business data, inventory layout, operational paths, and equipment resources to perform periodic autonomous optimization and dispatching. This enables the warehousing system to become “smarter and more adaptable with use,” highly matching the agile iteration needs of enterprise operations.
Guo Jinpeng, Member of the Executive Board of KION Group and President of KION ITS Asia Pacific, stated: “We are extremely pleased to reach a strategic partnership with ZIKOO. This investment is an important layout for KION Group to continuously perfect its automation ecosystem partner network. It will further deepen our technical footprint in the warehouse automation sector and continuously enhance Linde’s comprehensive solution system for future logistics scenarios.”
Compared to traditional automated warehousing solutions, the AI Smart Warehouse can improve storage space utilization by approximately 30%. Its innovative “Magic Change” dynamic slot reconfiguration technology maximizes warehouse storage space release; its global shortest-path intelligent dispatching supports flexible deployment at any inbound/outbound port, significantly boosting comprehensive operational and picking efficiency. Paired with a standardized and modular product architecture, it possesses ultra-strong flexible expansion capabilities, helping enterprises build efficient, smart, and sustainable modern intelligent warehousing systems.
Cai Chuanyu, Founder and CEO of ZIKOO, stated: “Joining hands in this strategic partnership with KION Group is of milestone significance for ZIKOO. The globally leading brand influence and profound industrial heritage of KION’s core brand Linde (China) are highly complementary to ZIKOO’s technical accumulation and innovative products. This collaboration represents a crucial step in our global layout. Moving forward, we will work together to accelerate technological implementation and create higher value for global customers.”
Enduring Favor: State-Owned Capital Escort, Boosting High-Quality Enterprise Development
Suzhou Capital Group stated: “Smart warehousing is a core link in the upgrade of smart manufacturing and modern logistics. By virtue of its deep technical cultivation and product innovation in the pallet storage robot field, ZIKOO has grown into a benchmark enterprise in this niche track. We firmly believe in the company’s development prospects. This investment is both an endorsement of its technical strength and commercialization capabilities, and an important measure for Suzhou Capital Group to layout smart equipment and boost the high-quality development of tech enterprises.”
Zhangjiagang Capital Group commented: “As a veteran shareholder that has accompanied ZIKOO’s growth over the long term, we have witnessed the company’s entire journey from technological breakthroughs to large-scale implementation. The company continues to build its core competitiveness in the pallet storage robot track, and its products and solutions have been widely validated by the market. This continued backing is a vote of full confidence in the company’s team, technology, and future prospects. We will, as always, support the enterprise in taking root in Zhangjiagang, serving the nation, and going global, helping the company grow larger and stronger, and contributing our strength to local industrial digital transformation and high-quality economic development.”
ZIKOO Founder and CEO Cai Chuanyu concluded: “We sincerely thank Suzhou Capital Group for their strategic investment, and our veteran shareholder Zhangjiagang Capital Group for their unwavering support and continuous capital injections. As a fertile ground for technological innovation, Suzhou has provided an excellent environment for ZIKOO’s rapid development, and we have achieved leapfrog growth here in Zhangjiagang. In the future, the company will continue to empower industrial upgrades with smart technologies, contributing to high-quality local economic development.”
