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Samsung Electronics’ campus in Seoul’s Seocho District (Yonhap)

Samsung Electronics is investing 58.9 billion won (US$46.3 million) into the KOSDAQ-listed robotics startup Rainbow Robotics.

Rainbow Robotics’ stock price responded to the news by skyrocketing to nearly the daily price limit.

Rainbow Robotics announced Tuesday that it had decided to raise capital by allotting new stock to a third party, more specifically, 58.98 billion won in shares to Samsung Electronics.

Samsung Electronics will acquire all the newly issued 1,940,200 shares (face value, 500 won. Issue price, 30,400 won).

This is Samsung Electronics’ first investment in a robotics company.

Rainbow Robotics’ stock price climbed 27.45% (8,950 won) from the previous day to 41,550 won at the end of trading, driven by expectations regarding Samsung’s entry into robotics.

Founded in 2011 by the KAIST Humanoid Robot Research Center team that developed Korea’s first bipedal robot, HUBO, Rainbow Robotics was listed on the KOSDAQ in February of 2021.

With 65 employees, the company enjoyed 10.4 billion won in sales from January to September of last year.

KAIST robotics chair professor Oh Jun-ho, an international robotics engineer and so-called “HUBO’s daddy,” serves as the company’s chief technology officer.

He is both its founder and biggest stockholder with a 20.98% share, and a 40.61% share if special relationship shares are included.

The Korean Financial Analytics Institute said Rainbow Robotics is a general robotics platform company, producing bipedal and four-legged robots including humanoids, cooperative robots and military robots.

It said in the bipedal humanoid robot sector, the company is one of the world’s top three in terms of technology alongside Honda’s ASIMO and Boston Dynamics’ Atlas.

Major corporations are jumping into the robotics sector in partnership with robotics companies.

Hyundai Motor acquired Boston Dynamics for about 1 trillion won at the end of 2020, while Samsung Electronics announced last August a plan to push the adoption of unmanned factories at its major global production centers by 2030.

Kiwoom Securities said Rainbow Robotics’ domestic and international sales are climbing in earnest as the use of cooperative robots in automated industrial processes increases.

Rainbow Robotics has signed MOUs regarding cooperative robot technology and pursued cooperative projects with Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Hyundai Robotics.

By Cho Kye-wan, senior staff writer

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