Header image source: Beatbot.
In just two short years since its founding, Beatbot has achieved a nine-figure RMB sum in sales with only two products. It has also captured 85% of the market share for pool cleaning robots priced above USD 1,400, all within just six months.
This fast-growing company has attracted capital investment just as quickly. In 2022, a year when the robotics sector was largely stagnant, Beatbot secured nearly RMB 200 million (USD 28 million) in angel funding from top-tier funds. This became the largest angel round in the sector that year.
Before this, investors were skeptical about the potential of the overseas pool cleaning robot market. The main concern was whether such a product could sustain growth after its initial surge in popularity.
Yet, in an atmosphere of doubt, investors placed a significant bet on Beatbot, largely due to the company’s strong R&D foundation and founding team. Founder and CEO Wang Shengle, a co-founder and former executive vice president at a leading consumer robotics unicorn, has over a decade of experience in robotics. From the outset, Beatbot assembled a top-tier R&D team focused on user needs, leading to several breakthrough features.
According to sources familiar with the company, Beatbot has generated several hundred million RMB in sales over the past six months, rising to become the top high-end brand in Amazon’s pool cleaning category. Currently, Beatbot sells two models: the AquaSense and AquaSense Pro, priced at USD 1,299 and USD 2,199, respectively, while the industry average price remains in the lower hundreds.
Naturally, Beatbot has garnered attention from investors and industry players alike. In a recent Series A round, the company raised several hundred million RMB from new and existing investors.
Crafting innovative products that meet user needs
pool cleaning robots are a necessity with frequent usage. According to data compiled by 36Kr, there are 28 million residential pools worldwide, with a penetration rate of 21% for pool cleaning robots. The top two brands account for over 70% of the global market share.
Despite four decades since the introduction of the first pool cleaning robot in 1983, most products on the market today, typically priced in the hundreds, still offer relatively simple features, failing to meet users’ full cleaning needs.
“We conducted extensive research and found that users’ pain points weren’t being addressed well, yet people still continued to buy and use the products. Even with such poor performance, the penetration rate is still high,” Wang said. “Consumers aren’t most concerned about price—they want a product that can completely solve their cleaning problems. This shows that pool robot users have a high willingness to pay, and their demand is rigid. This is a category ripe for a high-end brand. If a company can innovate and exceed user expectations, consumers will pay for it.”
Wang believes that, as features improve and user needs are increasingly met, pool robots could eventually surpass a 90% penetration rate.
After deciding to launch his startup, Wang rented a house with a pool in Suzhou and, along with his team, set out to clean the pool by hand. During this process, they discovered that the most troublesome part was cleaning floating debris on the surface. Without cleaning for 2–3 days, outdoor elements like leaves, dirt, and algae contaminate the water, some sinking to the bottom while other debris floats.
This finding was somewhat unexpected. Of more than 100,000 Amazon reviews the team analyzed, only three users had mentioned wanting surface-cleaning functionality. “It’s one of those things you only realize when you do it yourself—cleaning floating debris is labor-intensive and tedious,” Wang said. “Using a net to scoop out debris is difficult due to water resistance, which is about 800 times that of air. Cleaning the bottom and surface from the pool’s edge is exhausting, and older adults risk falling.”
As product developers, they were familiar with Steve Jobs’ famous quote: “Customers don’t know what they want.”
“From traditional user research methods, surface cleaning doesn’t seem like an important need. Users don’t analyze the industry or new technology directions in depth. Just because they don’t mention something doesn’t mean they don’t need it,” Wang added.
To achieve surface-cleaning functionality, Beatbot spent six months overcoming technical challenges by applying submarine-inspired surfacing and submerging technology to its pool robot. This allowed the product not only to clean the pool’s bottom and walls like other pool cleaning robots but also to clean the surface—a breakthrough that became one of the product’s core selling points.
Another feature driven by consumer insight was water clarification. Beatbot’s AquaSense Pro is equipped with this capability, enabling the robot to evenly distribute clarifying agents during the cleaning process, depending on the pool’s size. Globally, users spend more than USD 1 billion annually on pool filtration and sanitation systems, yet no pool cleaning robot had addressed this need before.
The new robot took 18 months to develop from R&D to commercialization. When it came time to set the price, the team followed simple logic: “We realized that this product’s features far surpassed what was available on the market. Good products should be priced according to their performance and quality. High pricing is also part of our differentiation strategy.”
Beatbot aimed for the high-end pool cleaning market as its entry point. According to Chen Zhipu from YM Capital, one of Beatbot’s angel investors, pool owners in North America typically own properties worth over USD 500,000, with family assets far exceeding this. These high-net-worth individuals have higher time costs and demand better product quality. In their view, price reflects brand value, and they are willing to pay for the latest technological innovations.
The results confirm this willingness. Between Beatbot’s two products, most users prefer the Pro version, which is priced USD 900 higher than the standard AquaSense model.
For years, Chinese companies expanding globally have struggled to break free from the domestic consumer environment, focusing on cost-effectiveness or incremental innovation. Beatbot, however, chose a different path: targeting the global high-end market, emphasizing technological innovation, and pursuing a higher market positioning rather than competing with low prices. This strategy is riskier but yields greater returns in Western markets that value brand recognition and have stronger purchasing power.
Building a high-end brand
Wang, after witnessing the global rise of robotic vacuum cleaners, turned his attention to pool cleaning robots. He saw shared innovation logic between the two—currently, most pool cleaning robots are still relatively crude—robotic vacuums followed a similar trajectory.
“Robotic vacuums have been around for 25 years. I’ve been in the industry for a decade, and despite many great companies and talents being involved, the industry has only seen fewer than ten major technological innovations, such as inertial navigation, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), central dust collection, self-cleaning stations, water management, and bionic robotic arms,” Wang said.
pool cleaning robots have been around for four decades, and Wang believes that, much like robotic vacuums, they will eventually reach a level of high convenience. However, as seen in the development of robotic vacuums, achieving significant industry change requires top talent and massive funding over extended periods.
New players entering this field must be prepared for long-term, substantial investment if they want to create truly differentiated products. With continuous investment in resources and talent, Wang estimates that it will take at least five more years for pool cleaning robots to achieve fully autonomous operation.
It’s uncommon for a robotics startup to invest heavily in R&D from the outset, but Beatbot has consistently allocated over 13% of its revenue to research. In its early stages, the company has already secured more than 200 patents.
Beatbot’s success underscores the vast potential of the pool cleaning robot market and sends a clear message to other Chinese startups: with the right approach to R&D and market insight, Chinese brands can position themselves as premium players in global markets.
The Beatbot team is already working on its next-generation product. Reflecting on the broader impact of pool cleaning robots, Wang shares a personal insight: “Whether it’s taking a bath, swimming, or soaking in a hot spring, water has a healing effect and is a constant in our lives. That’s the core value that pool cleaning robots provide.”
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Yuan Silai for 36Kr.