Samsung raises Rainbow Robotics stake, eyes management control

Samsung Electronics Co. is looking to own a controlling stake in Rainbow Robotics Co., a South Korean collaborative robot maker, as the tech giant has set the robot business as one of its growth drivers.

Samsung bought 913,939 shares in Rainbow Robotics for 27.8 billion won ($21.2 million) through an off-the-market trade on Wednesday. With the share purchase, Samsung’s stake in the robot maker has risen to 14.99% from 10.3% earlier.

Samsung has also signed a call option contract, allowing it to buy stakes held by Rainbow’s largest shareholder and relevant parties first if they put their holdings up for sale.

If Samsung exercises its call option rights, its stake in Rainbow Robotics would rise to 59.94%, enough to gain management control of the robot maker.

In January, Samsung acquired 10.3% of Rainbow Robotics, a Kosdaq-listed company, for 59 billion won, marking the tech giant’s first investment in a domestic collaborative robot maker.

Collaborative robots are intended for direct human-robot interaction within a shared space, or where humans and robots are nearby. Those robots are getting more advanced with artificial intelligence and big data.

Rainbow Robotics was founded in 2011 as the humanoid robot research center of the Korea Advanced Institution of Science and Technology, one of the country’s most prestigious universities.

Rainbow is also developing products such as quadruped walking robots, bipedal platforms and autonomous mobile robots with Hyundai Rotem Co., a unit of Hyundai Motor Co.

WEARABLE, INTELLIGENT ROBOTS

Samsung’s latest move builds on Vice Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Han Jong-hee’s announcement last year that the company will nurture robotics as one of its key businesses to drive future growth. The company established a robotics business team in 2022.

“Starting this year, we’re going to launch various types of robots, including wearable and intelligent robots,” he said on Wednesday at Samsung’s general shareholders’ meeting.

Industry sources said last month that Samsung, the world’s largest memory chipmaker and smartphone manufacturer, plans to bring its first wearable robot EX1 to market by the end of 2023 to gain ground in the fast-growing sector.

Samsung first unveiled a wearable exoskeleton robot, called the gait enhancing and motivation system (GEMS), at the CES trade show in 2019. The company also developed three variations of the wearable robot; the GEMS Hip, the GEMS Knee and the GEMS Ankle. But it didn’t commercialize the robots at the time.

The company provided no details on EX1, but industry watchers said the new wearable robot, to be based on the exoskeleton walking aid robot GEMS Hip, will assist users who have trouble walking, running or standing up, and can also be used as a fitness device.

According to Brandessence Market Research & Consulting, the global service robot market is forecast to grow from $35.2 billion in 2021 to $140.9 billion by 2027.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong and Jun-Ho Cha at jeong@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.