mbot

mbot is a private chinese technology company headquartered in Shenzhen, China, that develops Arduino-based hardware, robotics hardware, and Scratch-based software, for the purpose of providing educational tools for learning. This includes programming, engineering, and mathematics through the use of robotics.

The recipient of multiple design awards, Makeblock's products are sold in more than 140 countries and have over 10 million users in 20,000 schools worldwide. Roughly 70 percent of Makeblock's sales occur outside of China, with the United States being the largest market.

Founder & CEO

It is founded in 1985 in Anhui, China, Jasen Wang says that he grew up as an "ordinary, poor child". He earned his master's degree in Aircraft Design at Northwestern Polytechnical University in 2010, while tinkering with robotics on the side. Wang spent a year in the workforce before founding Makeblock in 2012. He aimed to encourage people to transform ideas into physical products. Wang remains a product manager at the company. In 2013, Forbes China ranked Wang as one of the top 30 entrepreneurs under the age of 30. After founding the Makeblock brand in March 2012, $23,000 was raised in a round of funding from HAX. The company received international coverage when it launched a robotics construction platform called Makeblock during December of the same year.

History of mbot

2013

Makeblock successfully launched a crowdfunding project on Kickstarter, becoming the first ever Chinese entity to do so.

2014

Makeblock began mBlock, officially entering the educational market in February.

2015

The first launch of mBot and mDrawbot occurred in April. By December, Makeblock's products had been sold in over 80 countries, and the brand had partnered with over 1,000 educational institutions.

2016

The first launch of mBot Ranger took place in March. In May, Makeblock became the exclusive robotics building platform of the RoPorter competition at The Washington Post's Transformers event. The first real experience store opened in Shenzhen in June, marking the company's first entry into the consumer mass market. At this stage, Makeblock products had been sold in over 140 countries and utilized in more than 20,000 schools. Airblock was launched in October, followed by the release of mBlock in November.

2017

Makeblock Neuron was launched in March 2017. Shortly afterwards, the product won an array of internationally recognized awards including the German Red Dot, American ISDA IDEA, Good Design Award (Japan) and the South Korean K-Design Award. MakeX - a Chinese national robotics challenge for teenagers was launched in May. In July, a partnership with SoftBank Group heralded an official entry into the Japanese market. This was followed by the set up of subsidiaries in the U.S., Europe, Hong Kong and Japan in August. Codey Rocky was released in November. By December, the number of global Makeblock users surpassed 4.5 million.

2018

Makeblock raised $44 million (USD) in Series C round with a $367 million valuation. The round was led by the China International Capital Corporation (CICC) Alpha, a subsidiary of the CICC direct investment platform