▲Roborobo Head Office in Seoul, Korea

The Korea educational robot manufacturer Roborobo Co. Ltd. was acquired by Hana Must 4th SPAC stock, and on the 31st passed the initial screening for the merger listing set forth by the Korea Exchange Review Committee. From a legal perspective, the Hana Must 4th SPAC is a way to absorb Roborobo Co. Ltd., but once the merger is finalized, it will succeed the company’s business. The merger ratio was 1: 68.2422727; the new share listing date is set for December 19th.

At the core of Roborobo's business is the production and sales of educational robots, whose overseas exports over the past three years have contributed greatly to skyrocketing sales. Consolidated financial statements for 2016 recorded sales of $11.4million.

As China’s exports continue to increase this year, consolidated sales in the first half of 2017 recorded $6.7million, and year on year sales are expected to increase. This is a welcome bit of bright news against a backdrop of sharply dropping Korean exports to China, due to Beijing’s issue with the THAAD installment in Korea. The company has also had success in their diversification strategy, as sales to non-Chinese countries such as the US, India, UAE, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Singapore have also increased by about 200%.

▲Children's coding robot kit 'UARO'

In 2016, buttressed by KIRIA’s (Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement) promotion of a market-creating robot in order to to develop an engaging classroom experience in China, the building of a hands-on experience classroom for children in Mongolia, and the opening of online lectures, the projects were met with favorable reviews, and the company looks toward a promising future.

The company's exports to China last year amounted to $ 5 million; so far, in the first half of this year, the company’s exports totalled $ 3.8 million. An associate within the company said that they expect to easily achieve their target sales of $6.5 million.

▲High-end humanoid coding robot kit 'ROMANBO'

In addition, during the latter part of last year, Roborobo created several new products such as a coding robot for children called 'UARO', an educational coding toy 'Coding Story' for elementary students, and a high-end humanoid coding robot kit 'ROMANBO', which were received well by the public. Export plans with overseas partners are also proceeding as planned and are expected to contribute to sales growth.