BEIJING — It took eight years for Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Junbin to turn a small startup with a start-up capital of just 200,000 yuan ($28,090) into a unicorn enterprise that now sells smart robot vacuum cleaners and mops in more than 30 overseas markets.

Founder and CEO of Shenzhen-based Narwal Robotics, Zhang today leads a company of more than 1,000 employees with a commitment to excellence; A remarkable achievement considering its humble beginnings with fewer than 10 employees in 2016.

Narwal did not launch a single product in its first three years. Instead, it invested all its resources in technology and product R&D, focusing on details. The materials designed just for the company’s robot mop have been selected and improved dozens of times. This slow progress at one point threatened the firm’s survival.

“At that time, life was very stressful, funding was tight, and the team was understaffed. Six or seven of us were crammed into a 20-square-meter office, each earning just over 1,000 yuan a month. But we gritted our teeth, and Zhang said, “We finally had to build a prototype without producing a prototype. “We insisted for more than two years first,” he said.

The company said that a small Narwal robotic sweeping machine contains more than 600 technology patents, and related technologies cover areas such as SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping), 3D sensing, AI object recognition and big data applications.

Zhang is not alone in gaining fame in his quest for innovation.

Xue Min, founder of Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare Co Ltd, followed a similar path in starting a company from scratch, gradually transforming it into a formidable player in the global high-performance advanced medical imaging market.

A little more than a decade ago, high-end medical imaging equipment from Chinese manufacturers was almost non-existent in the country’s top hospitals. Foreign giants such as GE HealthCare, Philips and Siemens dominated more than 90 percent of the Chinese market.

United Imaging undertook a series of challenging tasks: disassembling key components and cables, meticulously examining their structure using X-ray machines, and examining the diameter and material of each copper wire.

In 2018, United Imaging’s first domestic integrated PET/MRI device was approved and launched; This made China the third country in the world to independently produce PET/MR systems.

Over the years, the installation volume of United Imaging’s new product lines has repeatedly ranked first in the domestic market, leading foreign manufacturers of similar products to reduce their prices.

Zhang and Xue and the companies they lead exemplify Chinese firms’ increasing investment in technology and product R&D in recent years, which is translating into growing corporate innovation strength in China.

Data from the National Intellectual Property Administration of China showed that by the end of 2023, the number of companies with valid invention patents in China reached 427,000, an increase of 72,000 compared to the previous year. Approximately 3 million of the valid invention patents in the country consist of domestic initiatives, that is, 71.2 percent of the total.

Narwal and United Imaging represent a group of Chinese companies that are increasingly generating revenue from foreign markets.

Narwal has decided to test the waters of the global market in 2022. As usual, the company waited nearly three years to make this decision and remained silent between 2019 and 2021.

Company data shows that as of the end of July this year, Narwal’s overseas revenue increased approximately 7.5 times on an annual basis and increased the number of countries and regions in which it sells products from nine last year to over 30 this year. Like Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands.

xinhua