SoftBank Robotics Group Corp. (“SBRG”) today announced that, as of the end of March 2020, it has globally sold more than 6,000 cumulative units of ‘Whiz,’ the AI-enabled vacuum-cleaning robot developed and provided by SoftBank Robotics Corp. Following the launch of the humanoid robot ‘Pepper,’ SBRG announced Whiz as its second robot on November 19, 2018, and began providing it commercially from May 2019 in Japan. Furthermore, Whiz was also launched in Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore in September 2019 and the United States of America in November 2019.

Against the backdrop of heightened worldwide interest in facilities cleanliness and demands to shift cleaning tasks from manual labor to robots, Whiz has seen increased sales. SBRG expects that Whiz will continue to see a great amount of demand from around the world. By utilizing Whiz, SBRG will respond to the increased interest around the world to enhance facilities cleanliness and the cleaning industry’s needs for greater collaboration. In parallel, SBRG aims to help solve issues facing the industry, including a shrinking and aging workforce.