Chinese vacuum robot maker debuts on Shanghai Stock Exchange

China's leading floor-cleaning robot maker Ecovacs Robotics listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Monday.

The company's share price rose by the upper debut limit of 44 percent to 28.83 yuan (4.51 U.S. dollars).

Ecovacs earlier this month raised about 803 million yuan in an IPO by selling 40.1 million shares at 20.02 yuan each.

The money will be mainly used to finance the development of a new plant capable of producing 4 million robots annually.

Founded in 1998 by Chinese entrepreneur Qian Dongqi, the company was initially an equipment manufacturer for foreign vacuum cleaner brands.

Ecovacs sold 3.33 million home robots last year, with service robots contributing over 63 percent of the company's total revenue.

Overseas market sales of service robots reached 750 million yuan in 2017, about 12 times that in 2015.

China has become an emerging market for vacuum robots and other service robots as increasingly affluent Chinese opt to make their life more convenient.

Domestic market research company China Market Monitor expects the country's vacuum robot market to register a 20-percent annual compound growth rate between 2017 and 2020.