USD 2.3 million for a robotics start-up with heavy R&D investments is not much. “Oasa brought in USD 300,000. That’s not much,” an industry insider told 36Kr. In an interview, a founder in the industry said bluntly that “if you want to start a lawnmower startup, you’d better have RMB 100,000,000 ready.” The company had not responded to any Facebook messages. A few days later, a backer reported that their order for a blade and roller attachment had been canceled, and they asked for an explanation.

Rumors about Oasa’s demise spread quickly and sparked a lot of discussion among backers. The company did not respond, and the links to its Amazon store stopped working after 10 May. Oasa will be closing down.

Innovation reaches its limits

The Oasa R1 was a product that introduced real innovation.

This was the first lawnmower to use a reel-blade system. Reel blades are more efficient than traditional rotary blades that can leave grass clippings flying and uneven cuts. They roll and shear, like scissors, to create cleaner, uniform cuts, with less damage on the turf.

In addition, the R1 featured an automatic blade-sharpening mechanism. This system allowed users to avoid manual inspections, as it monitored blade wear in real-time. It also reduced the frequency of replacements and recalibrations.

However, the disadvantages were also evident. Each set of reel blades costs two to three times more than a rotary system. The automatic sharpener is even more complex, requiring miniature actuators and precise calibration. This led to an immature supply chain and low yield rates for a startup such as Oasa, in its early stages of production. These factors drove up the overall unit cost.

A veteran mower engineer, Li Xian, said: “You can’t pitch a PowerPoint and build a product.” “The reel blade idea was cool, and the build looked solid. But just one set of blades cost over RMB 1000 (USD 140). It was too costly.”

Oasa used a hybrid solution that combined vision and LiDAR. The algorithmic approach is a major factor in lawn care robotics. The most common configurations in the industry include pure vision, RTK (real-time Kinematics) and vision with LiDAR.

• Vision-based systems are inexpensive and rich in context awareness, but struggle with harsh lighting and indistinct objects. Processing is slower and less responsive.
• Vision plus RTK combines visual sensor technology with high-precision satellite positional tracking to provide boundary control and strong reliability. It’s expensive and dependent on satellite and base-station signals.
• Vision plus LiDAR provides accurate mapping of the environment and works well in different light conditions. LiDAR sensors can be expensive and have blind spots.

One person familiar with Oasa’s product said that the R1 used a single-line LiDAR technique, which is commonly found in robotic vacuums. “It is actually very cheap and during testing, it did not work well under the sun,” said the person.

Sure, the blades are innovative, but other tech isn’t up to date. “The differentiation was not very meaningful,” said Xiao Yue, a lawn robotics engineer. For example, because the R1 was equipped with two cameras, it required constant data training in order to improve. This meant that machine learning optimization took a long time.

Li, the founder, understood the importance of foundational technology. Oasa was a company that employed 50 people at its peak. Software engineers were reportedly paid RMB 700 000-800 000 (USD 98,000-112,000) per year. These high personnel costs only exacerbated the financial strains of the company. In his letter, Li acknowledged the startup’s inability to survive due to mounting financial and operational pressures.

While Oasa’s structural innovations were impressive, lawn robots, which are deeply integrated systems can be ruined by a weak link in their hardware-software matrix. Even standout features can become liabilities without a full stack.

Choke Points

The lawn care robot market in the US and Europe is heavily concentrated, with sprawling backyards driving demand. Statista estimates that there are approximately 250 million gardens in the world. The US is the leader with approximately 100 million gardens, or 40% of global market. Europe follows with about 80 million. In Europe, robot mower penetration is between 10-15%, but in the US it’s only 2%, as many people still use handheld lawn mowers.

Customs data shows that Germany is China’s top exporter of lawn mowers. The UK, then the US, are the next three.

“Europe sees higher volume. Peng Li, the head of a mower start-up, said that many users are switching to wireless mowers from wired models.

Oasa’s R1 was primarily aimed at Germany and the US. But Germany is fiercely contested, with players like Husqvarna or Positec dominating the market. Positec holds 59% of the market in Germany. New entrants such as Ninebot and Ecovacs have also been gaining ground rapidly.

Peng Li stated that distributors in Europe, North America and Asia were reaching out to Ninebot to conduct product tests. “Ninebot had a strong brand equity so they reached out to them to do this proactively.” “Most of our channel partners, including mine, are still Chinese.”

The company that secures the best local partner first gains an edge. Li Xian said that Oasa lacked channel capabilities in Germany which limited its market reach right from the beginning.

Oasa’s US ambitions, meanwhile, were also limited by scale. Around 40% of US homes feature lawns that are larger than 1,000 square metres, and many have open, uneven terrain, such as wet, muddy grass or woodlands. The typical middle-class home sits on plots ranging from 1,300 to 2,000 square meters.

R1 can only handle lawns of up to 500 square metres, with a maximum theoretical area of 1,000. Agilex’s Luba 2 AWD, and Yuka models can handle areas larger than 3,000 square metres. The Lymow One is capable of cutting 7,000 square metres per day. The maximum size of the Yarbo M1 by Hanyang Robotics is six acres.

In markets such as the US and Europe where large backyards are common, Oasa’s limited range is a major disadvantage.

In the last two years, lawn robots have gained in popularity along with pool cleaners and bots that remove snow. But the boom has also raised stakes. Many startups are feeling it.

It’s not the first wave. In 2023, companies and projects in the field were shut down. Anker Innovations’ mower team was disbanded after it failed to compete. EcoFlow’s lawnmower failed to meet expectations and eventually was pulled. Heisenberg Robotics was listed as a risky creditor after it went into default.

Oasa’s abrupt fall is a reality-check for the sector. But it’s also an indication that the balance between commercial viability and technical ambition needs to be reviewed. It’s possible that the industry is entering a more sobering phase.

KrASIA Connection presents translated and adapted content originally published by 36Kr. This article has been written by Huang Nan exclusively for 36Kr.