Aiper Inc. (brand "Aiper") is a maker of cordless robotic pool cleaners. It is part of the Aiper group, whose operating parent, Shenzhen Yuanding Intelligent Innovation Co., Ltd. (元鼎智能), was founded in Shenzhen around 2015–2017 by CEO Richard Wang; the Aiper pool-robot brand launched in 2019. Aiper Inc. is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and maintains a U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia (earlier filings listed U.S. addresses in Los Angeles, CA and Roswell, GA), with Chinese operations and R&D centers in Shenzhen and Suzhou. Ownership is private. In April 2025 pool-equipment group Fluidra agreed to invest ~US$100 million for a 27% stake, completed 23 December 2025, with a path to majority control if Aiper exceeds roughly US$370 million in revenue at ~15% EBITDA margin. Fluidra's announcement cited ~470 employees and ~US$195 million of 2024 sales; Chinese-language sources describe a larger figure (~RMB 3 billion, >600 staff), so size estimates vary by source.
Products/operations: cordless, battery-powered robotic pool cleaners for in-ground and above-ground pools (e.g., Seagull, Scuba and Surfer-series surface skimmers), sold direct-to-consumer online and through retailers such as Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart, Target and Costco. The company is expanding toward a "smart yard" line — robotic mowers, irrigation and snow-removal products. It is an operating company, not an NPE.
Litigation posture: Aiper Inc. appears once in the tracked data, as a defendant (0 plaintiff cases), consistent with an operating company defending infringement claims. The sole case is Zodiac Pool Care Europe et al. v. Wybotics Co., Ltd. et al., No. 2:22-cv-05271 (C.D. Cal.), filed 2022-07-29, alongside parallel ITC Investigation No. 337-TA-1326 on U.S. Patents 8,393,029 and 8,393,031 (robotic pool cleaner filter/configuration technology). Counsel for Zodiac states the Aiper entities settled on confidential terms before the close of fact discovery, producing a consent order barring Aiper from importing or selling the accused products in the U.S.
Context: the dispute is competitor-to-competitor, not NPE-driven — Zodiac is a subsidiary of Fluidra, which is now also a minority shareholder in Aiper.