Humanoid Robots Take the Spotlight!

On October 16th, Xingdong Jiyuan, a company specializing in embodied intelligence (commonly known as humanoid robots) that was established within the past year, announced the recent completion of nearly 300 million yuan in Pre-A financing. This round of investment was jointly led by Alibaba, ClearVue Capital, and Yuanjing Capital, with follow-on investments from Ceyuan Capital, and continued investment from existing shareholders including Lenovo Ventures, Century Golden Source, Jinding Capital, Zeyu Capital, and Tsing Capital. Huaxia Capital continued to serve as the exclusive financial advisor for this round.

This financing round marks the third round completed by Xingdong Jiyuan since its establishment in August 2023. Previously, Xingdong Jiyuan consecutively completed an angel round of over 100 million yuan led by Lenovo Ventures, with follow-on investments from Jinding Capital, Zeyu Capital, and Tsing Capital, and an oversubscribed investment from existing shareholder Century Golden Source. Additionally, it completed a seed round of tens of millions of yuan led by Century Golden Source, with follow-on investment from Turing Ventures.

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Established in just over a year with support from several star institutions

Founded in August 2023, Xingdong Jiyuan was established by Chen Jianyu, an assistant professor at the Tsinghua University Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, and is also the only humanoid robot company in which Tsinghua University holds shares.

It is understood that the founder, Chen Jianyu, became an assistant professor and doctoral supervisor at the Tsinghua University Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences at the age of 28, working in the team of Academician Yao QiZhi. Xingdong Jiyuan originally stemmed from a scientific research achievement in a Tsinghua University laboratory. Based on his experience in teaching and researching robot control and AI at the university, Chen Jianyu attempted to develop a smaller humanoid robot with high dynamic performance in his research in 2022.

In August 2023, Chen Jianyu established Xingdong Jiyuan in accordance with Tsinghua University's regulations on the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

According to Chen Jianyu, the participation of investors in various rounds has injected strong momentum into the rapid growth of Xingdong Jiyuan, helping it to accelerate innovation and application in the field of embodied intelligence. For example, ClearVue Capital and Yuanjing Capital, with their rich investment experience in the technology field and extensive industrial layout, will assist the company in accelerating the commercialization process and help the company to break through the key link from research and development to the market. Alibaba will explore cooperation opportunities with the company in the fields of AI technology and cloud computing. Lenovo Ventures, Zeyu Capital, Jinding Capital, Century Golden Source, Tsing Capital, and their respective group companies and industrial strategic partners will also join hands with Xingdong to accelerate the industrialization of humanoid robots in fields such as 3C electronics, kitchen appliances, home appliances, property management, industrial park operations, logistics, and ports. As a key industrial investment platform established by Chengdu High-Tech Zone, Ceyuan Capital will also work with Xingdong to build a mutually beneficial industrial and capital ecosystem.

"With the support of all parties, Xingdong is expected to quickly open a new chapter in the large-scale commercialization of embodied intelligence," Chen Jianyu told reporters.

It is understood that at the just concluded 2024 World Robot Conference, the company released the sixth-generation humanoid robot STAR 1 and the dexterous hand XHAND 1, demonstrating excellent hardware innovation capabilities. All core components, including XHAND, are independently developed. Compared to the third-generation "Xiaoxing" a year ago, STAR 1's degrees of freedom have increased from 20 to 55, supporting more complex humanoid postures. Its joint torque has been increased from 150N·m to 400N·m, and the joint speed has reached 25rad/s, with performance reaching the world's top level. STAR 1 has passed a number of product-level tests and fully meets market application standards.Alibaba Strikes Again

This is not Alibaba's first foray into the humanoid robot race.

In July 2024, the general-purpose robotics company "Zhu Ji Power" announced the completion of hundreds of millions of yuan in Series A strategic financing. The round was led by Alibaba, China Merchants Venture Capital, and SAIC Motor's Shangqi Capital, with original shareholders Frees Fund, Oasis Capital, and Ming Capital following suit.

This marks Alibaba's first investment in the humanoid robot sector. Business information indicates that Shenzhen Zhu Ji Power Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Zhu Ji Power) underwent a business change, adding Hangzhou Haoyue Enterprise Management Co., Ltd. as a new shareholder. Upon further equity analysis, it is revealed that the latter is an investment platform under Alibaba.

Following the completion of this capital increase, Alibaba has become the second-largest shareholder of Zhu Ji Power, next only to the founding team, with a stake of 17.35%.

Coincidentally, another well-known domestic venture capital firm, Hillhouse Capital, has just led an investment in Qian Jue Robotics (Xense Robotics). This is the third time in the past month that Hillhouse Capital has invested in the humanoid robot sector.

In addition to Alibaba and Hillhouse Capital, several other internet giants in China, including Tencent and Xiaomi, have also entered the humanoid robot market.

Data from Zhizhong shows that this year, several humanoid robot companies have completed follow-on financing. According to incomplete statistics, there have been more than 50 "embodied intelligence" financing events this year, with the highest single financing event reaching nearly 1 billion yuan, demonstrating the level of capital pursuit in this sector.

It is worth mentioning that the "billion-dollar unicorn" MiHoYo has also joined the fray. At the end of September, Xing Hai Tu, which completed its Series A financing round, saw MiHoYo among its investors, contributing funds alongside Hillhouse Capital and Wuxi Venture Capital. Xing Hai Tu specializes in full-scale dual-arm humanoid robots, and its founding team also has a background from Tsinghua University.