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Not long after the humanoid robot “Eighteen King Kong” made its debut at the Shanghai World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), the entire industry attracted another round of extremely eye-catching financing.

On July 15, general humanoid robot startup Zhuji Power announced the completion of its Series A strategic financing on its official subscription account.

Judging from the lineup of investors, this round of financing was led by China Merchants Venture Capital and Shangqi Capital, a private equity investment platform under SAIC Group, while Fangfengrui Capital, Oasis Capital and Mingshi Capital, which had participated in Zhuji Power's previous financing, continued to increase their bets.

According to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, an Alibaba-affiliated investment platform Hangzhou Haoyue Enterprise Management Co., Ltd. was the first to complete the transaction, but its pricing was also included in the Series A financing sequence. The company officially announced in May that it would make a strategic investment in Zhuji Power, and it was also listed as the lead investor in the Series A round.

This means that Zhuji Power received investments from three industrial capital giants, namely China Merchants Group, Alibaba and SAIC, in its Series A financing alone, without introducing any new financial investors - which is relatively rare even in a year when investment and financing in humanoid robots is booming.

At the same time, this is also the first time that the "Ali Group" has invested in a general humanoid robot company.

In the official announcement, Zhuji Power also emphasized the significance of the lead investor’s industrial background to the company’s subsequent implementation scenarios.

"This round of financing not only brings generous financial support for Zhuji Power's research and development, but more importantly, it utilizes the unique industrial resources to help Zhuji Power go deeper into the scenarios, accumulate solid experience in the scenarios, and promote the implementation of embodied intelligent technology." The company said.

Three major industrial capitals gather together

Public information shows that Zhuji Power was founded in 2022 by Zhang Wei, a professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology. Its main products include full-size humanoid robots, four-wheeled robots, bipedal robots and related solutions. Its applications focus on intelligent manufacturing, industrial inspection, logistics distribution, home services and other fields.

Prior to the A round of investment, Zhuji Power's major financial shareholders included angel investors Frees Capital, Kinzon Capital and Vision Capital, which have close interactions with the company. In the Pre-A round of financing, Zhuji Power also introduced Lenovo Capital, Oasis Capital and Wisdom Capital, most of which were financial investors.

In this round of financing, in addition to the old shareholders who increased their investment, the other three heavyweight investors are all industrial investors.

Among them, China Merchants Group's industries cover various logistics sub-industries such as sea, river, land, air, ports, energy, energy transportation, and financial services.

Alibaba covers all-scenario retail, as well as key technologies in cross-cutting areas of humanoid robots including cloud computing and general large models.

As a representative enterprise in the automobile industry, SAIC Group can perfectly match the technical interaction and scene supply of general humanoid robot companies in terms of mechanical technology versatility and scene adaptability.

It is worth noting that SAIC, as a well-known investor in the field of humanoid robots, has also invested in another star project in the humanoid robot industry, "Zhiyuan Robotics". In April this year, UBTECH Robotics (09880.HK), the first humanoid robot stock, also officially announced that it would conduct practical training tests with SAIC's factories.

"The goal of Zhuji Power's Series A financing is to find matching strategic industrial resources and application scenarios in the AI ​​era of general humanoid robots. While using multimodal large models to accelerate technological breakthroughs in general humanoid robots, it will promote the verification and iteration of related technologies in real scenarios, upgrade from cutting-edge technology exploration to commercial implementation, and lay a technical and industrial foundation for the commercial application of general humanoid robots in multiple scenarios," the company pointed out.

The “industrial content” of humanoid robot investment has increased

However, due to the general constraints on the level of intelligence, scenario data and motion performance, the industrialization and scenario-based trend of humanoid robot financing in China and even the world seems to be constantly strengthened.

Earlier, two well-known humanoid robot companies, UBTECH Robotics and Unitree Technology, started early, and their investors also had a high "industrial content".

After Yushu Technology completed its B+ round of financing, its industrial investors still include Shunwei Capital and Meituan; and UBTECH's pre-IPO investments also include industrial capitals such as BYD, iFlytek, Tencent, Haier, Easyhome, and Shandong Railway Investment.

Zhiyuan Robotics, which took a long time to raise its Series A financing, has industrial investors including SAIC Group, Baidu, which is "all-in AI", BYD, and Sanhua Intelligent Control (002050.SZ), a well-known Tesla industry chain company.

Coincidentally, the leading overseas humanoid robot companies also rely on the strong support of industry investors.

For example, the Series A financing of FigureAI, a leading company, has attracted investment institutions under leading software and electronics companies including Microsoft, OpenAI, Bezos' investment company, Nvidia, Intel, LG, and Samsung. Another well-known humanoid robot company 1X has also received support from OpenAI and Next under Samsung.

Optimus Prime Robotics and Boston Dynamics are from two mainstream car manufacturers, Tesla and Hyundai Motor respectively.

Overall, the difference between having or not having support from industrial investors has almost created a gap in the humanoid robot industry, and seems to have created a gap between companies such as UBTECH, Yushu, Zhiyuan and even Zhuji and other humanoid robot companies.

Sports intelligence as a selling point

So why is Zhuji Power favored by industry investors? The reporter noticed that compared with its peers, excellent athletic ability seems to be the core selling point that Zhuji Power wants to convey to the outside world.

In March this year, Zhuji Power successfully went viral after releasing a video of the company's bipedal robot P1 off-roading in Tanglang Mountain in Shenzhen.

In the video, the bipedal robot P1, which has an anti-human joint design like an ostrich, walks in highly irregular scenes such as grass slopes, ditches, and mountain roads, and adjusts its balance and gait amid interference and kicking.

Zhuji Power officials stated that this robot is the first bipedal robot that can walk in the wild and complete the task of moving on various complex terrains in a completely unfamiliar wild environment with zero samples and without protection.

The company's more well-known video was the dynamic demonstration of the four-wheeled robot dog W1, which was able to stand up solely on its wheeled feet, which impressed the outside world.

In April this year, Zhuji Power released a dynamic test video of the company's general-purpose humanoid robot CL-1, demonstrating running and stair-climbing movements that are rarely shown in current humanoid robots, as well as real-time multimodal perception capabilities.

After this round of financing, Zhuji Power will also enhance its intelligent motion capabilities as a selling point to differentiate itself from other general humanoid robot companies.

"Zhuji Power has fully self-developed core technologies for humanoid robot software and hardware. Next, it will focus on promoting the basic model of humanoid robot motion intelligence," the company pointed out after completing the financing.