The team from the Xiaomi ecosystem has secured another 100 million yuan in financing for developing the robot brain. Didi has made a major investment for the first time, and Li Wanqiang was among its previous investors.

On July 8th, Robot Outlook reported that Xiaoyu Zhizao announced the completion of a hundred - million - level Series A+ financing round, led by Didi and with additional investment from Beijing Information Industry Fund. This is Didi's first bet on the field of embodied intelligence.

Since its establishment in 2023, Xiaoyu Zhizao has completed multiple rounds of hundred - million - level financing. Other historical investors and investment institutions include Wang Tianmiao, Xiaomi Industrial Investment, Zhongguancun Development Group, iFlytek Venture Capital, Yare Capital, etc.

Image source: Qichacha

In addition, Li Wanqiang, one of the founders of Xiaomi, has been betting on Xiaoyu Zhizao since its early days, and his name also appears on the homepage of Xiaoyu Zhizao's official website.

Image source: Xiaoyu Zhizao official website

Qiao Zhongliang, the founder of Xiaoyu Zhizao, is one of the early members of Xiaomi and was responsible for the R & D of products from MIUI 9 to MIUI 12. Wang Wenlin, the co - founder, once served as the general manager of Xiaomi's Software System Platform Department, leading the development of the "Xiaomi Brain" and the IoT system.

Other early members come from technology companies such as Huawei, Microsoft, and ByteDance, and graduated from universities like Tsinghua University and Peking University. They have rich experience in fields such as autonomous driving and natural language processing.

In terms of products, Xiaoyu Zhizao has developed the "Xiaoyu Brain" general robot brain, enabling robots to perform various tasks in industrial environments. Xiaoyu Zhizao has formed a self - developed robot large - model solution, which is mainly characterized by high precision, high robustness, and high generalization ability.

Didi's participation in this financing round will provide valuable assistance to Xiaoyu Zhizao's "One Brain, Multiple Forms" in large - model training. Through deep learning and data analysis, the platform's intelligence level and adaptability will be continuously improved.

Regarding the development direction of embodied intelligence, Qiao Zhongliang believes that VLA (Vision - Language - Action) is one of the most promising directions towards high - order embodied intelligence at present. Although it may not be full - scene VLA, single - task VLA also requires sufficient generalization ability and is of great value, which makes autonomous driving itself a good application.

Currently, Xiaoyu Zhizao applies the "One Brain, Multiple Forms" technology to intelligent welding robots. By integrating the concept of human - machine collaboration, it has built a large - model intelligent robot platform in the industrial field. In July last year, Xiaoyu Zhizao jointly launched an intelligent welding robot with Panasonic, a global welding giant, and completed the regular trial operation.

In addition, Xiaoyu Zhizao has received an order for a hundred units from a leading heavy - industry enterprise, and the first batch of products have been put into joint operation. It has also reached strategic cooperation with industry leaders in fields such as heavy machinery and building structures, covering high - end scenarios such as aerospace and shipbuilding, and locked in 10 "lighthouse customers". Among them, a national - level automobile enterprise group is also about to carry out in - depth cooperation.

In the future, Xiaoyu Zhizao will continue to focus on the core scenarios of the manufacturing industry, expand into more industrial fields, cover key processes such as welding, cutting, and handling, and accelerate the expansion into high - end fields such as aerospace.

This article is from the WeChat official account “Robot Outlook”, author: Xu Lisi, editor: Mo Ying. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.