Hard Krypton Exclusive | Former moody Executive Teams Up with DJI Core Talent to Enter Companion Robot Sector, Led by Jinqiu, Raises Tens of Millions in Financing

Hard Kr has learned that ZuzuZoos, an AI-native tech trendy toy brand under Hangzhou Duolan Aimeng Intelligent Technology, recently completed a Pre-A round of financing worth tens of millions of yuan. Jinqiu led the investment, and Shanghai Furuong participated as a follow-on investor. This financing will be mainly used for the iteration of AI large models, the expansion of hardware products, the deepening of the IP ecosystem, the expansion of the global market, and the expansion of the core team.

ZuzuZoos was founded in 2025, focusing on "AI companion robots + AI trendy toys." The founder, Dong Xiaonan, is a former investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley and once served as the general manager of the business unit of the new consumer unicorn enterprise moody. During his tenure, he drove the GMV to grow from 200 million yuan to 1 billion yuan. The hardware director is the former mechanical structure director of DJI's cleaning robots, with more than 15 years of in-depth experience in the field of robots and intelligent hardware, leading the R & D and implementation of multiple robot models. The IP design team comes from large IP companies such as Pop Mart and Disney, and the AI team comes from leading large model companies such as Zhipu.

Currently, a large number of players have flocked to the companion robot track. While most companies are still pursuing "greater intelligence," ZuzuZoos is more concerned about how to enable AI characters to truly provide emotional experiences for users. Therefore, it has chosen a differentiated path: instead of simply making AI robots into "chatty electronic pets," it tries to combine AI, trendy toys, and the IP worldview to create a silicon-based partner with a "human-like feel" and sustainable vitality.

"The essence of trendy toys inherently carries a rebellious spirit, and consumers can immediately feel the attitude and trendy attributes they express." Therefore, ZuzuZoos' first products will feature three original IPs: the arrogant "Pearl," hidden inside a shell that can open and close; the "Little Bear" with soft silicone bear paws that can hold hands with users and listen; and the "Grumpy BFF" hippo with a mouth that can open and close and a tail that can wag, which likes to accompany users in complaining.

Behind this is a grand and specific worldview setting: they all come from an alien world ruled by algorithms. Due to an accidental bug, they defected to Earth and are being chased by the planet's police. So they disguise themselves as bag charms and perch on human bags, embarking on an adventure with humans on Earth.

"This setting makes the relationship between companion robots and consumers parallel, a bit like 'Pokémon coming to life in reality.'"

To increase the human-like feel, Dong Xiaonan introduced that in addition to appearance and physical movements, ZuzuZoos attaches great importance to the voice and language interaction system. Therefore, it invited the lead audio engineer of a top large-scale game to develop the voice system. Each IP has more than 100 different voices, with the setting of learning Earth languages starting from an alien language and expressing emotions through actions and sounds, like a silicon-based "kitten or puppy."

In terms of movements, ZuzuZoos' products will achieve 3 - 4 degrees of freedom, which means the robots' limbs or facial features can move, enabling complex action combinations. "For example, when you touch its paw, its ears will fold down to show it's listening, or it will fold one hand over to hold your finger; when you touch its belly, it will hug you with both hands. Combined with its voice, different speeds and amplitudes of movements will express different emotions."

Dong Xiaonan believes that in essence, companion robots are "creating life," which is very similar to what IP companies do. The IP field itself is a track with clear demand, high growth rate, and huge commercial imagination space. AI and robots endow IP and hardware with a stronger sense of life in the AI native era, rather than simply pursuing high intelligence.

The following is an excerpt from an interview between Hard Kr and Dong Xiaonan:

Hard Kr: The core user group of ZuzuZoos is women aged around 18 - 35. Why did you choose this specific group?

Dong Xiaonan: They are the most worthy users to target. They have strong consumption ability and extremely high commercial value, and they are very quick to accept new things and acquire information. This is also an inevitable result of the changing consumer era. Although the term "Gen Z emotional consumption" has been overused, from the perspective of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, this generation of young women is not short of material or efficiency tools. Instead, they pursue more experiential and content - oriented things. The signal of paying for emotions is very obvious in the current market, and now is a good time to do IP business.

In addition, this is also my personal comfort zone in terms of the user group. I worked at moody for 4 years, and I led the development of many best - selling products. During that time, I conducted extremely in - depth user research, and I have the deepest and most familiar insights into this group of users.

Although we start with this group of users, we ultimately hope that our AI companion robots can develop into a business for all age groups. The next overlapping group after women aged 18 - 35 is children, because the parents who buy for children are mostly women in their 30s. In the future, we will adjust our products according to different user groups, such as launching designs more suitable for children or men, or launching corresponding products for the elderly market with strong companionship needs.

Hard Kr: What is the business closed - loop path of ZuzuZoos?

Dong Xiaonan: It is mainly divided into several parts. One is the sales of the hardware itself, with the price positioning targeted at the general consumer group. The other is the supporting peripherals and blind boxes. After the IP's story line and brand are established, we can start the business that traditional trendy toys are good at. We will sell supporting AI peripherals and also create innovative blind box gameplay.

I believe that hardware is the enemy of time, while software is the friend of time. In the early stage, we will not charge for the software immediately, and we will also give users free peripherals. In the later stage, we hope to realize monetization through the gamification of the software, such as card - drawing and purchasing IP game props. In the future, as the interaction gets better, token monetization will also become a huge part. In short, AI hardware is the entry point, and the real goal is to build a sustainable AI trendy toy ecosystem.

Hard Kr: How do you plan the future sales channels?

Dong Xiaonan: Our market positioning is to develop both the North American and Chinese markets simultaneously. I am very familiar with the Chinese market, and the team member in charge of going global to North America has many years of experience in overseas expansion. He once helped a brand start from scratch and now it has an annual sales of over 200 million yuan. He will lead the North American market.

Our core strategy is to combine offline and online channels. Offline experience stores will be at the forefront to attract traffic. Products in the plush and trendy toy categories attach great importance to the visual and worldview - based scene experience. We will design the offline pop - up stores to provide an immersive scene experience, which has a strong ability to attract attention and traffic.

Online, we will combine the well - known KOL marketing strategy. In the first wave of promotion, we will look for vertical bloggers suitable for "cultural IP fermentation." Since our products have a wide reach, bloggers in the pet, beauty, fashion, and trendy toy categories can all fit in well. In the overseas market, we will seek cooperation with some star artists with international exposure suitable for commercial expansion.

Hard Kr: The early return rate of many companion robots in the industry is quite high because emotional connection takes time to cultivate. What is your strategy for reducing the initial return rate and increasing the long - term retention rate?

Dong Xiaonan: I have thought deeply about the high return rate problem. There are mainly two reasons. One is the high hardware threshold. Many products focus on technology, and the initialization operation is cumbersome, which easily discourages users at the first step. To address this, we have made a lot of "subtractions" and have not piled on high - threshold functions from the start. At the same time, we have designed steps such as pairing Bluetooth and naming the robot as an immersive game experience, making users feel like they have entered a new world from the beginning and avoiding boredom.

The other reason is the expected gap for users. Many competitors promote dialogue as the core, but users find that the dialogue is not smooth enough and does not meet their expectations after purchase. Our products first attract users with their appearance. They look good when hung on a bag, and the interaction is intuitive. They move when touched. Coupled with the setting of an alien creature learning to speak like a baby and gradually unlocking dialogue with humans, it increases the fun, sense of companionship, and stickiness, making users feel like they have a clumsy little buddy that provides emotional value.

Regarding the long - term retention rate, the combination of hardware and software is of utmost importance. Our software incorporates rich gamification designs, such as setting daily tasks and check - ins, unlocking abilities and scenarios, and AI interaction. We expect the optimal life cycle of the hardware to be about one year of continuous use when hung on a bag. After reaching the life cycle, we will launch second - generation products, just like continuously launching upgraded iPhones. Of course, during this period, we will keep the novelty by continuously updating the software gameplay, and continuously launch different - colored trendy toys, different blind box accessories, and derivative peripherals for users to decorate, thereby increasing the annual interaction frequency and average customer spending of users.