Ein Junge in den 90ern aus Suzhou, Anhui, verkauft Industrieroboter: Er erzielt ein Jahresgewinn von 255 Millionen Yuan und ist Weltmeister. Sein Unternehmen listet an der Hongkonger Börse auf.

From the laboratory of Xi'an Jiaotong University to four desks in Huaqiangbei, and then to becoming the industry leader serving 300 global top enterprises, this post - 90s Anhui young man spent eight years striving for the "first share of mobile operation robots" on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Recently, Hefei Youai Zhihé Robot Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Youai Zhihé") from Feidong County, Hefei, Anhui, submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, planning to be listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Youai Zhihé's core business is the solution of industrial embodied intelligent robots. Simply put, they are robots that can both "walk" and "work with hands".

Traditional industrial robots are often fixed on the production line, while embodied intelligent robots can move autonomously in space and complete complex operations such as inspection, handling, loading and unloading, and maintenance.

Currently, their customers are spread across many industries such as semiconductors, energy and chemical engineering, lithium - ion batteries, 3C and other manufacturing, and public utilities.

According to a report by Frost & Sullivan, Youai Zhihé is one of the earliest robot manufacturers in the world to explore embodied intelligent technology and achieve large - scale application. Calculated by the revenue in 2024, Youai Zhihé ranks first in the world among industrial mobile operation robot companies. Among them, it ranks first in the Chinese semiconductor industry and second in the energy and chemical industry.

01

The founder of Youai Zhihé is Zhang Zhaohui, born in 1992 in Suzhou, Anhui. During his pursuit of a doctorate in robotics at Xi'an Jiaotong University, most of the scientific research projects in the institute he was in were related to industrial implementation.

This experience enabled him and his partners to understand industry problems from the perspective of intelligent factory design, forming a habit of understanding problems from the enterprise's needs.

Around 2015, artificial intelligence technology gradually matured, and robots became a popular concept.

However, Zhang Zhaohui observed that many robots on the market that looked like toys were mostly gimmicks and difficult to truly help the industrial implementation. In his opinion, the emergence of two core variables would trigger a wave of growth in the commercial implementation of robots.

"Based on natural navigation technology, flexible large - scale scheduling can be achieved, and the birth of collaborative robotic arms ensures the safety of human - robot collaboration. The maturity of these two technologies is the key to the current implementation and application of composite robots." Zhang Zhaohui recalled. "This thing will definitely succeed. If we don't do it now, it will be too late."

In 2017, 25 - year - old Zhang Zhaohui was in his second year of doctoral studies at Xi'an Jiaotong University. He convinced four fellow students from Xi'an Jiaotong University to found Youai Zhihé and moved south to Shenzhen.

02

At the beginning of the entrepreneurship, they crowded into a cubicle of less than 20 square meters in Huaqiangbei. Several young people knelt on the ground to debug a bulky robot.

At that time, the Youai Zhihé team faced the common challenges of all academic entrepreneurs - having technology but lacking market experience. Zhang Zhaohui humorously called the initial stage of entrepreneurship "scientist - style entrepreneurship": "Find a scenario and try it. If it doesn't work, try another one. In fact, it's not very smart."

The team only rented eight workstations in Huaqiangbei. To understand industry needs, they deeply contacted more than 20 industries, including bus tire inspection, customs dangerous goods inspection, and intelligent file retrieval and management, to verify the technical feasibility and scenario adaptability.

"One or two months after coming to Huaqiangbei, we decided to stay in Shenzhen. This is where our dreams started." Bian Xu, co - founder and CTO of Youai Zhihé, recalled. "Relying on the highly mature supply - chain support in the Pearl River Delta, in Huaqiangbei, you can immediately buy any product you want. This is a fatal attraction for hardware entrepreneurs."

The turning point soon appeared. Not long after arriving in Huaqiangbei, the team debugged the first inspection robot for Michelin tires and unexpectedly won an order worth more than 2 million. They created the world's first commercial vehicle inspection robot (ARIS - V), mainly targeting the industry pain points such as the inability to conduct high - frequency inspections of public transportation vehicle tires.

03

With the completion of the initial delivery, Youai Zhihé's popularity in the market and the investment circle increased rapidly. However, in 2019, the team fell into a huge strategic divergence.

There were various options in front of them: some advocated focusing on upstream components and producing professional mobile robot chassis; some thought they should continue to dig deeper into industry scenarios; and others believed they should focus on software development.

This big discussion lasted for nearly a week, and the core team really slept in the office for almost a week. On the verge of physical and mental exhaustion, the team finally reached a consensus: deeply cultivate industry scenarios and embrace the integration of hardware and software.

"Robots will definitely create higher value for all industries in the future, but like humans, they need professional training and education." Zhang Zhaohui explained. In his opinion, Youai Zhihé should not rush to build a platform for a long time, but should focus on solving the connection between robot products and industry scenarios.

Based on this strategic decision, the team started to invest in software R & D when there were only more than 70 people and created an in - plant logistics control system. This system later became Youai Zhihé's core competitiveness.

04

Youai Zhihé adheres to the concept that "only by delving into scenarios can innovation points emerge and sustainable vitality be obtained". From 2018 to 2019, more and more enterprises that Zhang Zhaohui had helped in the institute came to him, asking if they could develop products to meet relevant needs. After researching the industrial logistics in the general electronics manufacturing industry, a new direction was confirmed.

In 2020, Youai Zhihé delved into the semiconductor field and launched a multi - series of high - precision laser SLAM navigation composite mobile operation robot products.

The semiconductor industry has extremely strict requirements for robots - a box of wafers is worth one million yuan, and a robot transports eight boxes at a time, with extremely high precision requirements.

The robots developed by Youai Zhihé can control the accuracy of movement and cargo docking within 2 millimeters and strictly control the vibration value below 0.2g, becoming the "star - level" porters favored by domestic and foreign wafer factories.

The team made a lot of efforts to enter the semiconductor industry. "The verification cycle for industrial mobile robot products by general customers is 2 - 3 months, but we spent one and a half years to enter the semiconductor industry." Zhang Zhaohui said. These efforts finally enabled Youai Zhihé to firmly hold the top position in the semiconductor industry's industrial mobile robots.

Youai Zhihé's rapid development cannot be separated from the support of the capital market.

Data shows that Youai Zhihé has raised more than 2 billion yuan in total. The company has completed nine rounds of financing since its establishment in 2017.

In 2020, despite the impact of the epidemic, Youai Zhihé successively obtained three rounds of financing totaling more than 100 million yuan, led by SIG, BlueRun Ventures, etc.

It is worth mentioning that in June 2024, the amount of its Series C financing reached 1.4 billion yuan, setting a record for a single - round financing in the field of industrial mobile robots. The financing parties include well - known institutions such as SIG Asia Investments, BlueRun Ventures, SoftBank Asia, and Songhe Capital, as well as local government industrial funds in Hefei, Wuxing, etc.

Now, Youai Zhihé's products have been applied in more than 60 countries around the world. In high - end manufacturing hubs such as Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore, these robots from China are performing precise logistics tasks in semiconductor workshops.

In 2021, director Guo Fan "fell in love at first sight" with Youai Zhihé's robot products at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference and put them on the big screen of "The Wandering Earth 2". The robots that started from the freight elevator in Huaqiangbei have truly entered the sci - fi world representing the future.

Looking back on the eight - year entrepreneurship journey, Zhang Zhaohui summarized: "We chose the track, and the market chose us."

05

Youai Zhihé's core business is to provide "one - brain, multi - form" embodied intelligent robot solutions for global industrial customers. This may sound a bit complicated. Let's break it down:

Its core product is the "mobile operation robot" - an intelligent robot that can move autonomously in the factory like a vehicle and has the operating ability like an arm. Their "brain" is the highly generalized industrial embodied intelligent model "MAIC" independently developed by the company, and their "body" can take on various forms according to different task requirements.

Its customers cover many industries such as semiconductors, energy and chemical engineering, lithium - ion batteries, 3C manufacturing, and public utilities.

As of now, Youai Zhihé has completed more than 600 industrial embodied intelligent scenario implementation projects in total, serving more than 300 customers, including more than 50 Fortune 500 companies. The customer repurchase rate in 2024 exceeded 70%.

Youai Zhihé's robot products mainly solve the pain points in two scenarios:

One is industrial logistics.

In high - end manufacturing workshops (such as semiconductor factories), the requirements for material transportation are extremely high. It needs to be stable, precise, and absolutely clean. Manual operation not only has limited efficiency but may also cause expensive products to be scrapped due to fatigue, mistakes, or micro - dust pollution generated by the human body.

Youai Zhihé's robots can complete the automatic transportation and loading and unloading of materials with millimeter - level precision, while ensuring ultra - high cleanliness, and work 24/7, greatly improving production efficiency and product yield.

The other is inspection and maintenance.

In environments such as power plants, substations, and chemical plants, many areas have dangers such as high temperature, high pressure, and toxic gases. Manual inspection is not only laborious but also very risky.

Youai Zhihé's robots can replace humans to enter these high - risk areas, conduct all - weather equipment monitoring and data collection, and detect abnormalities and issue early warnings in a timely manner, thus ensuring the safety of personnel and facilities.

They obtain income by providing customized overall solutions. This fee covers robot hardware, supporting industry software models, pre - project planning and design, on - site delivery and deployment, and subsequent operation and maintenance services.

Data shows that from 2022 to the first six months of 2025, Youai Zhihé's operating revenues were 78 million yuan, 108 million yuan, 255 million yuan, and 127 million yuan respectively, and the corresponding net losses were 235 million yuan, 260 million yuan, 200 million yuan, and 140 million yuan respectively.

06

Among Youai Zhihé's two core businesses, the industrial logistics solution is the main source of its income.

In 2022, 2023, and 2024, the revenue from this business reached 46.65 million yuan, 62.44 million yuan, and 138.2 million yuan respectively, accounting for 59.9%, 58.0%, and 54.2% of the total revenue respectively. This business, especially its application in the semiconductor industry, best reflects Youai Zhihé's technological "foundation".

Imagine a factory that produces computer chips, filled with extremely valuable precision equipment and having high requirements for environmental cleanliness. Here, a box full of chip "raw materials" (wafers) needs to be accurately and smoothly transferred between different process equipment. Any slight vibration or pollution may cause huge economic losses.

Youai Zhihé's industrial logistics robots are designed to solve this challenge.

Taking the solution provided for a leading domestic wafer factory as an example, a cluster of more than 80 mobile operation robots work together in the factory. They can achieve millimeter - level movement and operation precision, and the vibration value generated during the handling process is as low as 0.1g (g is the acceleration of gravity), far lower than the industry requirement of 0.3g, greatly reducing the risk of wafer breakage.

These robots can complete more than 16,000 material operations per day and travel more than 100 kilometers in total throughout the day, truly realizing the full automation of the production process. This not only solves the problems of labor shortage and human errors but also shortens the product production cycle and improves the utilization rate of expensive equipment by optimizing material flow.

In the market, according to a report by Frost & Sullivan, Youai Zhihé occupies a leading position in multiple niche markets.

Calculated by the revenue in 2024, Youai Zhihé ranks first in the global industrial mobile operation robot solution market, with a market share of 6.1%. In the global mobile operation robot market, it ranks fourth, with a market share of 2.8%.

In the Chinese mobile operation robot solution market, Youai Zhihé is the largest player, with a market share of 7.1% in 2024.

Calculated by the revenue in 2024, they rank first in the application of robots in the Chinese semiconductor industry and second in the energy and chemical industry.

This article does not constitute any investment advice.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Pencil News" (ID: pencilnews), author: Hai Youmeng, published by 36Kr with authorization.