JD Invests in the Robot Company of "Zhi Huijun" | Exclusive Report by 36Kr

Author | Deng Yongyi

Editors | Su Jianxun, Yang Xuan

36Kr has exclusively learned from multiple sources that "ZhiYuan Robotics" is about to complete a new round of financing. The investors in this round include JD.com and Shanghai Embodied Intelligence Fund, and some old shareholders of ZhiYuan Robotics are also participating in the follow - on investment.

Among them, Shanghai Embodied Intelligence Fund is a state - owned fund established in 2025. It was jointly initiated by Shanghai State - owned Capital Investment Co., Ltd. and Pudong New Area, and mainly conducts investments around the upstream and downstream of the embodied intelligence industry chain. ZhiYuan Robotics is also the first investment made by this fund.

This round of financing is not long after ZhiYuan's previous round. On March 24th, ZhiYuan Robotics just completed a round of financing, led by Tencent, with multiple industrial parties and old shareholders participating in the follow - on investment, including Longcheer Technology, Wolong Electric, Huafa Group, and BlueRun Ventures.

ZhiYuan Robotics was established in 2023 and is one of the most prominent projects among the current wave of embodied intelligence companies. In terms of project valuation, ZhiYuan, Unitree Robotics, and Galaxy Universal are in the first echelon of the domestic embodied intelligence track.

Now, the list of ZhiYuan's shareholders is also very impressive. In addition to well - known venture capital institutions such as Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Miracle Plus, Baidu Ventures, and CDH Investments, there is also a rich presence of industrial capital, such as BYD, SAIC Capital, iSoftStone, and TCL.

One of the founders of ZhiYuan Robotics, "ZhiHuiJun" (real name Peng Zhihui), was born in Ji'an, Jiangxi in 1993. Before founding ZhiYuan, he was already a well - known blogger in the robotics section of Bilibili, becoming popular on the Internet with a series of videos on self - balancing and bipedal robots.

After graduating from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2018, Peng Zhihui joined the AI Lab of OPPO Research Institute and Huawei's "Genius Youth Program", becoming an algorithm engineer in Huawei's computing product line until he founded ZhiYuan Robotics in 2023.

Eight months after its establishment, ZhiYuan released its first humanoid robot, the Expedition A1, and the second - generation product, the A2, was released in August 2024. Currently, ZhiYuan Robotics has built three major robot product lines: Expedition, Elf, and Lingxi, with products covering multiple scenarios such as education, factories, reception, and exhibition hall explanations.

In terms of commercialization, in January 2025, the 1000th general - purpose embodied robot of ZhiYuan Robotics rolled off the production line. Yao Maoqing, a partner of the company and the president of the Embodied Intelligence Division, once said in an interview that ZhiYuan plans to maintain the annual robot shipment volume at several thousand units this year, and the revenue is expected to grow several times.

Since the second half of 2024, the wave of financing for domestic embodied intelligence has been intensifying. As of March 2025, there were a total of 37 financing events in the domestic humanoid robot track in just the first quarter, involving 33 companies, with a total financing amount of approximately 3.5 billion yuan.

As for why JD.com is investing in ZhiYuan at this time?

JD.com's e - commerce business and its self - built logistics business have a lot of connections with the field of embodied intelligence. JD.com has long been involved in research and investment related to robots and AI. In July 2024, JD.com announced a strategic investment in Xianglu Technology, a service - type robot R & D company.

After the wave of large models arrived, JD.com has made arrangements in both AI hardware and software. In 2023, JD.com launched the Yanxi large model and developed a series of AI applications including digital humans, intelligent outbound calls, and intelligent customer service in combination with industrial application scenarios.

In 2025, JD.com's embodied intelligence strategy is also accelerating.

According to a report by Shanghai Securities News in March, JD.com has entered the field of embodied intelligence, established a special business department, and focused on the R & D of intelligent products for household scenarios. There are also multiple teams within JD.com working on R & D in cutting - edge directions.

In terms of software, JD.com has also developed many proprietary models for the manufacturing and industrial sectors. For example, on May 22nd, JD Industrial officially released the industrial large model Joy Industrial, a vertical large model launched by JD Industrial for the industrial supply chain. It plans to launch AI agents such as demand agents, operation agents, and customs agents to serve JD Industrial, upstream suppliers in the supply chain, as well as product experts and integration experts of downstream enterprise users in the supply chain.

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