Led by CATL, "Galaxy Universal" completed a new round of financing exceeding 1 billion yuan | Exclusive from Intelligence Emergence

Text by | Wang Fangyu

Edited by | Su Jianxun

According to exclusive information obtained by "Intelligent Emergence" from multiple sources, "Galaxy Universal" has completed a new round of financing, with the amount exceeding 1 billion yuan, setting the largest single - round financing in the embodied intelligence track since this year.

This round of financing was led by CATL, the leading battery manufacturer, and Puquan Capital, and followed by institutions such as SDIC Venture Capital, Beijing Robot Industry Fund, and GGV Capital. In addition, several old shareholders also made additional investments.

In June and November 2024, Galaxy Universal announced an angel - round financing of over 700 million yuan and a strategic - round financing of 500 million yuan respectively. As of now, the cumulative financing amount of Galaxy Universal has exceeded 2.3 billion yuan.

Founded in May 2023, Galaxy Universal is one of the most prominent projects among the current embodied intelligence companies. In terms of project valuation, Galaxy Universal, along with Unitree Robotics and Zhipu Robotics, ranks in the first echelon of the domestic embodied intelligence track.

As of now, the investors of Galaxy Universal include leading financial institutions such as Qiming Venture Partners, BlueRun Ventures, and Matrix Partners; strategic and industrial investors such as CATL, Meituan Strategic Investment, BAIC Capital, SenseTime Guoxiang Capital, and iFlytek Venture Capital; research institution funds such as the Zhiyuan Research Institute Fund and Peking University Yanyuan Fund; and state - owned investment platforms from multiple regions including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong.

Wang He, the founder of Galaxy Universal, was born in 1992. He graduated from Tsinghua University in 2014 and obtained a doctorate from Stanford University in 2021. Subsequently, he joined Peking University as an assistant professor and doctoral supervisor at the Frontier Computing Research Center, focusing on research in the field of embodied intelligence. Another founder, Yao Tengzhou, graduated with a master's degree from the Robotics Research Institute of Beihang University and once worked at the robot R & D center of the industrial robot enterprise ABB Group.

In June 2024, Galaxy Universal released its first embodied large - model robot, Galbot G1, which is also its only robot product. G1 adopts a body structure of "two arms + foldable body + wheeled chassis" instead of a bipedal form, and focuses more on the operation ability of the upper limbs.

Compared with the robot body, Galaxy Universal has been more active in model development. Since its establishment, the company has developed several embodied intelligence models, including the end - to - end embodied grasping foundation large model GraspVLA, the end - to - end embodied large model GroceryVLA, and the product - level end - to - end navigation large model TrackVLA.

In the industry, being a "simulation school" is one of the most distinctive labels of Galaxy Universal. It has always adhered to the technical route of training embodied intelligence models driven by simulation data. The advantage of this method is low cost and high speed. Galaxy Universal said that its fully simulated synthetic data production pipeline can generate the world's largest billion - level robot operation dataset in just one week.

In terms of commercialization, Galaxy Universal has not disclosed its shipment volume and sales revenue. According to previous public disclosures, Galaxy Universal's humanoid robot Galbot has been deployed on a large scale in some application scenarios, including 24 - hour intelligent retail inventory checking, replenishment, goods retrieval and delivery, and packaging; handling boxes, sorting items, and loading in the factories of Mercedes - Benz and Geely ZEEKR; and greeting guests, giving explanations, and guiding tours in public service and reception scenarios.

With the investment from CATL in this round, Galaxy Universal is expected to form strategic synergy with CATL in scenario implementation.

As the world's largest power battery manufacturer, CATL's business is closely related to the field of embodied intelligence. On the one hand, it supplies batteries for robots; on the other hand, CATL plans to introduce humanoid robots into its production line to promote the development of the factory towards fully automated production.

Previously, "Intelligent Emergence" reported exclusively that CATL not only cooperates with Shanghai Jiao Tong University to develop humanoid robots but also conducts in - house R & D of robots. Its internal 21C Innovation Laboratory has established a team of about 20 people to develop robotic arms independently. CATL intends to strengthen its manufacturing advantages by improving the level of automation.

Meanwhile, CATL is also trying to invest in humanoid robot companies. Before investing in Galaxy Universal, Bairui Capital, founded by Li Ping, the co - founder and vice - chairman of CATL, had invested in the embodied intelligence companies "Qianxun Intelligence" and "Vita Power".