1.1 billion yuan: The largest single financing for a robot company this year has been refreshed.
Just half a year later, Galaxy Universal has raised funds again.
Touzhongwang learned that recently, Beijing Galaxy Universal Robotics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Galaxy Universal") announced the completion of a financing of 1.1 billion yuan. The strategic investment of CATL, a listed company, and Puquan Capital (CATL Capital) led the round, followed by Beijing Robotics Industry Fund, Guokai Kechuang of the National Development Bank, and GGV Capital.
Let's first look at the three most intuitive highlights of Galaxy Universal's current round of financing: the absolute scale of the financing is large; the leading investor is CATL; and the follow - on investment lineup is quite luxurious.
First, in terms of the amount, the scale of 1.1 billion yuan has refreshed both the single - round financing and the cumulative financing records in the field of embodied large - model robots. This not only shows the high recognition of Galaxy Universal by capital, but also means that the embodied intelligence track has gradually moved from the shallows to the deep waters. On the one hand, large - scale and industrial implementation have begun to accelerate. On the other hand, it also represents that industry resources may start to integrate towards the leading players.
Looking at the leading investor, the long - rumored large - scale investment of CATL in a leading domestic robotics company has finally been finalized! As the global leader in the new energy field, CATL's strong entry not only injects strong impetus into Galaxy Universal, but also, backed by a trillion - level industrial ecosystem, completely opens up the imagination space for Embodied AI.
In terms of follow - on investments, it has gathered mainstream and heavy - weight domestic state - owned investment platforms, strategic and industrial investors, and internationally renowned investment institutions. The powerful capital lineup basically represents the market consensus.
In addition to the capital level, just a few days ago, Galaxy Universal jointly announced with Boyuan Capital under the Bosch Group the establishment of a joint venture company, "Boyin Hechuang", which will focus on core manufacturing scenarios such as complex assembly and promote the large - scale implementation of embodied intelligence in global industrial manufacturing and other scenarios.
Over 2.4 billion yuan in cumulative financing in 2 years
At the China Investment Annual Conference of Touzhong Information in April this year, Dr. Wang He, an assistant professor at Peking University, the founder and chief technology officer of Galaxy Universal, and a Zhiyuan Scholar, pointed out that the real intelligent agents that can help humans solve productivity problems should be those that use hands, brains, and eyes like humans.
It should be noted that when Galaxy Universal was established in May 2023, there were already many new and old players in the humanoid robot industry, such as Tesla Optimus and Boston Dynamics abroad, and Ubtech, Zhiyuan, and Unitree at home. The reason why Galaxy Universal has attracted much attention is that it not only wants to be a technology company but also aims at the productivity goal of "letting robots work". To a large extent, what supported this goal in the early stage was the founding team with complementary academic and industrial backgrounds and capabilities - Wang He and Yao Tengzhou.
As the founder and CTO of Galaxy Universal Robotics, Wang He obtained his doctorate from Stanford University in 2021. He then joined Peking University as an assistant professor and doctoral supervisor and founded the Embodied Perception and Interaction Laboratory. Born in 1992, Wang He was already a leading figure in China's embodied intelligence and a top international scholar in embodied intelligence when Galaxy Universal was established. In May 2024, the Joint Laboratory of Embodied Intelligence of Peking University - Galaxy Universal was unveiled, and Wang He served as the director of the laboratory. He is also currently the director of the Embodied Intelligence Research Center of the Beijing Zhiyuan Research Institute and has won the only entrepreneur title in the "35 Innovators Under 35" (TR35) newly released by MIT Technology Review.
Co - founder Yao Tengzhou graduated from the Robotics Research Institute of Beihang University with a master's degree. He has more than 10 years of entrepreneurial experience in the robotics field and once worked at the Shanghai Robotics R & D Center of ABB Group. He has experience in designing, developing, mass - producing, and managing teams for intelligent hardware products with tens of millions in sales, as well as rich and complete experience in industrial and service robot products. Yao Tengzhou studied under Professor Wang Tianmiao, a professor at Beihang University, the honorary director of the Beihang Robotics Research Institute, and the dean of the Zhongguancun Zhiyou Research Institute. Professor Wang Tianmiao is a scientist in the robotics field and an old friend of Touzhongwang. He has been researching robots for more than 30 years.
The excellent background of the founding team, coupled with the support of top - level resources behind it, may be the core driving force for Galaxy Universal to be favored by capital. Looking back at Galaxy Universal's financing process in the past two years, on the one hand, it has maintained a fairly stable rhythm, opening a financing window about every six months on average. On the other hand, it can be said to be advancing by leaps and bounds. Naturally, the scale has become larger and larger, and it has attracted almost all types of investment institutions.
One month after its establishment, Galaxy Universal received seed - round financing from Matrix Partners and BlueRun Ventures. In June 2024, Galaxy Universal, which had only been established for one year, completed a 700 - million - yuan angel - round financing. The lineup of investors was strong, including strategic and industrial investors such as Meituan Strategic Investment, BAIC Industry Investment, Shangtang Guoxiang, and iFlytek Venture Capital, as well as leading financial institutions such as Qiming Venture Partners, BlueRun Ventures, Matrix Partners, Source Code Capital, and IDG Capital.
At that time, this round of financing caused quite a stir in the industry. Not only because the single - round financing scale of 700 million yuan refreshed the angel - round financing record in the field of embodied intelligence at that time, but also because the Chinese investment circle was at a critical node of shifting from non - consensus to consensus on humanoid robots. The large - scale early - stage investor "team" was one of the key signals.
Five months later, at the end of 2024, Galaxy Universal completed a 500 - million - yuan strategic - round financing. In this round of financing, the lineup of investors was more diverse. SAIC Hengxu, Hong Kong Investment Corporation (HKIC), Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Fund, Beijing Robotics Industry Fund, Shenzhen Capital Group, CCB International, Zhiyou Scientist Fund, Rongyi Investment, and Jinjing Capital all joined in, and many old shareholders continued to increase their investments. So far, Galaxy Universal, which had been established for more than one year, had a cumulative financing of more than 1.2 billion yuan.
The newly announced round of financing is only six months after the previous round, which reflects the intensive attention and capital investment of domestic capital in Galaxy Universal. In just two years, Galaxy Universal's cumulative financing scale has exceeded 2.4 billion yuan, covering market - oriented investment institutions, various industrial capitals, and scientific research institution funds. It has also gathered state - owned investment platforms from the central government to many places such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Suzhou. You know, "capital never sleeps". The collective real - money voting of these early - stage institutions may mean that embodied intelligence is no longer just a conceptual trend, nor is it just a chaotic period for investors from non - consensus to consensus. Instead, it is really starting the stage from 1 to 100.
Let robots "run everywhere"
Not long ago, Galaxy Universal launched the product - level end - to - end navigation large model TrackVLA that can be applied across different bodies, the world's first end - to - end embodied large model for the retail industry, GroceryVLA, the world's first fully open - source, multi - model, cross - virtual and real humanoid robot full - body teleoperation system OpenWBT, and the algorithm QuadWBG that enables Unitree robotic dogs to pick up garbage on the campus of Peking University.
In March this year, Galaxy Universal released the world's first intelligent pharmacy solution for humanoid robots. The wheeled dual - arm robot Galbot realizes the full - process automation of drug inventory, replenishment, picking, delivery, and packaging, supporting 24 - hour unattended operation. The traditional offline retail industry has high labor costs, and the work is mechanically complex and single. Especially in a closed - space pharmacy, it may be the first scenario to achieve unmanned operation. Currently, it only takes two days to deploy a new store. It is reported that Galaxy Universal has received orders for 100 stores and plans to put them into use nationwide by the end of the year. Nearly ten stores in Beijing have been deployed and are in normal operation. Galbot can operate 5,000 types of drugs, 6,000 cargo lanes, and more than 10,000 boxes of drugs in a 40 - square - meter pharmacy in an unattended manner around the clock.
In the industrial field, Galaxy Universal has promoted the cooperation between Galbot and internationally renowned automobile companies to perform tasks such as handling sunroof glass and handling exceptions in real - time, and unpacking and transporting material boxes. The whole process is completely based on visual guidance and does not rely on QR codes.
"Promote the industrialization of embodied intelligence"
Remember at a Touzhong 1/2 Salon last year, an executive of a humanoid robot company once said with distress that he was very hesitant about whether to make up his mind to self - develop an embodied intelligence large model that connects the digital and physical worlds. Leaving aside whether it can succeed, just the cost would be a huge burden for a mature company. His view was agreed by most of the guests at the salon. So one of the conclusions of the salon was that for robots to be truly implemented in various application scenarios, there must be a mature and general embodied multi - modal general large model.
What Galaxy Universal is currently doing is to "empower" robots in various application scenarios. Dr. Wang He said that humanoid robots are moving from the movement era of "being able to run and jump" to the productivity era of "being able to work". By observing the progress of Galaxy Universal in the past two years since its establishment, you can clearly see that its technological iteration and product development progress are in line with the progress at the capital level.
2025 is regarded as the first year of mass production of humanoid robots. With its strong manufacturing industry, mature and complete supply chain, and rich application scenarios, China is bound to become the most important and first - to - explode pole in the global humanoid robot industry.
From CATL's perspective, investing in Galaxy Universal is a key move in the field of embodied intelligence. As the global leader in power batteries, CATL has advanced battery technology, a huge supply - chain resource, and rich industrial investment experience. Galaxy Universal and CATL are highly compatible in businesses such as energy endurance and industrial applications.
From an industry perspective, although embodied intelligence is developing rapidly, it still faces dual challenges of technological maturity and commercial implementation from 1 to 100. CATL's entry is undoubtedly a "shot in the arm" for the industry, attracting more capital and resources to pay attention and flow in.
On the one hand, it prompts the industry to really focus on core technologies and applications, making robots in various fields more "practical". On the other hand, it will also promote the integration of the industrial chain. With its strong industrial appeal, it will drive more upstream and downstream enterprises to apply embodied intelligence. As Dr. Wang He said at the just - ended "2025 Zhiyuan Conference", "When we talk about embodied intelligence today, it has a current goal, which is that we must promote the industrialization of embodied intelligence."
This article is from the WeChat public account "Dongsi Shitiao Capital", author: Zhang Nan. Republished by 36Kr with permission.