Another star robot company that has raised Series D funding is going to go public.

Embodied robot companies are accelerating their sprint towards IPO.

On June 23, 2025, Standard Robots (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Standard Robots) submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, aiming to become the "first stock in industrial embodied intelligence". According to data from CIC Consulting, as of December 31, 2024, in terms of sales volume, Standard Robots is the fifth-largest provider of industrial intelligent mobile robot solutions globally and the fourth-largest provider of industrial embodied intelligent robot solutions.

Since the beginning of this year, several robot companies have launched IPO bids to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, including Woan Robotics, SEER Intelligence, LeDong Robotics, and Yunji Technology, which have recently submitted their prospectuses, as well as Geek+ Technology, which has passed the listing hearing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This time, Standard Robots has also joined this lineup, further expanding the army of listed companies in the industry.

An entrepreneur told me, "The reason why so many robot companies are sprinting towards IPO is that they all want to become listed companies, that is, to do the 'right thing' at the 'right time' and get on the table of the capital market."

A post-90s master's graduate from Harbin Institute of Technology is sprinting towards a Hong Kong IPO

Different from listing on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange, Standard Robots is aiming for the Specialized Technology Chapter 18C.

Chapter 18C Specialized Technology companies are mainly applicable to companies in five specialized technology industries, including new-generation information technology, advanced hardware, advanced materials, new energy and energy conservation and environmental protection, and new food and agricultural technology.

These companies are usually in the early stages of development, with high growth potential, but may not have made a profit or met the revenue requirements for Main Board listing. Previously, XtalPi (02228.HK) was the first Specialized Technology stock in Hong Kong, with a 10% increase on the first day of listing and a maximum market value of over HK$60 billion.

Before Standard Robots' bid for Chapter 18C Specialized Technology, Dobot Robotics had already listed through this segment, becoming the third listed company in this segment, with a market value of over HK$20 billion. Like Standard Robots, Yunji Technology, the world's largest provider of intelligent hotel robots, is also challenging Chapter 18C Specialized Technology.

The prospectus shows that Standard Robots was founded in 2016, and its founder, Wang Yongkun, is a post-90s entrepreneur and a master's graduate from Harbin Institute of Technology.

Before starting his business, Wang Yongkun served as the captain of the Harbin Institute of Technology's competitive robot team and won the second prize in the ROBOCON Asia-Pacific University Robot Contest. However, what really made Wang Yongkun determined to start a business was a robot competition in 2013. In this competition, Wang Yongkun met "the godfather of entrepreneurship", Li Zexiang, and thus had the idea of starting a business.

Initially, Standard Robots had only five people, including Wang Yongkun and four other classmates. Among them, Wang Yongkun served as the CTO, with the goal of evolving robots from demonstration prototypes to products.

During the entrepreneurship process, Wang Yongkun found that the industrial production environment is complex, with a large number of obstacles, dynamically changing objects, and diverse work processes. Traditional navigation methods are difficult to meet the requirements of high-precision positioning and flexible navigation for robots. Therefore, he focused on SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) technology, which also made Wang Yongkun one of the first domestic developers of industrial-grade SLAM technology.

The prospectus shows that Standard Robots' SLAM technology enables robots to determine their own positions in real-time in an unknown environment, with an accuracy of up to ±2 mm. Even in dynamic scenarios with up to 90% environmental changes, it can still maintain an accuracy of ±5 mm, which is crucial for the stable operation and task execution of robots in complex industrial scenarios.

Wang Yongkun said, "Our robots can help enterprises improve production efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance competitiveness." So far, with SLAM technology, Standard Robots' products are widely used in industries such as 3C electronics, automotive parts, and semiconductors, and its customers include well-known enterprises such as Huawei, Foxconn, and ZTE.

Received four consecutive rounds of financing, with a valuation of 2.1 billion yuan

From graduating with a master's degree to challenging Chapter 18C Specialized Technology, Wang Yongkun and Standard Robots have been struggling for nine years. As the founder, Wang Yongkun has been included in the "Hurun Under30s China Entrepreneurs" list in 2019 and the Forbes China 30 Under 30 list.

On the entrepreneurial path, the growth of Standard Robots cannot be separated from the support of angel investors and a group of investment institutions.

According to the prospectus, the first angel investment in Standard Robots came from a natural person, Luo Hong. In the year when Standard Robots was founded, Luo Hong invested 2 million yuan, subscribing for shares at a cost of 0.31 yuan per share, supporting the entrepreneurship of Standard Robots, and the post-investment valuation was 20 million yuan. However, the prospectus did not disclose more information about Luo Hong.

Subsequently, in 2017, 2018, and 2020, Standard Robots completed the Pre-A, A, and A+ rounds of financing, and the post-investment valuation climbed from 80.24 million yuan to 150 million yuan. In the A+ round of financing, Standard Robots attracted the investment of Miracle Plus.

In the B round of financing, the post-investment valuation of Standard Robots reached 350 million yuan, subscribed by Suzhou Yuanming and others, and Miracle Plus continued to increase its investment. Equity penetration shows that Suzhou Yuanming is managed by Source Code Capital.

During the C round of financing, Standard Robots caught the attention of Xiaomi's fund. In 2023, Xiaomi Smart Manufacturing led the investment with 150 million yuan. This fund was established under the leadership of Lei Jun, with a scale of 10 billion yuan. Lei Jun serves as the chairman of the investment decision-making committee of this fund, and Xiaomi is the general partner; later, Wuxi Liangxi Science and Technology Innovation Industrial Investment participated in the D round of financing, contributing a total of 300 million yuan, and this fund is associated with Bohua Capital.

It is worth mentioning that as a company challenging Chapter 18C Specialized Technology, Chapter 18C of the Stock Exchange requires that applicants for specialized technology listing must obtain a substantial amount of investment from 2 - 5 senior independent investors, and senior independent investors must have made the investment at least 12 months before the listing application date of the specialized technology company.

From a time perspective, the D round of investment by Wuxi Liangxi Science and Technology Innovation Industrial Investment just occurred one year ago, that is, in May 2024. So far, Standard Robots meets the requirements of Chapter 18C, and its valuation has also reached 2.1 billion yuan.

In the prospectus, Standard Robots said that it has received investments from three leading senior independent investors, namely Xiaomi Smart Manufacturing, Bohua Investment, and Wuxi Liangxi Science and Technology Innovation Industrial Investment, with shareholding ratios of 8.4%, 7.26%, and 14.29% respectively, totaling 29.95%.

As the founder, Wang Yongkun directly holds 12.8% of the shares and holds 14.30% through the share incentive platform he controls, Standard Automation. In addition, through the voting rights agency arrangement, he can exercise the voting rights of GOLDEN SUMMER (NioCapital), Shengyin Jing Investment, and Hongze Investment (partially). The aforementioned shareholders can control approximately 35.46% of the voting rights in total.

Robot companies are queuing up for IPO

Standard Robots' IPO process is not an isolated case. From an industry perspective, since 2025, robot companies have entered a dense listing window period.

As mentioned above, Woan Robotics, SEER Intelligence, LeDong Robotics, Yunji Technology, and Geek+ Technology have all launched IPO bids.

Regarding the development of the robot industry, the market is most concerned about commercialization. At the 6th Shanghai Innovation and Entrepreneurship Youth 50 Forum this year, Wang Xingxing revealed that the development of humanoid robot enterprises, including Unitree, is in a good state. "Many enterprises' orders have exploded."

Leng Xiaokun, the chairman of Leju Robotics, also said that in the context of the collaboration between humanoid robots and automated equipment, the market scale is expected to reach 100,000 - 200,000 units, which is sufficient to support the development of domestic complete machine manufacturers.

Previously, a leading humanoid robot company told me that this year the company has a clear mass production plan, expecting to produce at least 400 full-size adult humanoid products, of which 200 will enter factories for industrial production-related scenarios, and the other 200 will enter retail stores, mainly undertaking tasks such as supermarket shopping guides.

Reflected in Standard Robots, the company's total revenue increased from 96.3 million yuan in 2022 to 162.2 million yuan in 2023 and further to 250.5 million yuan in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 61.3%.

In the financing track, embodied intelligent robot companies are even "hotter". According to CVSource data, since June, several embodied intelligent companies, such as Galaxy Universal, Benmo Technology, and Kopai Robotics, have completed financing, and the financing amount of Galaxy Universal is as high as 1.1 billion yuan. The investors include CATL, Puquan Capital, SDIC Venture Capital, Beijing Robot Industry Fund, and GGV Capital, with a rather "luxurious" lineup.

Moreover, Unitree Technology also completed the C round of financing in June, led by China Mobile, Tencent, Alibaba, Ant Group, and Geely.

These financings and IPO processes are a microcosm of the development of China's robot industry. In terms of scenarios, investors believe that robots are increasingly widely used, from industrial production to the service sector, from healthcare to smart homes, and their figures can be seen everywhere; in terms of the IPO process, the Hong Kong stock market has continued to recover since the second half of 2024, with a significant improvement in liquidity, which has given the market more confidence and provided a good environment for robot companies to list.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Dongsi Shitiao Capital" (ID: DsstCapital), author: Chen Mei, published by 36Kr with authorization.