The IPO "ship" is about to set sail. If you don't invest now, you'll miss the chance.

Recently, the WAIC held in Shanghai has added more fuel to the fire of embodied intelligence. It is said that 150 robots competed on the same stage at the event.

In recent times, embodied intelligence has witnessed an explosive growth, with significant financing news emerging almost every week.

First, on June 23, Galaxy Universal completed a financing of 1.1 billion yuan, breaking the record for the largest single - round financing for a robot company this year. Immediately afterwards, in the week of July 7, embodied intelligence companies DeepCloud AI and Xingdong Jiyuan each completed a financing of 500 million yuan. Later, TARS and Xinghai Tu each completed a financing of over 100 million US dollars, Zhipu Robotics received a strategic investment from Zhengda Robotics, and Qianxun Intelligence completed a nearly 600 - million - yuan Pre - A+ round of financing...

It can be said that the financing in the entire sector shows no sign of stopping. Behind the booming financing is the fact that investors are scrambling to "buy tickets" for embodied intelligence.

An investor based in Shanghai told me that one of the purposes of many capitals' investment now is to buy a "ticket". "From the perspective of the capital side, before the IPO plans of Unitree and Zhipu Robotics, when discussing investment opportunities in embodied intelligence, the industry might have thought that these were the last batch of leading projects with a chance to succeed. However, with the progress of Unitree and Zhipu's IPOs, the market has witnessed an investment boom because investors see a clear exit channel."

"The ship is about to set sail. If you don't invest now, you'll miss the chance."

"The ship is about to set sail. If you don't invest now, you'll miss the chance." This is the reaction of investors when I recently asked them about the embodied intelligence sector.

A top figure from a US - dollar fund said, "If the industry thrives, everyone will benefit. Therefore, seizing the opportunity to get on board is the most important thing at present." In this person's view, despite the booming financing in the sector, the market can handle the heat. Sometimes, a bit of a bubble is needed to create momentum.

Another investor based in Shanghai said that from the perspective of investors, besides "buying tickets" being the main purpose, investors are also under pressure from LPs in the current high - profile context.

"LPs often hope that investors participate in popular projects to obtain more funds from these projects. Currently, most investors are engaged in the asset management industry, and they use LP funds rather than their own funds. Therefore, it is also a trade - off to prove the effectiveness of their strategies by investing in popular projects to obtain returns," said the above - mentioned investor.

"In the final analysis, investors' actions are more based on their professional positions and self - interests. Sometimes, it may not be entirely because they have absolute confidence in the projects and believe that the projects will surely make huge profits," this investor admitted.

"They just want to buy a 'ticket'. After seeing that the 'IPO ship' is about to set sail, they act urgently, otherwise, they'll miss the chance later," the investor believed. He gave an example of a well - known institution that has only invested in the embodied intelligence sector this year and has made consecutive investments. This scenario is highly similar to when the institution invested in large - model infrastructure companies. At that time, the institution only invested in two star companies, Zhipu and ApusAI. As a result, within less than two years, Zhipu launched the A - share IPO counseling, allowing this veteran VC institution to successfully board the 'IPO ship'.

The valuation has multiplied by 20 times in a year. Group investment has become a strategy.

Judging from the financing situation in the sector in the first half of the year, most of the embodied intelligence transactions occurred in the early stages, namely the angel round and the seed round. However, an investor told me that in fact, funds prefer to invest in the "mid - to - late stages" because mid - to - late - stage projects have stronger certainty and a shorter exit cycle.

However, obviously, there aren't that many "tickets" available for sale.

According to CVSource data, since the beginning of this year, the Series A investment has attracted the most funds. A total of 16 financing events have attracted 4.5 billion yuan; followed by the angel round, with 3.13 billion yuan invested in 33 events; and the third is the Pre - A round, with a total of 3.06 billion yuan wagered in 19 events.

Facing the influx of capital, an investor who has invested in embodied intelligence told me that the valuation of a company he invested in at the angel round in 2024 has multiplied by more than 20 times in less than a year. Moreover, with the heating up of the sector, this multiple is expected to increase.

From what another investor told me, currently, the valuations of mid - tier embodied intelligence companies are also rising, ranging from about 2 billion to 5 billion yuan.

The above - mentioned investor who has seen a more than 20 - fold increase in valuation said that the influx of funds has both advantages and disadvantages.

"The advantage is that there are more resources to support the development of enterprises and the industry. Any early - stage industry needs financial support for cultivation and R & D, which is the positive part. However, the disadvantage is that enterprises with rapidly increasing valuations will face some challenges. Especially when an enterprise has money, it is crucial for the CEO to stay sober, clarify the company's goals, and figure out what not to do."

But from the perspective of DPI, although the book returns of early - stage embodied intelligence projects are already very impressive, what the primary market wants is not just floating profits. Only after exiting can one truly make money.

The above - mentioned investor based in Shanghai said that currently, it's difficult to exit in the middle of the financing rounds. Therefore, the market still prefers to invest in mid - to - late stages. And after investing in mid - to - late stages, the best strategy is to invest in groups. "Before a project is proven wrong, everyone thrives together; once it is proven wrong, everyone loses money together, and investors pretend nothing has happened. But if you don't invest, and others make money, you'll look stupid, and it's also not conducive to subsequent financing."

As a result, in the market, we can see many embodied intelligence companies conducting Series A+, Series A++, and even Series A+++ financing. These financings not only show the attitude of capital rushing into the sector and increasing investment but also represent a way for capital to select better targets and invest in groups.

The simplest investment logic emerges

In addition to the booming financing, recently, the ability of embodied intelligence enterprises to obtain orders has also become the focus of attention.

On July 12, Unitree Technology and Zhipu Robotics respectively won orders from China Mobile (Hangzhou) Information Technology Co., Ltd. They were awarded the bid for the procurement project of humanoid biped robot OEM services from 2025 to 2027. Among them, the budget for Unitree Technology's winning bid is 46.05 million yuan (including tax), and that for Zhipu Robotics is 78 million yuan (including tax).

Only 9 days later, Ubtech, known as the "first stock of humanoid robots", also announced that it had won a bid for a 90.5115 - million - yuan robot equipment procurement project from Miyi (Shanghai) Automotive Technology Co., Ltd.

Equity penetration shows that Miyi (Shanghai) Automotive Technology Co., Ltd., which Ubtech won the bid from, was established in 2024 and is a joint - venture company of Shiyan Lin'an Operation Management Co., Ltd., Shiyan Rongchuang International Trade Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Liangao Exhibition (Group) Co., Ltd. Among them, Shiyan Rongchuang International Trade Co., Ltd. is a state - owned enterprise, and the Shiyan State - owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission ultimately benefits from a 35% stake through its subsidiary.

Public information shows that the Shiyan State - owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission has not directly invested in Ubtech, but Ubtech has set up production capacity in Shiyan. On May 29, 2025, Ubtech established a new robot company in Shiyan, named "Ubtech (Shiyan) Robot Technology Co., Ltd." with a registered capital of 50 million yuan.

Seeing this, an investor frankly said that currently, 90% of the funds in RMB funds come from local governments and state - owned enterprises. Essentially, it is the local governments that are driving the investment. "Compared with other industries, robot companies, especially early - stage Series A companies, have the need to establish R & D centers or production capacity in the future. This makes some VCs that have received RMB funds also willing to invest in such projects."

The actions of RMB funds remind me of a post that caused a stir on the Internet some time ago - the 2015 financing PPT of ByteDance was posted online, which triggered many entrepreneurs to seek to buy it.

In the process, it also sparked a lot of thinking: Is ByteDance's financing PPT really that simple? If it were today, would RMB - fund investors still invest?

The answer may not be that simple. But some entrepreneurs think that if it were today, various factors such as relocation, buy - back, pledge, unlimited joint liability, asset - light operation, product competitiveness, and even the Chinese zodiac might need to be considered... This has led some people to joke in the comment section that this project obviously cannot be invested in because it cannot establish production capacity.

So, the simplest logic emerges again: If it is an industry vigorously promoted by the state, the direction driven by policies is the investment direction. "Even if we can't invest in the top - tier embodied intelligence companies, we can invest in mid - tier robot companies," said the above - mentioned top figure from a US - dollar fund.

Following this path, a top figure from a US - dollar fund said that after investing in the "flagship project" of robot bodies, this year, he started to invest in some early - stage companies that make joints, dexterous hands, etc., as well as projects related to the "brain". "Because low - cost component manufacturing is the key for embodied intelligence to achieve mass production."

Another early - stage investor said that even if the overall direction of the sector is correct, in a certain vertical and segmented field, investors only have two opportunities to invest: one is to invest in the first - ranked company in the field, and the other is the second - ranked company. "This is our requirement for ourselves, especially in early - stage investment. We must have such determination to have more room for imagination in subsequent financing."

This article is from the WeChat official account "ChinaVenture Capital", author: Chen Mei, published by 36Kr with authorization.