The founder asked for a monthly salary of 2 million yuan, which made the investor angry.
There is something new in the investment circle.
Recently, Junlan Investment, an investor in the robotics company Borunte, issued an open letter, directly accusing Yin, the current chairman and general manager of Borunte, of siphoning off the company through institutional design and humiliating shareholders. It also called on shareholders to vote in favor of amending the company's articles of association, restoring the normal governance structure, and removing Yin from Borunte, which caused quite a stir for a while.
Previously, Yin requested a fixed monthly salary of 2 million yuan for himself and an annual bonus of "company profit - 1 yuan", which was rejected by the board of directors. "If this isn't siphoning off the company, then what is?" the representative of Junlan Investment said sharply in the open letter.
Founded in 2008, Borunte mainly engages in the research and development of robots and manipulators. It started as a township enterprise with an initial revenue of only a few million yuan and once developed into a national specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprise with a revenue of over 400 million yuan and a profit of over 100 million yuan. It's really a pity that it has now fallen into such a situation.
The Storm Triggered by a 2 - million - yuan Monthly Salary
The cause was the chairman's request for a salary increase.
On August 6, the announcement of the 23rd meeting of the 4th board of directors of Borunte showed that the company deliberated on the "Proposal on the General Manager's Fixed Monthly Salary of 2 million yuan". The content of the proposal was as follows:
After the company delisted from the stock transfer system, its corporate reputation and market sales were severely affected. The company took a series of measures, but the impact was still significant. To encourage the company's general manager to continue to eliminate the above - mentioned negative impacts and turn the annual performance from loss to profit, it is hereby proposed that starting from August 2025, the general manager of the company shall have a fixed monthly salary of 2 million yuan.
Finally, the voting result of the proposal was 4 against and 1 in favor, and it was not passed. Many directors believed that the company was in a loss - making state and should make money to make up for the losses. A plan to increase the salary and benefits could be proposed after the company became profitable.
Immediately afterwards, on August 7, the company's official WeChat account "Borunte BORUNTE" reposted an open letter from Jiaxing Junlan Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership), a shareholder of the company. According to the company's semi - annual report in 2025, Jiaxing Junlan Investment holds 1.54% of the company's shares and is the tenth largest shareholder of the company.
The open letter pointed out that on July 29, 2025, Yin, in his capacity as the chairman, formally submitted a surprising proposal to the board of directors: All the funds after subtracting one yuan from the company's total net profit in the next ten years shall be used as his personal bonus.
"Yin is not the technological founder but a person who siphons off Borunte through institutional design." The representative of Junlan Investment revealed the story of how Yin gained control of Borunte in the open letter:
In the early days of the company, taking advantage of the booming New Third Board market and high valuations, Yin fabricated stories to attract capital for high - valuation financing. In this round of financing, the real technological team and core management were arranged to reduce their holdings and cash out, and almost all the funds obtained were transferred by Yin to the "Rongzao No. 1 Fund" under his control. Subsequently, with the voting rights and director seats arranged by the fund, he completed the "privatization" of Borunte's governance structure.
In April 2025, Yin completed the amendment of the company's articles of association. Article 105 was changed to: "The company's directors must be selected from the in - service employees who have signed labor contracts or service contracts with Borunte." In the eyes of investors, this means that without Yin's consent, shareholders cannot send director representatives to safeguard shareholders' rights and interests, ultimately forming a power closed - loop where "external shareholders cannot enter and internal employees dare not oppose".
As the internal strife escalated, why did they take action now? The representative of Junlan Investment explained that it was because the "Rongzao No. 1 Fund" controlled by Yin had been liquidated with the help of the lawyer sent by the investors, and all the voting rights had returned to the original investors.
Strangely enough, right below this "criticizing" letter on "Borunte BORUNTE", there were Yin's philosophical formulas and Yin's economics. Netizens directly commented that it was "too abstract".
After the open letter was released, an ID named "Yin Rongzao" left multiple messages in the comment section, saying "the world is full of treachery".
Losses Exceed 300 Million and Delisted in 2023
What kind of startup company is this exactly?
Public information shows that Borunte was founded in May 2008 and is headquartered in Dongguan, Guangdong. It is a technology company dedicated to the independent research and development of domestic industrial robots. Its product types include general - purpose robots, stamping robots, palletizing robots, collaborative robots, parallel robots, etc. In January 2014, Borunte was listed on the New Third Board and was one of the first batch of listed companies after the expansion.
Yin is the founder of Borunte. According to the information disclosed in the financial report, Yin is 45 years old this year. He graduated from the Mechanical Manufacturing major of Hunan Changde Electromechanical Engineering School and has a secondary vocational school education. In May 2008, he jointly funded the establishment of Dongguan Borunte Automation Technology Co., Ltd. and has served as the chairman and general manager of Borunte Robot Co., Ltd. since October 2013. As of the end of June 2025, Yin is still the largest shareholder of the company, holding 21.65% of the shares.
Yin was once called a "madman" on the New Third Board for shouting out the "trillion - market - value goal" and the "billion - yuan private placement" plan. In Borunte's company management, his "slogans" can be seen everywhere. Later, there were once rumors that Borunte planned to go public on the Science and Technology Innovation Board and had completed the registration for listing guidance.
However, since the financial reports for 2020 and 2021 were both issued with an "unable to express an opinion" audit report by the certified public accounting firm, and there were doubts about the "application - merchant sales model and the recoverable ratio of accounts receivable", Borunte delisted from the National Equities Exchange and Quotations in April 2023, and its corporate reputation and market sales were severely hit.
During this period, the operating conditions of this robotics company were also on a downward trend. The financial report data showed that from 2020 to 2024, Borunte achieved revenues of 447 million yuan, 374 million yuan, 226 million yuan, 201 million yuan, and 241 million yuan respectively, and net profits of 73.833 million yuan, - 53.092 million yuan, - 104 million yuan, - 125 million yuan, and - 86.863 million yuan respectively.
Calculated in this way, Borunte's cumulative losses exceeded 300 million yuan. With consecutive years of losses, Yin proposed a monthly salary of 2 million yuan for himself at this time, and the "farce of internal strife" began. According to the company's semi - annual report in 2025, Borunte currently has no controlling shareholder and no actual controller.
The Spirit of Contract
With the robotics industry booming at present, the story of Borunte seems rather absurd.
Fundamentally, it is the misalignment of the consensus on the "spirit of contract" among all parties. In the industry chain, there are always some people who explicitly or implicitly violate the spirit of contract in practice, causing damage to the interests and reputations of all parties.
In the venture capital circle, there are many stories of founders and investors appreciating and achieving each other. Behind this, the spirit of contract is the most fundamental guarantee. An investor used a line from Wang Wei's poem "Even old friends still hold their swords in suspicion" to explain the importance of the spirit of contract:
It is the contract, this "sword", that can ensure that entrepreneurs and investors know each other for a long time and achieve each other. Without the constraint of this "sword", relying solely on the moral self - discipline of both parties is far from enough. Without this "sword", human nature will either succumb to greed or fear, and this kind of succumbing will definitely erode the foundation of the contract.
The relationship between entrepreneurs and investors is essentially a business relationship. Only when both parties abide by the contract can the relationship be well maintained. If either party deviates from the spirit of contract, the outcome may be a lose - lose situation.
Entrepreneurs without the spirit of contract won't go far. As an investor friend emphasized, "With a sense of awe. Entrepreneurs are both founder - shareholders and company managers. As managers, you need to be responsible to the board of directors and the general meeting of shareholders. I hope everyone is a person who abides by the rules."
"In investment investigations, what is often easily overlooked is the in - depth understanding of people. A person's past, determination, expectations for the future, spirit of contract, mind, aggressiveness, and self - awareness all determine the final investment result." A veteran in the venture capital industry with more than 20 years of experience warned like this.
In the downward cycle, the spirit of contract has been placed in an important position. If everyone abides by the spirit of contract and builds the wall of trust more firmly, many astonishing things may not happen.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Investment World" (ID: pedaily2012), author: Zhou Jiali, published by 36Kr with authorization.