A well - known robotics company has been exposed to internal strife, and investors are angrily attacking the founder with a "2 - million - yuan monthly salary".
"A monthly salary of 2 million yuan", "All net profits go to me"... In recent days, the founder who demands a "2 million yuan monthly salary" has become a "viral meme" in the robotics industry. Some investors even published an open letter, claiming to have been treated unfairly like vulnerable targets for exploitation.
In July this year, Yin Rongzao, the actual controller, chairman, and general manager of Borunte Robot Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Borunte"), an early - stage startup in the robotics industry, submitted a proposal to the board of directors. He requested that all the company's net profits in the next ten years, minus one yuan, be used as his personal bonus.
Not only that, Yin Rongzao also proposed to increase his monthly salary to a fixed 2 million yuan starting from August 2025.
The background for Yin Rongzao to put forward the above proposals is that the company has been continuously losing money for three and a half years, with a cumulative net loss of over 200 million yuan. Against the backdrop of consecutive losses, why did the chairman demand a huge salary increase for himself and almost take all the company's profits?
Yin Rongzao believes that the audit report with a "disclaimer of opinion" issued by the previously hired audit firm led to the company being delisted from the ST list and a decline in performance. To motivate the general manager (i.e., himself) to lead the company to turn losses into profits, he put forward the above proposals.
However, the above proposals were unanimously opposed by Borunte's directors and investors. Junlan Investment, the tenth - largest shareholder and an investor of Borunte, even published an open letter on August 7, directly accusing Yin Rongzao of "emptying the company" and "humiliating shareholders".
Since then, the "internal strife" between Borunte's founder and investors has been exposed to the public.
Image source: Borunte's official WeChat account
01 Junlan Investment Exposes Borunte's Insider Information
Junlan Investment's open letter is very intense. At the beginning, it clearly states: Remove Yin Rongzao and rebuild the governance order!
This open letter also exposes many inside stories of Borunte and accuses Yin Rongzao of plundering the company's value.
Junlan Investment claims that Yin Rongzao is not the company's technical founder. He doesn't understand industrial robot technology at all and has never led any key R & D projects. He gained control because in the early days of the company, taking advantage of the booming New Third Board market and high valuations, he fabricated stories and attracted capital for high - valuation financing.
In this round of financing, the real technical team and core management were arranged to reduce their holdings and cash out, and almost all the funds obtained were transferred by Yin Rongzao to the "Rongzao No. 1 Fund" under his control. Subsequently, through the voting rights and board seats of this fund, Yin Rongzao completed the "privatization" of Borunte's governance structure.
Junlan Investment says, "This is not entrepreneurship; it's a scheme. This is not business operation; it's plunder."
Junlan Investment also reveals that "even when the company had accumulated huge losses of 230 million yuan in two consecutive years, Yin Rongzao ostentatiously used Borunte's funds to buy luxury cars continuously, just to humiliate the shareholders and directors for their helplessness towards him."
In April 2025, Yin Rongzao completed the amendment of the company's articles of association, stipulating that "company directors must be selected from current employees who have signed labor contracts or service contracts with Borunte." Junlan Investment believes that this means that "without Yin Rongzao's consent, shareholders can no longer send director representatives to safeguard their rights, even if they hold a large number of shares." Eventually, a power closed - loop is formed where "external shareholders can't get in and internal employees dare not oppose."
In the comment section below Junlan Investment's open letter, a user with the ID "Yin Rongzao" left a message saying that "The 'General Manager's Year - End Bonus Performance Appraisal Proposal' and the 'General Manager's Fixed Monthly Salary of 2 Million Yuan Proposal' were put forward by Yin Rongzao in response to Comrade Li Bozheng's report to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission three years ago, accusing Yin Rongzao of colluding with accountants to privatize Borunte. Yin Rongzao not only failed to privatize Borunte but also couldn't even get a salary increase for himself."
Image source: Borunte's official WeChat account
02 From Cooperation to Enmity: Who Can Understand Yin Rongzao's "Business Philosophy"?
Combining Junlan Investment's open letter and Borunte's public information, it's not difficult to find that Yin Rongzao and investors once had a good cooperation.
Borunte was established in May 2008, and its main products are robots and manipulators.
Yin Rongzao has long been the actual controller of Borunte, directly holding 21.65% of the company's shares. In addition, Dongguan Rongzao Intelligent Manufacturing No. 1 Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Rongzao No. 1") once held 18.01% of Borunte's shares, and Yin Rongzao is the actual controller of "Rongzao No. 1". Therefore, he controls a total of 39.66% of Borunte's equity.
Junlan Investment revealed in the open letter that "Rongzao No. 1" was set up by investors to help Yin Rongzao in 2016, making him the actual controller of Borunte. Junlan Investment also said that at that time, Yin Rongzao "regarded investors as benefactors".
However, Borunte's subsequent development was completely out of the investors' control.
According to Borunte's financial report, since December 2016, the company has implemented the application - provider sales model. Simply put, Borunte is responsible for product R & D, production, and sales; application providers are responsible for providing terminal application design, integration, debugging, and after - sales service. In addition, all products are picked up by application providers at Borunte's company.
The financial report also voluntarily disclosed Yin Rongzao's business innovations, mainly in three aspects:
1. Application providers are the people, and anyone can become an application provider. That is to say, Borunte has no sales profit but only production profit because Borunte only sells futures.
2. Suppliers are the people, and anyone can become a supplier. That is to say, the materials supplied by suppliers to Borunte also have no sales profit but only production profit because the purchase prices of materials can be directly queried on Borunte's official website.
3. Borunte 100% encourages employees to start their own businesses and become application providers or suppliers. This is mass entrepreneurship and innovation.
The financial report also placed charts such as "Yin's Economics" below the above - mentioned business innovation content.
Image source: Borunte's financial report
However, even professional audit institutions are unable to give an opinion on Borunte's application - provider model and Yin Rongzao's business innovations.
Zhejiang Tianjian Certified Public Accountants (Special General Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Tianjian") and Shenzhen Huangjia Certified Public Accountants (General Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Huangjia") issued audit reports with a "disclaimer of opinion" on Borunte's financial reports for 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Both Tianjian and Huangjia stated that "Regarding the authenticity of the company's revenue under the application - provider sales model, we were unable to perform further audit procedures to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence."
Zhongxinghua Certified Public Accountants (Special General Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongxinghua"), which was later hired by Borunte, did not issue an audit report at all.
Due to the above events, Borunte sued these three audit institutions respectively.
By November 2023, two other audit institutions hired by Borunte finally issued standard unqualified audit reports for Borunte from 2020 to 2022.
Yin Rongzao believes that Tianjian and Huangjia issued audit reports with a "disclaimer of opinion" due to their doubts about the company's application - provider sales model and the collectability of accounts receivable. This led to the company's delisting from the stock transfer system, seriously affecting the company's reputation and market sales.
Yin Rongzao said that to motivate the company's general manager to continue to eliminate the negative impact of Tianjian and Huangjia's audit reports on the company and achieve an annual profit, he proposed that starting from August 2025, the general manager's fixed monthly salary should be 2 million yuan.
Both Yin Rongzao's proposals regarding net profit distribution and monthly salary increase were opposed by other directors. Director Guo Jinlong thought the proposal of a 2 million - yuan monthly salary for the general manager was "unreasonable". Directors Yang Yihua, Deng Gongzhao, and Zhou Qiuhua expressed similar views that "the company is in a loss - making state and should earn money to make up for the losses." Regarding the proposal to distribute net profit to the general manager, the directors expressed their opposition, believing it was harmful to shareholders' interests.
Director Yang Yihua directly refuted the reasons for the above proposals and gave five reasons for opposition, of which the first three are particularly crucial:
1. The audit institutions issued audit reports with a "disclaimer of opinion" for Borunte because the company had huge accounts receivable with a risk of non - recovery. Accountants had doubts about revenue recognition, which ultimately led to the company's delisting from the ST list.
2. After Borunte was delisted, the company's net profit decreased from 73,830 yuan in 2020 to a cumulative loss of about 230 million yuan. The main reasons were selling products at a negative gross margin, increasing rebates to 50%, and losses caused by sales pricing.
3. Considering the above facts, the general manager is responsible for formulating policies and setting prices and should bear the main management responsibility.
According to financial data, from 2022 to June 2025, Borunte suffered consecutive losses, with a loss of up to 125 million yuan in 2023.
Image source: Borunte's official WeChat account
03 Has Yin Rongzao Lost His Last Line of Defense?
Junlan Investment said that it chose to take action now because the "Rongzao No. 1" fund has been liquidated, and Yin Rongzao has lost his last line of defense.
Public information shows that Junlan Investment's lawyers recently assisted in the liquidation of the "Rongzao No. 1" fund, and all voting rights have returned to the original investors. After the change in shareholding rights, Yin Rongzao's shareholding ratio in the company has dropped to 21.65%.
After the liquidation and cancellation of "Rongzao No. 1", the company's actual controller has changed from Yin Rongzao to no actual controller.
Junlan Investment believes that this means that Yin Rongzao has lost the basis to manipulate the board of directors and the company's fate. "This is also a critical window period for us to really have the opportunity to promote the amendment of the articles of association, the reorganization of the board of directors, and save the company's value."
It's worth noting that there are many cases of "relative shareholding" in Borunte. Relatives of directors and deputy general managers, such as the younger brother of Guo Jinlong's spouse, the younger brother of Deng Gongzhao, Luo Lin (Yin Rongzao's brother - in - law), the younger brother of Yang Yihua, and the younger brother and sister of Yang Yihua's wife, all hold equity in Borunte's affiliated companies.
Image source: Borunte's financial report
It can be seen that the internal relationships in Borunte are very complex. Whether Junlan Investment can "remove" Yin Rongzao still depends on the final decision.
Currently, Junlan Investment has formally submitted a proposal to Borunte to amend the articles of association, which will be voted on at the extraordinary general meeting on August 18. The proposal includes deleting the clause "Only current employees can serve as directors" that was forcibly amended in April 2025, changing the board members, and re - electing Yin Rongzao from the position of chairman and legal representative.
Procedurally, the amendment of the articles of association must be completed first before considering Yin Rongzao's re - election. This requires the approval of two - thirds, that is, more than 150 million shares of Borunte's shareholders.
Junlan Investment believes that Borunte is still a company with industrial value, industry status, and future potential.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Alpha Workshop Research Institute". Author: Liuyao. Republished by 36Kr with permission.