Wang Xingxing, a member of the post-90s generation, is challenging the IPO with a "robot adventure" valued at over 12 billion yuan.

Wang Xingxing, an entrepreneur born in the 1990s, is about to embark on a new journey.

On September 2nd, Unitree Technology officially announced that it expects to submit listing application documents to the stock exchange between October and December 2025. At that time, the company's relevant operating data will be officially disclosed.

Since 2025, Unitree Technology has been very active on the path of capitalization.

In June, Unitree Technology completed the delivery of its Series C financing. This round was jointly led by funds under China Mobile, Tencent, Jinqiu Capital, Alibaba, Ant Group, and Geely Capital. Most of the old shareholders participated in the follow - on investment. The financing amount was nearly 700 million yuan, and the post - investment valuation exceeded 12 billion yuan.

In July, the Beijing Robot Industry Development Investment Fund managed by Shoucheng Capital also made additional investments in Unitree Technology.

Also in July, the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission showed that Unitree Technology had started the listing guidance process, with CITIC Securities serving as the guidance institution, marking the official launch of its IPO process.

It is worth mentioning that Unitree Technology is one of the few profitable companies in the robot industry. According to an early investor of the company in an interview, Unitree Technology has been profitable for five consecutive years since 2020.

At the 2025 Summer Davos Forum, Wang Xingxing, the founder of Unitree Technology, announced that the company's annual revenue had exceeded 1 billion yuan.

Regarding the listing, Wang Xingxing said in an interview in August: "I've always regarded the company's listing as a student going through exams like the high - school entrance exam and the college entrance exam. You can think of me treating the listing as a 'college entrance exam'. I think (listing) is a stage in a company's development towards more mature management and operation. It's also an account of our nearly nine - year journey and an explanation to our shareholders."

The industry consensus is clear: Embodied intelligence/humanoid robots are currently in the infancy stage of the industry, which can be compared to the autonomous driving industry in 2015. Many senior practitioners and investors also predict that starting from the second half of this year, the industry will enter a new reshuffle period. For Unitree Technology, the IPO is just getting an early ticket to enter the new battlefield.

In the future, Wang Xingxing and Unitree Technology will face more intense industry competition and the commercial pressure of large - scale implementation. Their long - term profitability and strategic execution will face new challenges.

A Pragmatic Geek

Wang Xingxing's connection with robots began in his childhood with his obsession with technology. He admitted that he had been a loyal viewer of "Discover Channel" and various foreign documentaries since childhood, with a wide range of interests in aerospace, physics, chemistry, biology, and other fields.

This natural curiosity about technology was quickly translated into hands - on practice. He used to search for materials in the electronic component stores in his hometown town, try to make circuit boards, and study mechanical devices. In an era when the Internet was not yet popular and resources were scarce, he relied on his own "trial and error". This years - long practice in mechanical design and exploration in electronics and programming accumulated a technical foundation far beyond his peers.

During his postgraduate studies at Shanghai University, Wang Xingxing studied miniaturized electric quadruped robots. To complete the research and development of the robot, he voluntarily applied for a graduation extension. With the low - cost quadruped robot dog he independently developed, Wang Xingxing won awards in a subsequent entrepreneurship competition and received the first pot of gold of 80,000 yuan.

In June 2016, after graduating with a master's degree, Wang Xingxing chose to work at DJI. Less than two months after working at DJI, Wang Xingxing suddenly found that the robot he made had become popular overseas. Some people were willing to buy it, and some were willing to invest in him. Wang Xingxing decided to leave DJI and start his own business independently.

Wang Xingxing once admitted that choosing to start a business in the robot industry "was not just out of interest". "I have a wide range of interests, and robots are just a part of them. It just so happens that it has become my career direction." This path, starting from love, achieving through accumulation, and finally landing on industrial choice, clearly outlines his inevitable trajectory of engaging in robot entrepreneurship.

Wang Xingxing's pragmatic spirit has influenced the development path of Unitree Technology.

When the company was founded in 2016, Wang Xingxing precisely targeted the quadruped robot market and regarded scientific research institutions and research organizations as the core target users. With relatively low prices and an electric drive system convenient for secondary development, Unitree's products were quickly recognized by the scientific research community, achieving a cash - flow cycle and effectively supporting R & D investment. Its commercialization process also advanced smoothly. The products received orders when pre - sales started in 2017 and were officially shipped in 2018.

In Wang Xingxing's view, achieving a commercial closed - loop for products is crucial. "Customers' willingness to pay for your products is the real commercial closed - loop. Otherwise, it's always a failed product." He emphasized in an interview with GeekPark.

In 2022, Tesla released Optimus, which showed the outside world the possibility of commercializing humanoid robots. In 2023, Unitree officially entered the humanoid robot field. Previously, Wang Xingxing had received relevant suggestions, but based on his judgment of the technological maturity at that time, he believed that humanoid robots were not ready for implementation. However, once he judged that the time was right, Wang Xingxing and the Unitree team acted extremely quickly. After the humanoid robot project was established in 2023, Unitree launched its first humanoid robot, H1, in just half a year, standing at the forefront of the industry development.

According to the company's latest announcement, the product sales structure of Unitree Technology in 2024 is as follows: quadruped robots account for about 65%, humanoid robots account for 30%, and component products account for 5%. Among them, about 80% of the quadruped robots are used in research, education, and consumer fields, and the remaining 20% are used in industrial scenarios (such as inspection and fire - fighting); while humanoid robots are entirely for research, education, and consumer markets.

Upgraded Challenges

Although Unitree Technology has proven the initial success of its business model with a profitable closed - loop, after a successful listing, the challenges faced by Wang Xingxing and the team will further escalate: How to find large - scale commercial scenarios to promote the real implementation of humanoid robots? How to build a sustainable profit moat in the increasingly fierce competition and gain the long - term trust of investors and end - consumers?

Previously, industry insiders pointed out that the scientific research teaching aids market is currently a good market. The market scale of tens of billions of yuan is sufficient to support Unitree to become a listed company at present. However, as more and more humanoid robot companies are eager to enter this market to "grab a share", whether from the perspective of market expectations or the company's own strategic layout, Wang Xingxing will surely lead Unitree Technology to expand into a broader market.

Currently, the single - unit cost of popular full - size humanoid robots (1.6 - 1.9 meters) on the market is extremely high (in the hundreds of thousands of yuan). It is difficult to popularize them in the consumer market in the short term. Therefore, since 2023, the automotive and high - end industrial manufacturing scenarios with high automation and strong payment capabilities have quickly become the preferred implementation targets for most robot companies. The phrase "robots going into factories to do assembly work" has become a trend in the industry. Unitree Technology is no exception and signed cooperation agreements with major automobile companies in 2024.

While humanoid robots and embodied intelligence are being highly favored by the capital market, recently, the industry's commercialization process has significantly accelerated: On September 3rd, Ubtech received a 250 - million - yuan embodied intelligence order; on September 2nd, Zhipu Robotics won a 31.02 - million - yuan project from the Hubei Innovation Center; in mid - August, Unitree and Zhipu jointly won a 124 - million - yuan service contract from China Mobile (Hangzhou) ...

Although there has been a dense explosion of orders, the bottleneck in economic benefits still needs to be broken through. Industry insiders point out that the current operating efficiency of robots is less than one - third of that of humans, far from meeting market expectations.

Currently, the general consensus in the industry is that both technological development and commercial implementation are limited by the lack of embodied large - model capabilities and insufficient training data. Wang Xingxing even admitted that the current large - scale robot models are still not sufficient, only at a level similar to that of 1 - 3 years before the release of ChatGPT. Previously, Unitree focused more on hardware research, with relatively low investment in computing power and algorithms. This is also an area that Unitree Technology urgently needs to strengthen and supplement after listing.

Capacity ramp - up is another key challenge for Unitree Technology and the entire industry. In 2025, each company's estimated production capacity of full - size humanoid robots is about 500 - 1000 units. Industry insiders say that the maturity of the robot supply chain is currently insufficient, and most startup companies are required to develop their own hardware. There are two problems in the market: one is the issue of "reinventing the wheel", and the other is that some precision parts rely on "manual production" and cannot achieve automated production.

As Unitree Technology's newly released humanoid robot R1 has brought the price down to the 39,900 - yuan level, market demand is expected to grow rapidly. Wang Xingxing predicts that the annual global industry shipments can at least double. If there is a major technological breakthrough, the annual shipments are expected to explode to hundreds of thousands of units within 2 - 3 years.

Facing the growth inflection point, Unitree must plan for mass - production capacity in advance. "My biggest personal experience in the past is to think one step ahead about what the next few years will be like, such as in terms of AI, technology, hardware, manufacturing, and global layout, and make advance plans." Wang Xingxing said in an interview.

As Wang Xingxing said, the IPO is just a "college entrance exam" on the entrepreneurial journey. For Unitree Technology, the robot industry still has a competition cycle of 5 - 10 years or even longer. It is far from the end. Only companies that can continuously pass the commercial verification can survive in the next reshuffle period.

References:

"Exclusive | An Unpublished Interview with Wang Xingxing Five Years Ago", Touzhongwang

"Dialogue | Listing Is Like a 'College Entrance Exam', the AI Capability of Humanoid Robots Is Still Insufficient... Wang Xingxing of Unitree Technology Talks about These Ten Questions", Daily Economic News

This article is from the WeChat official account  "China Entrepreneur Magazine" (ID: iceo - com - cn), author: Kong Yuexin, published by 36Kr with authorization.