From obscurity to the leader in the intelligent robotics field, what has Unitree Technology done right?

The embodied intelligence track is surging forward.

Previously, Zeyuan Robotics took a backdoor listing through Shangwei New Materials, and now Yushu Technology is on the verge of an IPO, causing quite a stir in the industry.

Yushu Technology is one of the most anticipated IPO companies in the robotics field. With its glorious reputation, if it goes public in China, considering the enthusiasm of A-share investors for concept stocks such as artificial intelligence and robotics, its market value may not be less than 50 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, the founder Wang Xingxing's net worth is expected to exceed 10 billion yuan, and early investors such as Meituan will also receive billions in returns. The development of the upstream and downstream industrial chains, such as core component suppliers like Zhongda Lide, Changsheng Bearing, and Weilan Lithium Core, will also become the most certain beneficiaries in this wave of robotics investment.

Currently, in terms of business, Yushu Technology's quadruped robots still dominate. In 2024, the sales of quadruped robots, humanoid robots, and component products accounted for approximately 65%, 30%, and 5% respectively.

However, with the progress of the IPO, Yushu Technology is expected to occupy a larger market share in the humanoid robot field and become a benchmark enterprise for domestic hardcore technology.

So, how did this robotics company founded in 2016 go from obscurity to a capital favorite and grow into the leader in embodied intelligence in just a few years?

Passed the Double-Wheel Verification of Capital and Business

There are early signs of Yushu Technology's IPO journey.

In May 2025, the company completed its shareholding reform, changing its name from "Hangzhou Yushu Technology Co., Ltd." to "Hangzhou Yushu Technology Co., Ltd. (Stock Corporation)". Its registered capital soared from 2.889 million yuan to 364 million yuan, a staggering 125-fold increase. After completing its Series C financing, its valuation reached 12 billion yuan.

In July, CITIC Securities officially intervened in the listing guidance, marking that Yushu's IPO process has entered a substantial stage. Before that, Yushu had gone through 10 rounds of financing, raising over 1.5 billion yuan in total. The investors include more than 30 top institutions such as Sequoia Capital, Meituan, Tencent, Alibaba, and China Internet Investment Fund.

From a startup to a capital favorite, Yushu has provided the most powerful endorsement with its technological strength and commercialization potential.

The capital's enthusiasm stems from Yushu's solid performance support. As a rare profitable player in the robotics industry, Yushu has maintained profitability for five consecutive years since 2020:

In 2024, its revenue exceeded 1 billion yuan, and its gross profit margin remained stable above 50%. The Q1 financial report in 2025 was even more impressive, with a revenue of 3.27 billion yuan and a net profit of 480 million yuan. Institutions predict that the net profit attributable to the parent company from 2025 to 2027 will reach 1.415 billion, 1.856 billion, and 2.287 billion yuan respectively. This money-making ability is particularly rare in the robotics industry, which relies on burning money for expansion.

More importantly, Yushu's commercialization path is clear and efficient. Its product portfolio covers quadruped robots (accounting for 65% of revenue), humanoid robots (30%), and core components (5%), and its application scenarios have extended from scientific research and education to the consumer and industrial fields:

The global sales of the quadruped robot Go1 have exceeded 50,000 units, accounting for more than 60% of the market share of consumer-grade legged robots. The humanoid robot G1 is priced at 99,000 yuan (only 1/10 of similar international products), and its shipment volume reached 5,000 units in the first half of 2025.

The entry of giants such as Meituan, Tencent, and Alibaba has formed a synergistic effect of technology + scenarios with Yushu: Meituan is betting on last-mile delivery, Tencent is expanding into the home scenario, and Alibaba is deploying in unmanned warehousing, opening up broader imagination space for Yushu.

Cleverly Use Three Strategies to Break Through the High-Price Barrier in the Industry

Yushu Technology is known as the "price butcher", which is related to its strong R & D and cost control capabilities.

In the field of quadruped robots, Boston Dynamics' Spot is priced at over 500,000 yuan and has long monopolized the high-end market. In the humanoid robot track, the products of companies such as Ubtech and Zeyuan are generally priced between 150,000 and 300,000 yuan, only suitable for B2B scenarios such as scientific research and education.

Through technological innovation and cost reconstruction, Yushu has brought the price of quadruped robots into the 10,000-yuan era. The humanoid robot R1, with a starting price of 39,900 yuan, has for the first time opened the door to the C2C home and service market.

Behind this dimensionality reduction strike is Yushu's precise control of the relationship among technology, cost, and scenarios, which is specifically reflected in the following three steps:

Step 1: Choose the right technological route to avoid the blockade of giants

Around 2016, the mainstream route for robot power was hydraulic drive. Although it had powerful performance, it had high costs, a long development cycle, and the technology was mainly in the hands of a few international large companies.

Wang Xingxing, the founder of Yushu, took a different approach and chose the direct-drive motor technology route. Compared with hydraulic drive, direct-drive motors have lower costs, a shorter development cycle, and their control accuracy and response speed are more suitable for large-scale production.

Thanks to this choice, Yushu's early XDog robot stood out, laying a technological foundation for its subsequent development.

Step 2: Build a moat through full self-research and compress costs to 1/3 of the industry average

Yushu Technology has achieved full-stack independent research and development of 90% of its core components and the body structure, including key components such as motors, reducers, controllers, and lidars. This vertical integration model effectively solves the pain points in the robotics industry, such as the long industrial chain, high costs, mismatch between demand and function, and slow product iteration.

For example, the self-developed M107 series of brushless motors have a torque density of 120 Nm/kg, far exceeding the 90 Nm/kg of Boston Dynamics' Spot, while the cost is only 50% of imported motors.

The motion control algorithm based on reinforcement learning and model predictive control algorithms allows the robot to adjust its gait in real-time and maintain stable movement on complex terrains, with an error accuracy of 0.1 seconds.

The integrated self-developed 4D lidar, depth camera, and six-dimensional force sensor reduce the blind area by 80%, enabling centimeter-level environmental modeling and obstacle avoidance.

Through full-chain self-research, Yushu not only avoids being restricted by the supply chain but also compresses the overall machine cost to 1/3 of the industry average, forming dual advantages of high performance and low cost.

Step 3: Implement scenario-based product launches and use demand to drive technological iteration

If technology cannot be transformed into products recognized by the market, it will ultimately be a castle in the air. So what Yushu offers is a strategy of "from scenarios, to scenarios". How to understand it specifically?

In the field of quadruped robots, Yushu Technology's market expansion strategy is clear and efficient. Initially, the company focused on the scientific research and education field. With the high performance and cost-effectiveness of its products, it quickly gained recognition in domestic and international AI laboratories, creating a situation where the robots were in short supply.

Then it expanded into the consumer market, and the Go1 became the world's first consumer-grade companion robot, with a cumulative sales volume of 50,000 units. Finally, it penetrated into industrial scenarios such as inspection and firefighting, further expanding the application scope and market influence of its products.

In terms of humanoid robots, Yushu Technology also adopted a phased market strategy: first, it broke through the circle with performances. For example, the quadruped robot A1 modified into the "Bull Herd" in the 2021 Spring Festival Gala and the humanoid robot H1 performing the handkerchief twirling in the 2023 Spring Festival Gala both attracted a lot of attention.

Then it entered the market with a low price (the G1 is priced at 99,000 yuan), attracting large-scale procurement in scenarios such as education and corporate exhibitions. For example, in 2025, Yushu Technology won the bid for the procurement project of the humanoid biped robot OEM service of a subsidiary of China Mobile, with a total amount of 124 million yuan.

It is this scenario-based product thinking that allows Yushu to avoid direct competition with traditional giants and establish a positive cycle from technology to brand and then to users in the niche market.

From a Single Product Hit to Ecosystem Leadership

Although Yushu is at the forefront of the industry, the road ahead is not smooth. Currently, Yushu's commercialization still faces two major challenges:

In the C2C market, the traffic dividend brought by the Spring Festival Gala has not been transformed into stable consumption power. Robots are still regarded as high-tech toys by consumers, and the market demand is not clear.

In the B2B market, the customers of quadruped robots are mainly concentrated in scientific research institutions, and humanoid robots are mainly used in temporary scenarios such as exhibitions and annual meetings, with a low repurchase rate for non-essential needs.

Although the education field is supported by national policies and the demand has increased sharply, the market still needs further in-depth cultivation. The demand for display and service robots in the consumer field is the focus, but humanoid robots have not yet entered households on a large scale. The application prospects in the industrial field are promising, but the commercialization of humanoid robots has just begun.

Currently, the consumer-grade robots sold on a large scale in the market are mainly non-humanoid products such as sweeping robots. There are doubts about the actual role of humanoid robots, and the market is somewhat overheated.

It will definitely take time for humanoid robots to gradually enter the industrial, corporate, and home scenarios from teaching aids and performance displays and finally become real partners of humans.

Wang Xingxing predicts that it is guaranteed that the global humanoid robot industry will double every year in the next few years. If there are greater technological breakthroughs, it is possible to ship hundreds of thousands or even millions of units a year in the next two to three years.

According to the prediction of Morgan Stanley, the Chinese humanoid robot market will expand at an annual growth rate of 63%. The stock will reach 252,000 units in 2030 and may increase to 302 million units (one for every five people) in 2050. In terms of quadruped robots, Yushu has occupied nearly 70% of the global market share, and with the deepening of scenarios such as industrial inspection and firefighting, there is still considerable growth space.

For Yushu, going public is not only a coronation ceremony for capital but also a crucial node for its transformation from a single product hit to ecosystem leadership.

In the future, if Yushu Technology can fully utilize the resources and opportunities provided by the capital market, on the one hand, it can accelerate technological iteration and innovation, invest more resources in researching more advanced humanoid robots, dexterous robotic arms and other products, continuously improve the technological content and performance of its products, and maintain its leading position in the technological frontier;

On the other hand, it can deeply cultivate scenarios with rigid demand for robots, such as education and industry, conduct customized development and optimization of products according to the characteristics and needs of these scenarios, improve the practicality and applicability of products, and expand the market penetration rate and application scope of products.

Then, Yushu Technology is expected to become a landmark example for the Chinese robotics industry to shift from following to leading, leading the Chinese robotics industry to occupy a more favorable position in global competition.

Thoughts from Jutou Finance: The Price Butcher is About to Set New Rules

From a one-person team when it was founded in 2016 to an industry-leading enterprise with a scale of thousands of people and a valuation of over 10 billion yuan today, the story of Yushu Technology is a growth history of technological breakthrough combined with business pragmatism.

It has proven in eight years that in the field of Chinese hard technology, only by choosing the right technological route, persevering in cost control, and deeply cultivating scenario-based needs can we break the monopoly of international giants and blaze a unique path for Chinese intelligent manufacturing.

As the IPO bell is about to ring, the next goal of this price butcher is no longer just to sell products but to define the rules of the game for the global robotics industry.

For example, define the robot interface standards, communication protocols, etc., so that products from different manufacturers can work better together. For example, promote the application of robot technology in more scenarios through robot leasing and sharing services.

Another example is that with the capital advantage after going public, Yushu Technology can integrate the industrial chain, invest in or acquire upstream and downstream enterprises, optimize the supply chain, and improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the entire industrial chain.

Yushu Technology's IPO is crucial for its future industry influence and the enterprise's ability to resist operational risks. The domestic robotics track has just started warming up.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Jutou Finance" (ID: jutoucaijing), author: Tuoluosuan. It is republished by 36Kr with permission.