Today, the female president invested by Tencent rang the bell.

The food delivery robot you've seen in hotels has officially gone public through an IPO.

According to investment news, today (October 16th), Yunji Technology officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising approximately HK$590 million. It opened 49.37% higher at HK$142.8 per share, with a market value approaching HK$10 billion.

Behind it is a female founder with a science and engineering background - Zhi Tao. She graduated from Xi'an Jiaotong University earlier. In 2014, she founded Yunji Technology. To date, the company's robots have been working as waiters in more than 30,000 hotels. The figures of Tencent, Alibaba, and many well - known VC/PE firms are behind it.

Looking around, the robot industry is booming this year, and there is a long queue of companies waiting for IPOs at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

A Female Engineer Builds Robots

The IPO Bell Rings

If you meet a robot in the elevator lobby of hotels like Marriott, InterContinental, or Atour, it will definitely be the first to break the silence. It will strike up a conversation with you in a childish voice and shuttle around the hotel to deliver hotel supplies and takeaways. And the one who created them is a woman - Zhi Tao.

Zhi Tao, Founder, Chairperson, and President of Yunji Technology

After graduating from the engineering major at Xi'an Jiaotong University for her undergraduate and master's degrees and the business administration major at the University of Science and Technology of China, Zhi Tao had more than 10 years of work experience in sensors and automation before founding Yunji Technology. She had served as a senior executive in several technology companies.

Having witnessed the ups and downs of the industry, Zhi Tao saw the trend of robotization in the service industry. At that time, she and her team found that hotels had a high demand for services, a high degree of standardization, and a certain scale of operation and payment ability. Once the commercial value of robots was proven in the hotel scenario, there would be opportunities for rapid replication.

In 2014, Yunji Technology was officially established.

Soon, Yunji's first hotel robot came out. Zhi Tao led the team to launch the first - generation robot, the "Run" series. "Run means to run in English. We hope it is a very energetic runner," Zhi Tao once explained.

However, when it first entered the market, hotel robots were still a niche product. Zhi Tao recalled in a speech that during that time, she and her team knocked on the doors of countless hotels with their robots, and most of the responses they got were "no need".

The turning point came in 2020. The sudden pandemic led to an explosion in the demand for hotel robots, and the company's orders began to surge. In this year, Yunji's robots had cooperated with more than 1,300 hotels around the world and began to explore scenarios outside of hotels, including the exhibition hall of the 2020 Winter Olympics.

The prospectus shows that from 2022 to 2024 and in the first five months of 2025, Yunji Technology's revenues were approximately 161 million yuan, 145 million yuan, 245 million yuan, and 88 million yuan respectively. During the reporting period, the gross profits were approximately 39 million yuan, 39 million yuan, 106 million yuan, and 34 million yuan respectively; the gross profit margins were 24.3%, 27.0%, 43.5%, and 39.5% respectively.

Yunji's revenue mainly comes from three directions: first, transaction and lease payments for selling or leasing robots and functional kits; second, subscription - based, transaction - based, and commission - based payments for providing services under the AI digital system; in addition, there is also revenue generated by selling products to individual customers. Among them, robot product sales are the main source of revenue, accounting for more than 70%.

To date, Yunji Technology has accumulated more than 34,000 hotel deployments. In addition, there are also scenarios such as hospitals, factories, apartments, and buildings. The prospectus shows that in 2024, Yunji's robots completed more than 500 million services.

Although the company has found commercial scenarios, it has not yet turned a profit. From 2022 to 2024 and in the first five months of 2025, Yunji Technology lost 365 million, 265 million, 185 million yuan, and 118 million yuan respectively. The losses show signs of narrowing but are still continuing. Limited commercialization scenarios are also one of the primary risks mentioned in the prospectus.

However, at this moment, Zhi Tao finally led her robots onto the stage for the IPO bell - ringing ceremony.

VC/PE Firms Gather

Tencent and Alibaba Also Join

Looking back, Yunji Technology's financing process has left a deep impression on the venture capital circle.

When it was founded in 2014, Zhi Tao's team received angel - round financing from an Anhui artificial intelligence company and Onion Fund, kicking off the entrepreneurial journey. Behind the Anhui artificial intelligence company stands Iflytek. One year later, Iflytek increased its investment, and Yunji Technology completed its Series A financing.

In 2017, Yunji Technology secured Series A+ financing from HNA Capital and Lanting Capital. Subsequently, Tencent Investment entered the scene, and the Series A financing of tens of millions of dollars was completed one after another.

After that, a large number of VC/PE firms flocked in. In 2019, four institutions, Jingmao Capital, Ctrip Group, CCB International Zhongying Fund, and Haiyin Front - line Fund, jointly invested. Until 2020, when the demand for hotel robots soared and Yunji's orders exploded, Lenovo Capital, Feidian Capital, and Translink and other firms entered the game, and Yunji Technology completed its Series B financing.

Wang Guangxi, the vice - president of Lenovo Group and the managing partner of Lenovo Capital, said that Zhi Tao's team at Yunji Technology expands the market with a practical style of "technologists + business experts". They targeted the pain points of high labor costs and high demand for standardized services in hotels, launched service platform products, linked service robots with hotel hardware and software facilities, and let embodied intelligence deeply participate in the digital transformation of hotels, finding a balance between technological innovation and commercial implementation, providing a typical example for embodied intelligence to empower the service industry.

In addition, Yao Yaping, the founding partner of Feidian Capital, classified the investment logic of Yunji Technology as one of the two major trends that will emerge in the market, that is, "digitization - intelligence - industry solutions - commercialization", and said bluntly, "The core of this kind of company is to find the niche application scenarios to enter."

In 2021, Yunji Technology announced the completion of Series C financing led by Qiming Venture Partners and followed by CITIC Securities Investment. The original shareholders, including Tencent, Feidian Capital, Lenovo Capital, and Lanting Capital, continued to increase their investment. The financing scale reached 500 million yuan within 10 months. At that time, Zhou Zhifeng, the managing partner of Qiming Venture Partners, sighed, "Service robots are at the stage of market explosion and will serve as the carrier of artificial intelligence technology and unmanned automation technology to empower all industries."

At the end of this year, Yunji Technology secured 580 million yuan in Series D financing. In addition to the support of many old shareholders, Alibaba, Henan Science and Technology Investment Group, Jiangsu Cultural Investment Group, Haiyin Capital, and Ruizhu Capital and other firms entered the scene. So far, Yunji Technology completed its last round of financing before the IPO, with a valuation exceeding 4 billion yuan.

The prospectus shows that before the initial public offering, in addition to Zhi Tao directly holding 9.73% of the company's shares and controlling approximately 36.52% of the total voting rights of the company's issued share capital, the three co - founders and the employee share - holding platform together held 20.6% of the shares, and the remaining shares were scattered among investors.

Among them, Feidian Capital, which has supported the company for multiple rounds, holds 10.70% of the shares; the Anhui artificial intelligence company holds 9.57% of the shares; Tencent holds 9.09% of the shares; QM165 and Beijing Qiming under Qiming Venture Partners together hold approximately 5.39% of the shares; Lenovo Fund holds 4.22% of the shares; and Hangzhou Haoyue under Alibaba holds 2.94% of the shares.

After accompanying the company for many years, the investors behind finally waited for the moment of return.

A Matter of Life and Death

Robots Are Queuing Up for IPOs

The most - watched company is Unitree Robotics. Not long ago, the company officially announced that it is expected to submit listing application documents to the stock exchange between October and December this year.

A little earlier, Unitree Robotics completed the delivery of its Series C financing, jointly led by a fund under China Mobile, Tencent, Jinqiu Capital, Alibaba, Ant Group, and Geely Capital, with most of the old shareholders participating in the follow - on investment.

On the other hand, Zhipu Robotics, co - founded by former Huawei "Genius Youth" Zihui Jun, has caused a stir in the capital market. Since it announced the acquisition of the controlling rights of Shangwei New Materials in July, there have been speculations about backdoor listing. Recently, news has spread that Zhipu Robotics is planning to list in Hong Kong.

This is a rare wave of listings. In just September of this year, five companies, YouiTech, XAG, Wangyuan Technology, Weiyi Zhizao, and LuoShi Robotics, submitted listing applications, covering multiple directions such as industrial, collaborative, mobile - operating, and agricultural robots. The situation is amazing.

According to incomplete statistics, more than 15 companies in the robot industry chain have disclosed their prospectuses on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this year. There are star companies in the venture capital circle such as Meiga Robotics, Stander, Woan Robotics, and Seer Intelligence, as well as A - share listed companies such as Shuanglin Co., Ltd., ZhaoWei Machinery & Electronics Co., Ltd., and Roborock Technology, which are aiming for "A + H" listings.

In addition, among the robot companies listed on the Hong Kong stock market this year, the stock prices of Geek+ Technology, Borrego, and Sanhua Intelligent Control have all risen by more than 40%. As of now, the Wind Humanoid Robot Index in the A - share market has risen by approximately 57% this year, including many component companies in various links. Even after Unitree announced its listing plan, a group of "Unitree concept stocks" emerged, and their stock prices skyrocketed.

So, why are robot companies rushing to go public at this time? The fact is that most robot startups are still in the stage of burning money for R & D. Although many are exploring commercialization, it still takes time for them to achieve results. Competing for orders has become a cruel sight in the robot track.

Therefore, IPO has become a life - and - death race, determining whether a company can stay in the game.

Ultimately, listing is just the starting point, and the goal is to enter thousands of households.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Investment World", author: Yang Wenjing & Yu Mengying, reprinted by 36Kr with permission.