The direct investment penetration rate of state-owned capital has exceeded 30%. With strong financial support, robot financing has received an extra boost this year.

Since the Spring Festival this year, Unitree Technology has sparked a wave of robot investment. Is this trend still continuing now?

According to statistics from IT Juzi, in the first three quarters of 2025, there were 610 new primary - market financing events in the domestic robot industry, more than doubling the 294 events in the same period last year. Especially since the second half of the year, the number of financing events in the robot track has been growing at an accelerating pace. In Q3, there were 243 investment events, a year - on - year increase of 102%.

Judging from the estimated amount, the growth situation is also gratifying.

In the first three quarters of 2025, the total financing obtained by domestic robot startups reached approximately 50 billion yuan, 2.5 times that of the same period last year. Among them, the total financing in Q3 was 19.813 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 172%.

Note: Early - stage investments include seed rounds, angel investments, and Pre - A rounds. Mid - stage investments include Series A, A +, Pre - B, Series B, and B + rounds. Late - stage investments include Series C and subsequent stages up to the Pre - IPO stage before listing.

Looking at the investment stages, since Q1 2025, for three consecutive quarters, the growth rates of early - stage investments (before the Pre - A round) and mid - stage investments (from Series A to B + rounds) have been prominent. The numbers of the two are comparable, and their combined proportion has reached over 80%, occupying the main position in financing.

Early and mid - stage investments have become the mainstream of financing in the current robot industry, indicating a trend of the industry moving from early exploration to large - scale development. Capital is concentrating on enterprises with certain technological or market validation.

The current boom in the robot investment market is not accidental. There is a complete set of policy support systems from the national to local levels driving it strongly, including financial incentives and subsidies in "real money" and targeted industrial fund investments.

According to IT Juzi data, in the domestic robot industry investment events in the first three quarters of this year, there were 190 events involving direct investment from local state - owned assets, accounting for 31.15%. The remaining 70% were dominated by market - oriented investors. It can be seen that the penetration rate of state - owned assets in robot investment is quite high, and it has become an important driving force for the development of the domestic robot industry at present.

So, specifically at the investment institution level, who are these active investors?

According to IT Juzi statistics, in terms of the number of investments, in the first three quarters of 2025, among the top 20 investment institutions active in the robot track, 5 have state - owned backgrounds, including Beijing State - owned Capital Operation and Management Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Beijing State - owned Management") and its market - oriented venture capital fund "Shunxi Fund", Shenzhen Capital Group, China Merchants Group Venture Capital, and Hefei Binhu Jin Investment. Among them, Beijing State - owned Management and Shenzhen Capital Group made the most investments, reaching 19 and 11 times respectively.

On the side of more market - oriented investment institutions, there are a total of 11, the largest in number and occupying a dominant position. Among them, Miracle Plus, an early - stage investment institution, is the most active, making 20 investments. In addition, CICC Capital, Hillhouse Venture Capital, Tongchuang Weiye, Wuyuan Capital, and Honghui Fund have also made many investments in robot startups this year.

In terms of industrial capital, Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group, Zhipu Robotics, Baidu Ventures, Ant Group, and Guoxiang Capital (incubated by SenseTime) are relatively active.

Among them, it is worth mentioning Zhipu Robotics. It is a unicorn in the robot industry itself, and its external investments also focus on the robot track. According to IT Juzi data, from January to September this year, Zhipu Robotics made 10 investment and acquisition projects, 8 of which were concentrated in the vertical robot field. Most of these robot startups focus on niche scenarios, such as Yushu Intelligent Robotics (sanitation robots), Wujie Intelligence (companion robots), Hill Robotics (industrial robots), and Annu Intelligent (household service robots).

Finally, from the city dimension, let's see which places have an advantage in market position, which places have more policy - driven development momentum, and greater growth potential?

In terms of city distribution, in the third quarter of this year, domestic robot financing was mainly concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen (steadily ranking in the top three) and cities in the Yangtze River Delta, showing their comprehensive advantages in policies, talents, and industrial chains.

Beijing is the most active city in robot startup financing, ranking first in the country. In the third quarter, there were a total of 50 financing events, with a total financing amount of 4.839 billion yuan, mainly distributed in Haidian District and the Economic Development Zone.

Among them, there were 24 financing events in Haidian District, a year - on - year increase of 84.62%. Companies like Lingxin Qiaoshou and Xingdong Jiyuan are all located in Haidian District. The Economic Development Zone achieved a 120% growth compared to Q3 last year, thanks to the investment of Yizhuang State - owned Capital itself. Representative companies that received investment in this district include Lingzu Times, Xinghaitu, and Ruijie Robotics.

Shenzhen ranks second. There were 48 robot financing events in Q3, doubling the number compared to last year. This is mainly reflected in various robots and their core components in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, applied in the intelligent manufacturing niche fields, such as Anno Robotics, Tongchuan Precision, and "Yushu Intelligent Robotics", which is initiated by the leading sanitation company Yuhetian Group and focuses on sanitation scenarios.

Shanghai ranks among the top three. In the third quarter of this year, robot financing in Shanghai was mainly distributed in Pudong New Area and Minhang District. Among them, the number of financing events in Pudong New Area increased by 300% year - on - year. Companies that received investment in Pudong include Shouxing Technology and Kepler KEPLER.

The growth rates of cities like Suzhou, Chengdu, and Guangzhou are astonishing. Among them, Suzhou increased by 566.67% year - on - year, and Chengdu even achieved an explosive growth from 0 to 11, indicating that the robot industry is forming a multi - point development pattern across the country.

Representative robot companies that received investment in Suzhou in Q3 include Linkhou Robotics, Lexiang Technology, and Junduo Robotics.

Representative robot companies that received investment in Chengdu include the Chengdu Robot Innovation Center, "Kerry Medical", a manufacturer of intelligent blood - collection robots, and "Huanshi Intelligence", an AI machine vision company.

Reviewing the robot investment and financing situation in the third quarter of this year, we can find that:

· The domestic robot track is undergoing a transformation from technological exploration to commercial implementation. The proportion of mid - stage investments (from Series A to B + rounds) exceeds 40%;

· The proportion of state - owned assets represented by Beijing State - owned Management and Shenzhen Capital Group in the investment in robot enterprises exceeds 30%. At the same time, industrial capital such as Zhipu Robotics and VC/PE are working together to boost the popularity of the robot industry to a new level;

· Beijing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai are still the three hotspots for robot startup financing, but cities like Chengdu and Suzhou also have astonishing growth potential.

This article is from the WeChat official account "IT Juzi" (ID: itjuzi521), author: Wu Meimei, published by 36Kr with authorization.