Tencent and Kweichow Moutai are vying to invest, and Leju, a strong competitor to Unitree, is also planning for an IPO.
A huge financing deal has brought a low - key humanoid robot unicorn into the public eye.
Recently, Leju Robotics announced that it had completed a nearly 1.5 billion yuan Pre - IPO round of financing. The funds will be used to strengthen core technology R & D, deepen the industrial chain layout, and improve industrial scenario applications. The lineup of investors in this round is luxurious, including institutions such as Shenzhen Investment Holdings Capital, Shenzhen Longhua Capital, Qianhai Infrastructure Investment, Shijingshan Industrial Fund, Dongfang Seiko, Tuopu Group, CITIC Jingshi, and China Securities Investment.
Immediately afterwards, the market spread the news that "Leju Robotics has completed the shareholding reform and the IPO plan is in progress." Regarding this rumor, Yuanmeihui also sent a letter to Leju for verification, but as of the time of publication, no response had been received.
According to Tianyancha, on September 9, the market entity type of Leju changed from a "limited liability company" to a "joint - stock limited company", and the company name also changed from Leju (Shenzhen) Robot Technology Co., Ltd. to "Leju Intelligence (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd."
Since 2025, the humanoid robot track has remained hot, shifting from the pursuit of financing scale to order scale. Leading star enterprises such as Ubtech, Unitree Robotics, and Zhiyuan Robotics have all achieved good order volumes. Leju has also performed well. According to comprehensive reports, its order volume soared by 200% in the first quarter.
However, behind the soaring orders, the close relationship between Leju's order sources and shareholder resources has also attracted market attention.
Orders from Shareholders
In the current market enthusiasm, it is not surprising for any humanoid robot enterprise to go public. After all, with the pursuit of capital, the technological progress of humanoid robots has advanced from "small changes every six months and major changes every year" to "small changes every month and major changes every quarter". Some enterprises even can't wait to announce that their humanoid products can show progress "weekly" or even "daily".
According to incomplete statistics, as of the end of June 2025, there have been more than 83 financing events in the global humanoid robot field, with a total amount exceeding 14 billion yuan, comprehensively surpassing the records of 67 events and 11 billion yuan in the whole year of 2024. The intensive investment of capital is pushing this emerging track from a "boom" to a stage of "head - to - head" industrial competition.
With the acceleration of technological iteration, the expansion of terminal application scenarios, and the continuous soaring of orders, the next step is naturally to aim for an IPO. However, upon closer inspection, the results may not be as optimistic as expected.
Yuanmeihui's review found that the so - called "huge orders" announced by current humanoid robot enterprises may contain a certain amount of "water". Many enterprises rely on orders from shareholders and partners to boost their image and tell the story of "soaring orders".
On October 9, Zhiyuan Robotics officially announced that it had won a robot frame order worth hundreds of millions of yuan from ODM giant Longcheer. Longcheer had just invested in Zhiyuan in the first half of the year. In addition, Zhiyuan has also successively won large - scale orders worth tens of millions of yuan from Fuling Precision Industry and Dafeng Industry. Before that, Zhiyuan had jointly invested with these two enterprises to establish a joint - venture company.
A similar case also happened to Ubtech, the "leader in humanoid robots". The 2024 annual report disclosed that Juran Smart Home plans to purchase and deploy 500 Ubtech simulated humanoid robots by the end of 2025, and plans to sell 10,000 units during the cooperation period. Tianyancha shows that Juran Smart Home is an early investment shareholder of Ubtech.
Leju also "understands this well". On July 21, Leju signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Dongfang Seiko, aiming to achieve large - scale manufacturing of humanoid robots and promote their application in industrial, commercial, and household fields. At that time, Leju had just completed the adjustment of its shareholder structure, and Dongfang Seiko joined its shareholder ranks.
In addition to orders from shareholders, Tianyancha shows that since 2025, most of the procurement targets of Leju's winning bids have been schools. Not only Leju, but also a group of humanoid robot enterprises such as Ubtech, Unitree, and Zhiyuan currently have schools as their main procurement customers. In this regard, the industry questions: "Excluding the robots sold to schools, rented for performances, given by major investors, and supplied to the government, how many robots have enterprises really sold?"
The picture is from Tianyancha
From equity investment to industrial collaboration and then to order fulfillment, it seems to have become an "unspoken" business model among humanoid robot enterprises. However, although this model of deeply binding shareholders and orders can provide important support in the early stage of enterprise development, in the long run, the ability of enterprises to independently obtain orders is what the market values most.
Competition for Investment from Tencent and Moutai
Leju is one of the earliest enterprises in China to layout humanoid robots.
In 2012, Leng Xiaokun, the founder of Leju, led the Harbin Institute of Technology robot team to the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Four years later, he went south to Shenzhen and established Leju (Shenzhen) Robot Technology Co., Ltd. In its first year of establishment, the company launched Aelos, the first small bipedal humanoid robot in China that could walk quickly.
Later, catching the wave of artificial intelligence education, Leju achieved "technological by - products" in the educational robot market, providing financial support for the research and development of core technologies for humanoid robots.
2023 was a technological watershed for Leju. At that time, it released its first humanoid robot KUAVO based on Huawei's Hongmeng system and became one of the first enterprises to access Huawei's embodied intelligence industrial chain. Later, the company also reached strategic cooperation agreements with leading enterprises such as Haier, China Mobile, and Jiangsu Hengtong.
With continuous progress in products, it is natural to attract capital. Tianyancha shows that since 2016, Leju has completed six rounds of financing. Among them, in the Series A and Series B financings, Tencent Industry Win - win Fund and Linzhi Lixin Information Technology Co., Ltd. participated in the investment. After equity penetration, it was found that both of these two companies are controlled by Ma Huateng, the founder of Tencent.
The picture is from Tianyancha
In the aforementioned Pre - IPO round of financing, in addition to industrial capitals such as Tuopu Group and Dongfang Seiko, Moutai Jingshi (Guizhou) Industrial Development Fund Partnership (hereinafter referred to as "Moutai Jingshi Fund") was also on the list of participating investors. Moutai Jingshi Fund was jointly established by Kweichow Moutai, Moutai Fund, and CITIC Jingshi Investment. Leju is currently the only humanoid robot enterprise invested by this fund.
However, Leju, a favorite of capital, also faces the same problem as its peers: how to achieve commercialization?
Previously, Chang Lin, the CEO of Leju, once said that at the current stage, Leju has passed the period of emphasizing financing, and the company's current strategy focuses on commercial delivery. At the same time, Chang Lin believes that if a company can lead in mass - production capacity, machine lifespan, and small - batch delivery, and then firmly grasp large - scale industrial scenarios, the gap between different enterprises will become larger and larger.
So, how is Leju's mass - production and delivery situation? According to comprehensive reports, at the beginning of 2025, the company's 100th full - size humanoid robot was delivered to BAIC Off - Road Vehicle, mainly used in two scenarios: empty box handling and logistics sorting.
What level does this reach among leading enterprises? According to comprehensive data, in 2024, the delivery volume of Unitree's humanoid robots exceeded 1,500 units, and Zhiyuan had a cumulative offline production of 1,000 general - purpose embodied robots. Compared with them, Leju lags far behind.
It is worth mentioning that Unitree's revenue in 2024 reached the level of one billion yuan, and it has been profitable for many years. Although the market reported that Leju's orders soared in the first quarter of 2025, the specific revenue situation is still unknown.
The Craze of the IPO Race
While humanoid robot enterprises are "tight - lipped" about their revenues, the IPO race in the industry has quietly begun.
In March 2025, the market first spread the news that Zhiyuan was going to have an IPO. In May, the media reported that Zhiyuan was recruiting a securities affairs supervisor, and the job responsibilities clearly included "assisting in promoting the IPO schedule and implementation plan". At the same time, the company was also recruiting a legal director to provide legal support for IPOs, refinancing, etc.
These developments further strengthened Zhiyuan's listing expectations. However, more than two months later, Zhiyuan suddenly reverse - acquired A - share listed company Shangwei New Materials, which was regarded as a prelude to "back - door listing", but the company later denied it. Immediately afterwards, the market spread the news that Zhiyuan was going to have an IPO in Hong Kong, and the company responded that "the relevant information is false, and there is no clear plan to list in Hong Kong for the time being."
In addition to Zhiyuan, Unitree's IPO has also been put on the agenda. In July, CITIC Securities and Unitree submitted tutoring record - filing materials through the public offering tutoring supervision system and have been publicly announced by the CSRC.
Recently, the "Report on the Progress of Tutoring Work (First Phase)" submitted by CITIC Securities revealed that after deliberation and approval, Unitree decided to change its name to "Unitree Technology Co., Ltd." (previously "Hangzhou Unitree Technology Co., Ltd."), and the relevant change procedures are currently being processed.
In addition to the above two companies, some other robot enterprises in niche markets are also vying for IPOs. According to incomplete statistics, since 2025, a number of enterprises in the fields of embodied intelligence, mobile robots, and agricultural robots, such as Youai Zhihe, Luoshi Robot, Standrobot, Ledong Robot, XAG, Weiyi Zhizao, and Yunji Technology, have submitted prospectuses to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and some of them have successfully listed.
In this IPO race, each enterprise is telling a different capital story. However, after losing the special resource support of shareholders, it remains a big question whether these enterprises can maintain their current growth momentum.
Some voices in the industry even believe that there are obvious bubbles in the current humanoid robot field, and the valuations of many enterprises have seriously deviated from their actual values.
In this context, the eagerness of these enterprises to have an IPO is more like a choice under the combined effect of the capital cycle and survival pressure. For many enterprises, listing is more like an "energy supplement" on the long - distance marathon, and there is still a long way to go before real large - scale application and commercialization.
Now, Zhiyuan, Unitree, and Leju are striving towards IPOs under the impetus of capital while building their own industrial chain systems through vertical integration. For example, in terms of industrial chain layout, Leju has successively invested in upstream and downstream enterprises such as Quanzhi Bo, Liju Power, Lingxin Qiaoshou, Kexing Shikong, Junao Panshi, and Jushi Intelligence.
Compared with who will be the first to enter the capital market and become the "first humanoid robot stock" in the A - share market, the market may be more concerned about who can bring more practical and user - friendly humanoid robot products and achieve sustainable self - financing.
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This article is from the WeChat public account "Yuanmeihui", author: Xie Chunsheng, editor: Su Huai, published by 36Kr with authorization.