A small county in Shandong is about to produce a star IPO.

A star company from a county in Shandong is heading for the Hong Kong stock market.

Under the leadership of Tuo Hua, an alumnus of Peking University, Rock Robotics has products such as industrial robots, flexible collaborative robots, and embodied intelligent robots. It has not only been recognized by more than 1,000 global customers including Xiaomi, Goertek, and Zhipu Robotics, but also recently made its way to the front of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange from Zoucheng, Shandong.

Along the way, in addition to receiving exclusive investment from Plum Ventures in the angel round, Rock Robotics has also received support from Delian Capital, Tsinghua Capital Ginkgo, Shunwei Capital, GSR Ventures, Xianghe Capital, Shenzhen Capital Group, Far Horizons Capital, New Hope Group, National Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund, and Xinya Capital. After 10 rounds of financing, its valuation has reached 5.295 billion yuan.

A Global Star Company Emerges from a County in Shandong

Ten years ago, when the domestic robot industry was just starting out, Rock Robotics was among the first batch of players to enter the market.

At that time, with the country strongly supporting the development of intelligent manufacturing, the development of the robot industry became a national strategy. In order to create a first - class robot brand in China, Tuo Hua and his colleagues from a central state - owned enterprise decided to start a business at the 3W Coffee on Zhongguancun Entrepreneurship Street and founded Rock Robotics in Beijing in December 2014.

Tuo Hua's long - term involvement in the robot industry also contributed to his firm decision to embark on the entrepreneurial path. After graduating from Harbin University of Science and Technology, he obtained a master's degree in Electronic and Communication Engineering from Peking University and had worked in the industrial robot field for many years, accumulating rich experience.

So, they decided to start from their "old profession" and chose the control system, regarded as the "brain" of industrial robots, as the entry point. At the beginning of the startup, they focused on breaking through the technology of the control system. At that time, the robot control system was long - term monopolized by foreign countries, which also became an opportunity for Rock Robotics.

Influenced by factors such as strong policy support and increasing market demand, Rock Robotics, whose products are highly recognized, has no trouble getting orders. However, after realizing the limited market space for robot control systems, they leveraged their advantages in this field to enter the robot body market and quickly expanded the company's business scope.

In May 2016, the company launched its first XB - 6 robot equipped with a self - developed controller, successfully shifting from only producing controllers to building industrial robots. It gradually covered fields such as 3C, logistics, and medical care, and finally entered the fast lane of development. Tuo Hua once revealed that their revenue was only 250,000 yuan in 2016 and would exceed 25 million yuan in 2017.

After completing the research and development of the control system and the verification of the industrial robot body, Rock Robotics, which needed to achieve mass production and market launch of its products, came to Zoucheng, Shandong to build a factory. Shandong, with a strong traditional industrial foundation, has broad space for regional industrial transformation, and Zoucheng, a traditional resource - based city, also has great potential for automation and intelligent transformation.

Since settling in Zoucheng, the local government has been cultivating them as the leading enterprise in the industrial chain and providing service guarantees for their development. Meanwhile, Rock Robotics has gradually grown into a leading enterprise in the local robot industry. It has not only expanded the scale of its production base but also moved its headquarters to Zoucheng.

Zoucheng has high hopes for Rock Robotics, and Rock Robotics has lived up to Zoucheng's trust. According to CIC Consulting, Rock Robotics is the only enterprise in China that can mass - produce both industrial robots and collaborative robots simultaneously, becoming a well - known multi - joint robot manufacturer globally.

With Xiaomi and Zhipu as Customers, Revenue Exceeds 900 Million Yuan in Three and a Half Years

To date, Rock Robotics has built a rich robot application ecosystem.

From industrial robots, flexible collaborative robots, and embodied intelligent robots to relevant robot solutions, the company's business covers fields such as industry, commercial services, and medical health, and has achieved a series of remarkable results.

This is also due to their long - term investment in research and development. Since 2022, Rock Robotics has cumulatively invested more than 200 million yuan in R & D in three and a half years. Finally, it has 181 registered patents and has submitted 38 patent applications awaiting approval.

Relying on its self - developed xCore control system and embodied intelligent model training platform, the company can endow robot products with AI capabilities. At the same time, based on the standardized interfaces for hardware and process package expansion provided by the xCore control system, they can help customers and partners deploy customized solutions.

As a result, Rock Robotics has successfully won the recognition of more than 1,000 customers in about 40 countries and regions around the world.

In addition to consumer electronics enterprises such as Xiaomi and Goertek, their customers also include automotive and auto parts manufacturers such as Valeo and Foton Cummins, as well as humanoid robot companies such as Zhipu Robotics. Their customers also cover players in the new energy, medical, and general manufacturing fields.

It is in this process that the company's revenue and gross profit have continued to increase.

Looking at the prospectus, from 2022 to June 2025, Rock Robotics' revenues reached approximately 153 million yuan, 267 million yuan, 325 million yuan, and 176 million yuan respectively. The gross profit margin also increased from 7% in 2022 to 21.9% in 2024.

However, affected by factors such as R & D, they are still in a loss state. The net losses during the same period were approximately 238 million yuan, 157 million yuan, 192 million yuan, and 90 million yuan respectively.

The good news is that due to the accelerating population aging, rising labor costs, expanding downstream application scenarios, and increasing policy support, the Chinese multi - joint robot industry is still growing. According to CIC Consulting's prediction, the market size of the Chinese multi - joint robot market will reach 45.3 billion yuan in 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 15.7% from 2024 to 2029.

In addition to deeply cultivating the Chinese market, expanding global business and increasing overseas sales are also important parts of Rock Robotics' future growth. In their plan, they will use part of the funds raised through listing to develop a global sales network to support the growth of their international business.

10 Rounds of Financing, Plum Ventures Has Made a Small Profit of 250 Million Yuan

Along the way, Rock Robotics has completed 10 rounds of financing.

After the company was founded, Tuo Hua and others took their prepared PPT to Wu Shichun, the founding partner of Plum Ventures, and got the investment after chatting for about 10 minutes. After completing the 1.9 million - yuan angel - round financing exclusively invested by Plum Ventures, the company officially started operation in May 2015.

In April of the following year, after receiving 400,000 yuan each from two ladies, Tian Zheng and Jiao Shaoling, they soon received a 10 - million - yuan investment from Delian Capital. At that time, after long - term observation, Delian Capital found that industrial robots were gradually changing from "luxury goods" to necessities. After chatting with Tuo Hua for less than two hours, they decided to invest the next day.

In September 2017, Rock Robotics completed the Series A+ financing invested by Tsinghua Capital Ginkgo. In less than a year, the company completed the Series B financing led by Shunwei Capital, with GSR Ventures, Tsinghua Capital Ginkgo, and Plum Ventures following.

Before investing in them, Shunwei Capital had visited more than 40 industrial robot companies in the past year and also conducted in - depth visits to more than 20 factories. "As an industrial robot company that attaches more importance to technology accumulation in China and has an in - depth layout in control algorithms earlier, Rock Robotics definitely has the opportunity to lead the new wave of domestic robots."

Recognizing Rock Robotics' technology accumulation and product refinement, Xianghe Capital, which judged that the domestic robot market was about to boom, not only invested 100 million yuan in them in August 2020 but also bought some old shares. In May of the following year, Shenzhen Capital Group and Far Horizons Capital jointly led the investment in the company.

For intelligent upgrading and digital transformation, New Hope Group became a shareholder of Rock Robotics in December 2021. In 2023, the National Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund invested 400 million yuan and joined Xinya Capital to invest in them, making it the largest investment of the fund in the intelligent manufacturing field.

Since Rock Robotics owed 85 million yuan to Shandong Zhengfang, a state - owned enterprise in Zoucheng, during the construction of the industrial park in Shandong, Shandong Zhengfang became a shareholder of the company through debt - to - equity conversion in December 2024.

By June 2025, they completed the last round of financing before listing. After receiving 195 million yuan from GSR Ventures, the valuation of Rock Robotics reached 5.295 billion yuan.

It is worth noting that investors such as TR Capital, Shandong Science and Technology Innovation Investment, Luxin Venture Capital, Jiaxing Tianqi Capital, Yankuang Capital, and Everbright Holdings, who are optimistic about the company, chose to become shareholders of Rock Robotics by buying old shares.

Before listing, the National Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund holds 9.67%, New Hope Group holds 6.96%, Shunwei Capital holds 6.44%, GSR Ventures holds 5.82%, and Plum Ventures holds 4.94%. Based on the valuation of 5.295 billion yuan, the corresponding values of their shareholdings are approximately 512 million yuan, 369 million yuan, 341 million yuan, 308 million yuan, and 262 million yuan respectively.

This means that after ten years of accompanying the company, Plum Ventures has obtained a return of 262 million yuan with an investment of 11.9 million yuan, equivalent to making a small profit of 250 million yuan.

References:

1. "What Did Rock Robotics Do Right to Increase Its Revenue by 100 Times?", Jazi Guangnian

This article is from the WeChat official account "Dongshisi Tiao Capital" (ID: DsstCapital), author: Lu Zhigao, published by 36Kr with authorization.