A 90s entrepreneur from Heilongjiang, backed by Lei Jun, with an annual income of 251 million, is gearing up for an IPO.

< p>While Unitree and Zhipu Robotics were vying for a spot at the Spring Festival Gala, someone else was gearing up for an IPO. < p>Standing Robot in Wuxi, Jiangsu, which has sold over 5,000 robots in four years, has once again submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. < p>Its founders are several post - 1990 alumni from Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT). < p>Its investors include Lei Jun and Qi Lu. < p>Its clients include Xiaomi and Huawei. < p>However, Standing Robot's prospectus also reveals a harsh reality. < h2>< strong>- 01 - < p>Wang Yongkun, the founder of Standing Robot, was born in 1991 in Hegang, Heilongjiang. He was admitted to the School of Control Science and Engineering at HIT in 2009. < p>Wang Yongkun's process of applying to HIT was quite interesting. When filling out college application forms after the college entrance examination, he read the news that HIT's competitive robot team won the championship with five straight wins at the Asia - Pacific University Robot Competition in Tokyo, Japan. So, he applied to HIT. < p>In his senior year, Wang Yongkun joined HIT's competitive robot team and won the second place in the national robot competition. < p>After graduating with a master's degree, Wang Yongkun and several alumni first started a robot - related business in Harbin. A year later, they went to Shenzhen and founded Standing Robot. They found that in the field of robot hardware they were engaged in, most suppliers were located in Shenzhen. < p>Another reason that attracted Wang Yongkun to Shenzhen was that his entrepreneurial role model, DJI, was also based there. Wang Yongkun thought that his team's entrepreneurship was quite similar to DJI's early days. "Both were campus startups, both participated in the national college robot competition and won the second place, and DJI's entrepreneurial mentor, Li Zexiang, was also an alumnus of HIT before." < p>Standing Robot chose the right direction: flexible logistics within factories. Its initial clients included Huawei. < p>"Flexible logistics in factories" essentially means making factory logistics more flexible. Production changes, orders change, and products change. Logistics can no longer rely on a fixed route or a set of rigid rules. < p>If the number of orders increases or decreases, the route can be changed; if the product model changes, the handling method can be adjusted; if the production rhythm speeds up or slows down, resources can be re - allocated accordingly. < p>Instead of people adapting to the logistics system, it is the logistics system that actively adapts to the changes in the factory. < p>In factories, it is the handling robots that truly implement "flexible logistics". For example, AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) and AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots) are responsible for the efficient flow of materials within the factory. < p>Previously, people pushed carts or materials could only move along fixed tracks. Now, robots can move on their own. The routes are not fixed, and the dispatching is not manually monitored. Even in complex and ever - changing production environments, they can adjust their paths at any time and operate in coordination. < p>The most typical scenario is: Relying on laser navigation or SLAM navigation, AGVs and AMRs transport parts and finished products in the factory, enabling logistics to change with the production rhythm. < p>Facing the pressure from factory clients, Standing Robot needs to continuously iterate its technology to make the factory operation cycle faster and more scientific. < p>At the end of 2018, Standing Robot, which had been serving Huawei for two or three years, was promoted to be Huawei's first - tier supplier. Wang Yongkun believes that "this is a milestone event for Standing Robot comparable to going public." < p>Now, Standing Robot has served over 400 clients, with a key client retention rate of over 60%, covering well - known enterprises such as Xiaomi Auto, Foxconn, and OPPO. < p>Since its establishment, Standing Robot has completed multiple rounds of financing. The investors include Xiaomi Smart Manufacturing, Bohua Capital, Liangxi Investment, Green Orchard Capital, NIO Capital, MPlus HK controlled by Qi Lu, the former president of Baidu, and CITIC Construction Investment, among other well - known institutions. < p>In May 2024, Standing Robot received Series D investment, with a post - investment valuation of 2.1 billion yuan. < p>It is worth mentioning that Standing Robot is also strongly tied to Xiaomi. Xiaomi is not only a shareholder of Standing Robot but also one of its clients. Standing Robot's robots are used as carriers to transport materials such as door lines, exterior trims, and dashboards on Xiaomi's YU7 production line. < h2>< strong>- 02 - < p>Standing Robot currently has three types of robot products. < p>The first type is standard robots. They are relatively affordable, with a single - unit price ranging from 60,000 to 350,000 yuan, and they serve as porters. < p>The second type is functional robots. They have stronger capabilities and are designed for more complex factory needs. There are those that carry goods on their backs, those responsible for conveying, those that can fork pallets, and those used for towing. The single - unit price ranges from 100,000 to 600,000 yuan. < p>The third type is embodied robots. They are high - end products with a higher degree of integration, and the single - unit price ranges from 450,000 to 1.25 million yuan. < p>The three product lines correspond to different budgets and application scenarios. < p class="image - wrapper">< img data - img - size - val="" src="https://img.36krcdn.com/hsossms/20260120/v2_89b0d0435b924014bc4a67706811fa1c@000000_oswg37643oswg1080oswg362_img_000?x - oss - process=image/format,jpg/interlace,1"> < p>As can be seen from the above table, functional robots are the main source of revenue, accounting for 70% to 80% of the total revenue. Their main task is to transport materials in the factory. < p>It may sound like a simple transportation task, but the real challenge lies in the details. Standing Robot's robots can pick up and place goods very accurately. < p>Moreover, they don't need human supervision. Many robots can operate simultaneously in an unmanned state. This is where they truly shine in the factory. < p>The outside world is very concerned about the sales of Standing Robot's embodied intelligent products. It has two products: a single - arm embodied robot LINK and a two - arm wheeled embodied intelligent robot DARWIN. < p>LINK is used in scenarios with extremely high precision requirements. The semiconductor industry is a typical example. In such factories, materials are small, expensive, and cannot tolerate errors. They need to be transported stably and placed accurately. < p>DARWIN can not only transport heavy items but also perform delicate operations, covering a variety of complex task scenarios. < p>From January to September 2025, the embodied robots generated a revenue of 15.402 million yuan, with an average single - unit price of about 334,000 yuan. < p>In 2025, the sales volume and sales revenue of embodied robots increased significantly, but the overall scale is still small. This is also the harsh reality of the industry: the application scenarios of embodied intelligence are still limited, mainly for teaching and demonstration purposes. < p class="image - wrapper">< img data - img - size - val="" src="https://img.36krcdn.com/hsossms/20260120/v2_adac5174e68642fa94d2f16ebff4f1ab@000000_oswg27119oswg1080oswg249_img_000?x - oss - process=image/format,jpg/interlace,1"> < p>The supply - chain risk for Standing Robot is that its core components, such as high - precision harmonic reducers, are highly dependent on overseas suppliers such as Japan's Harmonic Drive Systems and Nabtesco. Once the suppliers experience delivery delays, Standing Robot will be unable to deliver products to downstream clients, potentially triggering a capital - chain crisis. < p>Meanwhile, Standing Robot also faces fierce competition. Domestic competitors include DJI, Hikrobot, Geek+ Robotics, and SIASUN Robotics; international giants include FANUC and ABB. < p>This article does not constitute any investment advice. < p>This article is from the WeChat official account < a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI0NzAzNTUwMQ==&mid=2652517100&idx=1&sn=7562432248f31d7ed9822e4586f028b2&chksm=f32250e1a47bf494cd74e0e39cfa6ee008e2839eb2f23c22970640698084b14f26fa941e2a7c&scene=0&xtrack=1#rd">"Pencil News" (ID: pencilnews). The author is Huang Xiaogui, and it is published by 36Kr with permission.