He, 28 years old, dropped out of Tsinghua University three years ago. His wealth has grown from a monthly living allowance of 2,000 yuan to hundreds of millions.

In the late autumn of 2023, the lights in a villa on the outskirts of Shunyi, Beijing, stayed on all night. There was little decoration inside this rented villa. Instead, it was filled with circuit boards and parts. Several young people stayed up late assembling with red - eyed exhaustion. When they were tired, they just slept on the floor.

This was the starting point of Songyan Dynamics, a team regarded by capital as a "three - no" team - a "ragtag group" with no luxurious background, no experience in large companies, and no large - scale financing. In the money - burning field of humanoid robots, this team was inconspicuous and even a bit shabby.

At that time, Jiang Zheyuan, the founder of Songyan Dynamics, was only 25 years old. This was also the most rebellious decision of his life: he dropped out of his Ph.D. program at Tsinghua University to start a business, giving up his top - tier academic qualifications and a smooth academic path to fully engage in the high - risk battlefield of entrepreneurship.

Jiang Zheyuan was an excellent student and had been hailed as "the child of someone else's family" since childhood. However, after starting his business, he was often not well - regarded. When seeking financing in the early stage, even when he lowered the company's valuation to 50 million yuan, no investors were willing to invest. Eventually, he managed to start his business with 1 million yuan cobbled together from various sources.

No one could have imagined that in less than two years, Songyan Dynamics would become a huge hit. At the 2025 Beijing Humanoid Robot Half - Marathon, the 1.2 - meter - tall N2 robot won the second place. At the 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, five humanoid robots under Songyan Dynamics performed magic tricks, ran, told jokes, and did backflips in the sketch "Grandma's Favorite". The bionic robot "Cai Ming" that appeared as the grand finale shocked the whole audience.

Less than half a month after the "show of strength" at the Spring Festival Gala, Songyan Dynamics announced the completion of its Series B financing, with a cumulative financing scale of nearly 1 billion yuan. So far, the company had completed a total of 9 rounds of financing, with a total financing amount exceeding 2 billion yuan, and its valuation was dozens of times that of three years ago. This company that emerged from a villa, from being initially ignored to quickly completing multiple rounds of financing and seeing its valuation soar, had become the most explosive dark horse in the consumer - grade humanoid robot field.

However, after experiencing the soaring valuation and the capital frenzy, even players like Jia Yueting, who had long relied on financing for survival, quickly left the field. Is the humanoid robot field full of bubbles? In addition, the industry is severely plagued by homogenization and involution, and the mass - production ability is weak. Zhu Xiaohu, a partner at Jinshajiang Venture Capital, has admitted to withdrawing from Songyan Dynamics. How far can this company go?

01

Rapid Rise

In a speech at the Hundun Academy, Jiang Zheyuan candidly recalled his entrepreneurial motivation: "I'm not a genius, nor do I have a halo. I just believe that the window of the humanoid robot era is opening, and if I don't enter the field now, I'll never have another chance."

In September 2023, when Jiang Zheyuan founded Songyan Dynamics, capital had a highly unified preference in the humanoid robot field: it favored teams led by returnee Ph.D.s, well - known university professors, and senior executives of well - known large companies, valuing their glorious resumes and mature resources.

Jiang Zheyuan's team seemed particularly "plain" in comparison. He himself was a dropout Ph.D. from Tsinghua University and claimed to have only an undergraduate degree. His partner, Zhang Shipu, had a master's degree in the Department of Computer Science from University College London and had served as the senior investment vice - president of Yuanjing Capital, responsible for the company's financing and commercialization. There were only two engineers, one in charge of algorithm software and the other in charge of mechanical structure. During the same period, Yushu Technology received nearly 1 billion yuan in its Series B2 financing in 2023, with a valuation as high as 6 billion yuan. Jiang Zheyuan also self - mocked that his team was too much of a "ragtag group" compared to his peers.

At first, Jiang Zheyuan visited more than 20 investment institutions with his business plan, but he was politely rejected by most of them. No investors were willing to believe that such a rough team could tackle the tough problem of humanoid robots.

Songyan Dynamics fell into a vicious cycle. The team members either had dropped out of school or left their original jobs. They had no income and no security, and the team was unstable. Without financing, they couldn't retain talent. Without talent, they couldn't develop products. Without products, they couldn't get more financing, and the team might dissolve at any time.

"Everyone didn't think highly of us and thought we wouldn't last more than half a year," Jiang Zheyuan recalled in his speech. But he found an opportunity. There were many people with glorious backgrounds in the robot field, but few teams could produce a complete humanoid robot prototype. So, he discussed with his partner and decided to start working on their own without waiting for financing.

After raising 1 million yuan, they rented a villa in Shunyi, Beijing, and started building robots directly. In this villa, in just over a month, Songyan Dynamics built the first complete hardware prototype. When the robot they built with their own hands took its first stable step, these young people cheered and jumped in the shabby living room.

With a physical product, their competitiveness immediately became apparent. Tsinghua - affiliated capital quickly noticed Jiang Zheyuan, and they raised 7.6 million yuan in the seed round. Songyan Dynamics survived and moved from the villa to a science and technology park. In another month or so, the team got the hardware, embedded systems, and algorithms all working smoothly.

It took Songyan Dynamics only a few months to go from scratch to making the robot walk. This was extremely rare globally at that time. More investors began to turn their attention to Songyan Dynamics, and another 20 million yuan in financing was received.

The two - round financing totaling 30 million yuan temporarily pulled Songyan Dynamics out of danger and relieved Jiang Zheyuan. In this opening battle, Songyan Dynamics, in a grassroots posture, shattered the industry prejudice that hard - tech entrepreneurship must rely on a luxurious team and huge amounts of financing. It also gave Jiang Zheyuan the most solid confidence: to believe in the product and the power of action. But he didn't expect that a greater crisis was yet to come.

02

Rescue the Company from the "ICU"

Jiang Zheyuan, who had always been in the ivory tower of the campus, had a monthly living expense of 2,000 yuan. Suddenly getting 30 million yuan in financing, his mindset became inflated. He felt like the "richest man in the world". So, he made the mistake that most young entrepreneurs are prone to - blind expansion.

After getting the money, Jiang Zheyuan frantically recruited employees, and the company's monthly expenses soared to 3 million yuan. It wasn't until three months later when the finance department told him that there was only enough money in the company's account to last for another 10 months that he started to panic.

What was even more troublesome was that there was no follow - up for the next round of financing that was almost within reach, and there were problems in the R & D department. The next - generation product couldn't be developed for a long time. The team showed many problems during the period of extreme expansion.

Watching the competitors catch up and surpass one by one, Jiang Zheyuan was extremely anxious. Most entrepreneurs in this situation would choose to shrink the front line and slow down to survive, but Jiang Zheyuan made a reverse decision: face death and start a second - round entrepreneurship, completely switch the technical route, and rebuild the team.

Jiang Zheyuan judged that traditional Model Predictive Control (MPC) would eventually be replaced by Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL), and this was the only chance for Songyan Dynamics to catch up and surpass.

However, reinforcement learning engineers were scarce in the industry at that time, and their salaries were sky - high. Songyan Dynamics couldn't afford to compete. Jiang Zheyuan found an alternative way: "sift for gold from the sand", select young people with potential, passion, and a willingness to work hard. He used self - developed test questions to test their technical skills and used growth opportunities to attract like - minded people.

A group of "amateur engineers" quickly grew up at Songyan Dynamics. In just two months, the robot was able to perform high - difficulty actions such as walking, running, jumping, and single - leg jumping. Songyan Dynamics went from being behind to surpassing its competitors. Capital also embraced Songyan Dynamics again, and a new round of 50 million yuan in financing was quickly received. The company was rescued from the "ICU" again.

After going through two entrepreneurial hurdles, Jiang Zheyuan matured a lot. He began to quickly complete the commercialization team and decided to break into the market with popular content and drive revenue through scenario implementation.

In 2025, Songyan Dynamics released a video of the robot doing a backflip, which went viral across the internet and received a large number of orders and leads. Then, it achieved excellent results in the robot marathon. The videos of the humanoid robots "Little Naughty" and "Whirlwind Kid" participating in the competition went viral on Douyin and Xiaohongshu, receiving millions of views. In October of the same year, the company launched the bipedal humanoid robot "Xiaobumi" priced under 10,000 yuan, opening up the consumer - grade market with its extreme cost - effectiveness and getting out of the dilemma of "only R & D but no profit".

03

Luck? Strength?

At the beginning of 2026, Songyan Dynamics appeared on the Spring Festival Gala stage with a multi - product lineup and entered another highlight moment. This made Jiang Zheyuan more determined to achieve his goal of becoming the top 1 in the consumer - grade robot market in 2026.

2025 was regarded as the "year of mass production" for humanoid robots, and 2026 would be a crucial node for the "scaling - up" of humanoid robots. The industry would officially move from the "thousands - unit level" delivery in the previous year to the "ten - thousand - unit" mark.

According to the latest data released by IDC in January this year, the global shipments of humanoid robots in 2025 were close to 18,000 units, a year - on - year increase of about 508%. TrendForce predicts that the global shipments of humanoid robots in 2026 will exceed 50,000 units, with a year - on - year increase of more than 700%.

Indeed, humanoid robots have entered the daily lives of the public from the laboratory, achieving a qualitative change from "being able to move" to "being able to think and work". Songyan Dynamics used the Spring Festival Gala stage to accelerate its brand development, gain traffic, and plans to promote the large - scale commercialization of the "Xiaobumi" robot priced under 10,000 yuan. Jiang Zheyuan optimistically expects that the company's production capacity will quickly increase.

But looking back at the Spring Festival Gala this year, the collective appearance of robots on stage also reflects the fierce competition in the robot field. How will Songyan Dynamics deal with the competition in the future?

Jiang Zheyuan revealed in a media interview that Songyan Dynamics will focus on two strategic points in 2026: on the one hand, open up the domestic education and consumer markets with products priced under 10,000 yuan; on the other hand, take advantage of the overseas market's acceptance of relatively high - priced products to create a new growth engine for the company.

When talking about the future, Jiang Zheyuan envisioned that robots should not just be a family nanny but more like a butler. It can help you buy water, paper, snacks, and all kinds of daily necessities. Songyan Dynamics aims to be the company that truly brings robots into families.

Now, at the age of 28, Jiang Zheyuan has become a landmark entrepreneur in the humanoid robot field. However, it cannot be denied that luck has also played a role in Songyan Dynamics' success. He and his team have to face a series of unavoidable problems: the expansion pace is too fast, and there are still problems such as overheating of motors and structural fatigue in technology; the supply chain is heavily dependent on external sources, and the risks of delivery and quality are prominent; the products are more for scenario demonstrations, lacking strong demand support, and the profit model is weak.

Combined with the loopholes in team management and fund control, if the company doesn't make up for its shortcomings in time, Songyan Dynamics may face double pressure from the market and capital after the hype of humanoid robots fades.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Jiedian Finance" (ID: jiedian2018), author: Xidingsen, published by 36Kr with authorization.