Another star robotics company has gone bankrupt.

On one side is the booming financing boom, while on the other side, star projects have already collapsed completely.

On October 19, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court will hold the first creditors' meeting of Yinghe Robotics. Just two months ago, the court issued a notice of bankruptcy acceptance and creditor's rights declaration, and Yinghe (Shenzhen) Robotics and Automation Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yinghe Robotics) officially entered the bankruptcy proceedings.

This once high-flying star project was backed not only by the E Fund Group, but also received successive investments from Meituan Strategic Investment, ByteDance Strategic Investment, GSR Ventures and Panda Capital, with its highest valuation hitting 500 million U.S. dollars, equivalent to about 3.3 billion yuan.

Li Lun, founding partner of Panda Capital, even demanded that He Jianfeng, the controlling shareholder of Yingfeng Group, give an explanation.

The 10-Billion-Yuan Blueprint

The core of the whole story traces back to Shen Gang.

In March 2021, Yinghe Robotics signed a contract in Beijiao, Shunde, planning to invest 10 billion yuan to build a 500-mu R&D and industrial demonstration base in the Robot Town, with the production line targeting the goal of "robots manufacturing robots". The whole process from initial contact between the two parties to the signing took less than one month, which was the first 10-billion-level investment attraction project in Shunde that year.

At the signing ceremony, Shen Gang, founder and president of Yinghe Robotics, introduced himself: he has more than 15 years of cumulative experience in technology R&D, marketing and enterprise management in the "Big Four" global robotics enterprises, and he is the only executive in China with such experience.

In 1992, Shen Gang went to Japan for further study and obtained his doctorate from Tokyo Institute of Technology. In 2003, he joined FANUC Japan and was later responsible for software development. In July 2018, he joined Country Garden and served as president of Bozhilin Robotics, while concurrently serving as the group's vice president. Country Garden announced at that time that it would invest 80 billion yuan in five years, and Shen Gang left less than a year later. In September 2019, he joined Yingfeng Group and became a partner of Yingfeng Capital.

The actual controller of Yingfeng Group is He Jianfeng, the son of He Xiangjian, founder of Midea Group. In March 2020, Yinghe Robotics was registered in Shenzhen, with Yingfeng holding 55% of the shares and Shen Gang serving as founder and president. The company's main business focuses on emergency management, urban governance, as well as intelligent manufacturing.

With the strong backing of Yingfeng Group and Shen Gang's past industry experience, capital soon poured in.

In 2020, Panda Capital led the angel round investment with 70 million yuan, followed by Meijin Energy and GSR Ventures. Panda Capital disclosed externally that the company had signed contracts worth more than 50 million yuan within half a year of its establishment, with pending orders exceeding 200 million yuan. In January 2021, the company completed the Series A financing of about 400 million yuan, with participation from Meituan Strategic Investment, ByteDance Strategic Investment, angel investor Wang Gang, and state-owned assets of Huangpu District, Guangzhou. Ten months after its establishment, the company's valuation rose to 500 million U.S. dollars.

After the financing was credited to the account, Yinghe promoted five business lines simultaneously: emergency management, urban governance, warehousing and logistics, medical health and industrial intelligent manufacturing. According to industry media reports, most of the orders remained at the demonstration stage, and none of the business lines achieved large-scale sales. No news about the commissioning of the base in Shunde has been released. Sources say that Yinghe's total revenue in 2025 was 4.33 million yuan, with a net loss of 67 million yuan.

Wage arrears began to appear in 2023, suppliers chased for payment for goods, and contract disputes continued to increase. There are 58 judicial cases recorded on Qichacha, 33 of which are cases where the execution was terminated this time, and none of them have been fulfilled. In May 2024, the company received a new round of financing, but it was still insolvent in September of the same year.

In June, Li Lun, founder of Panda Capital, released a video publicly asking He Jianfeng for an explanation. He said that when the company had no stable cash flow, some core executives had an annual salary of more than 3 million yuan after tax, the office decoration cost 28 million yuan, and Yingfeng Group cashed out more than 100 million yuan through equity transfer before the company got into trouble, leaving all other investors at a loss.

These claims have not been confirmed, and Yingfeng Group and He Jianfeng have not made public responses.

The Same September

Yinghe is not the only one that collapsed. In the same September, two other once high-flying robotics companies also came to the end of their journey.

Zhiorange Dynamics, which focuses on pool cleaning robots, also entered the bankruptcy review stage. Founded in 2021, Zhiorange Dynamics' founder once served as CEO of a Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise, and its core team comes from Microsoft, Xiaomi and DJI. Its investors include Clear Water Bay Fund co-founded by "DJI Godfather" Li Zexiang, Zhixing No.1 Fund, and Ecovacs. In early 2025, when the robotics track just began to heat up, the company said its cumulative sales were close to 100 million yuan. On September 7, Tianyancha showed that the company entered the bankruptcy review process. Reports suggest that blocked overseas business and broken payment collection chain are the main reasons that brought it down.

Founded in May 2018, Deep Blue Robotics is a robotics subsidiary of AI enterprise Deep Blue Technology. Relying on its parent company's accumulation in computer vision, autonomous navigation and path planning, it quickly launched multiple product lines. Its disinfection robot "Lan Jingling" was reported to have obtained an order of 25,000 units from a Fortune Global 500 enterprise, and LG was also disclosed to plan to purchase tens of thousands of units within three years. The company's valuation once reached 14 billion yuan, and it built a manufacturing base with an annual output of more than 20,000 units.

In May this year, the Shanghai Pudong Court ruled to accept the bankruptcy liquidation of Deep Blue Robotics. On September 7, the administrator publicized the fifth batch of employee's rights and interests, with the number of people on the list reaching 102. The total of unpaid wages, compensation and housing fund exceeded 23 million yuan.

Ice and Fire

In the same month, another set of figures was on the rise.

According to data from IT Juzi, in the first 8 months of 2026, the financing amount of the robotics track reached 1245.1 billion yuan, twice the total amount of 2025.

Reports say that as of July, 50 robotics companies have entered the listing process. On one side are bankruptcy announcements, on the other side are companies queuing to ring the bell, and someone spoke out first amid the bustle.

Ten days after the listing of Mech-Mind, the supplier of industrial robot "eye-brain-hand", its founder Shao Tianlan posted a series of long articles on WeChat Moments. He pointed out that some embodied intelligence enterprises use "data collection centers" and related transactions to generate false revenue.

Mech-Mind, led by Shao Tianlan, was founded in 2016, as the leading enterprise in the segmented market of AI + 3D vision guided general intelligent robot components.

Shao Tianlan said, "Many current 'gathering-type' embodied intelligence enterprises, including some very famous, high-valuation companies in Beijing and Shanghai that have appeared on the Spring Festival Gala, make extensive use of the so-called 'data collection centers' and related transactions with local governments, investors, and suppliers to create false, unsustainable revenue. This practice is illegal, immoral, and unwise."

Shao Tianlan believes that the above practice aims to achieve rapid listing, but harms the majority of investors. At the same time, the enterprise itself will fall into the "vortex of continuous fraud and blood loss" — "after making such revenue this year, next year you not only have to continue doing it, but also make more of it".

In the comment section of this WeChat Moments post, Shao Tianlan also specifically mentioned another robotics peer — Galaxy General Intelligence, and said "Welcome to contact me, welcome everyone to take screenshots and forward."

The whole industry was shocked immediately.

Galaxy General Intelligence said, "We will not participate in unnecessary verbal battles, and will not be disturbed by short-term noises. What we need to do is to make good products, solidify scenarios, deepen technologies, and continue to focus on doing our own things well."

This industry dispute is still not over.

Ice and fire are two sides of the same cycle. The fire burns strongly because money is pouring in. The ice freezes quickly because once the money stops, there is nothing left on the account. For the whole track, the ability to make profits is the top priority.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Rongzhong Finance" (ID: thecapital), written by Abu, and republished with authorization from 36Kr.