AsianFin -- Investment in China's embodied intelligence and humanoid robotics sector is surging, with multiple startups raising hundreds of millions of yuan amid rapid technological and commercial progress.
Robot Era, a Tsinghua-affiliated embodied intelligence company, on Monday announcedthe completion of a nearly 500 million yuan ($69 million) Series A round.
The funding was co-led by CDH VGC and Haier Capital, with participation from investors including Houxue Capital, China Growth Capital, Xianghe Capital, and Fengli Intelligence. Existing shareholders such as Qingliu Capital and Tsinghua Holdings Fund also increased their stakes.
Founded in August 2023, Robot Era has already completed four funding rounds. The company said it has delivered over 200 units this year, with hundreds more in mass production. Notably, nine of the world's ten largest tech firms by market cap are clients, and over 50% of its orders come from overseas. Its robots have been deployed in industrial logistics and retail, with clients including Haier Smart Home, Lenovo, and North Intelligence Technology.
Also on Monday, Guoxin Fund announced that Hangzhou-based Deep Robotics Technology, one of the so-called "Six Little Dragons" of Hangzhou, completed its own 500 million yuan round, co-led by the Guoxin Liaoning Revitalization Development Fund.
This follows recent major rounds by Unitree Robotics (700 million yuan) and Galbot (1.1 billion yuan), signaling intense capital interest in the sector. According to IT Juzi, there were 114 investment events in China’s embodied intelligence and robotics sector in the first five months of 2025, surpassing the 77 deals recorded in all of 2024. Funding so far this year has hit 23.2 billion yuan, exceeding last year’s 20.9 billion yuan.
Stardust Epoch aims to develop general-purpose physical agents by integrating hardware and software, advancing AI from perception to action. Founder and CEO Chen Jianyu, also a PI at Shanghai Qi Zhi Institute and assistant professor at Tsinghua’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, has published over 70 papers in robotics and AI. His work has been recognized at top conferences such as RSS, L4DC, IEEE IV, and IFAC MECC.
Since spring 2022, Chen's team has developed multiple generations of humanoid robots. By early 2024, its fifth-gen models were capable of stair-climbing, slope navigation, and rugged-terrain balance. The STAR1 model, equipped with 55 degrees of freedom and the XHand 1 dexterous hand, has a top speed of 3.6 m/s, breaking global humanoid speed records.
Robot Era’s ERA-42 VLA model combines vision, comprehension, prediction, and action in a unified architecture, enabling hundreds of complex tasks via voice. The company has built an AI ecosystem around a "model-ontology-scenario data" triad, creating data loops that improve its products' capabilities over time.
Chen sees humanoid robots as the ultimate form of embodied intelligence due to their human-like learning, mobility, and manipulation potential. He believes the sector will develop an ecosystem akin to smart vehicles, with specialized roles across the value chain.
Several investors expressed strong confidence in Stardust Epoch. China Growth Capital’s Ji Wei called it "a rare team with both algorithmic and hardware innovation" led by Chen and commercial partner Ke Yan. CDH VGC’s Guo Qizhi praised the firm’s closed-loop system of large models, humanoid bodies, and dexterous operations.
Meanwhile, Deep Robotics Technology—founded in 2017 and specializing in humanoid and quadruped robots—has become a leader in B2B applications like power inspection and emergency rescue. Its founder and CEO Zhu Qiuguo emphasized the firm’s commitment to full-stack R\&D and real-world deployment.
A senior official at Guoxin Fund said Deep Robotics has demonstrated strong capabilities in robotic control, multimodal perception, and autonomous decision-making. The investment aligns with China’s "new productive forces" strategy focused on AI and robotics.
Despite concerns about a potential bubble, Chen Jianyu argued that the sector hasn’t overheated. He noted that financing remains far below that of smart vehicles, due to longer commercialization cycles and a lack of large-scale application loops.
Statista forecasts the global AI robotics market to exceed $19 billion in 2024 and \$35 billion by 2030. Citigroup sees the humanoid market growing to $7 trillion by 2050, with nearly 650 million units worldwide. Morgan Stanley estimates the potential could reach $60 trillion. Over the next 20 years, China is expected to invest nearly $140 billion in robotics and high-tech sectors.
Some investors caution that the short-term value of robotics may be overstated, while its long-term impact is underappreciated. China's ICT Academy projects that between 2040 and 2045, general-purpose humanoid robots will see large-scale adoption across industrial and service sectors, with the domestic market reaching 500 billion to 1 trillion yuan.
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