Tencent "pays," Huawei "provides talent," and "ZhiHui Jun's" ZhiYuan robot undergoes a comprehensive upgrade

The well-known domestic robot brand Zhiyuan Robotics has recently completed a new round of financing, led by Tencent, with several industry players and existing shareholders participating, including Longqi Technology, Wolong Electric, Huafa Group, and BlueRun Ventures. Media reports indicate that Zhiyuan Robotics will seek new financing at a valuation of 15 billion yuan, a significant increase from the previous round's valuation of 7 billion yuan.

According to Qichacha, Zhiyuan Robotics' affiliated company, Shanghai Zhiyuan New Technology Co., Ltd., has recently undergone a business change. The company's registered capital has increased to 80.458159 million yuan. Deng Taihua, former Vice President of Huawei and former President of the Computing Product Line, has joined Zhiyuan Robotics as Chairman and CEO. On the shareholder side, new shareholders include Guangxi Tencent Venture Capital Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Tencent, and Wolong Electric Drive. Original shareholders, including Lingang New Area Daohua Frontier Carbon Neutrality (Shanghai) Private Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Nanjing Gaorong Phase V No. 1 Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership), have exited.

As a well-known domestic robot brand, Zhiyuan Robotics was established in February 2023, with Sangpeng (Shanghai) Technology Partnership (Limited Partnership) as the major shareholder, holding over 30%, with Peng Zhihui (Zhihui Jun) holding 13.79%.

As one of the company's founders, Peng Zhihui (Zhihui Jun), born in 1993, was quite influential in the tech circle before starting his business. He is best known as a popular UP master on Bilibili and a former "genius youth" at Huawei. He has published numerous videos on hardcore tech products on Bilibili, including homemade game power banks, Iron Man mechanical arms, modular mechanical keyboards, and self-driving bicycles. Due to his love for DIY hardware, Zhihui Jun is also referred to by netizens as the "wild Iron Man."

In 2020, Peng Zhihui joined the Huawei team through the "Huawei Genius Youth Program," engaging in research related to Ascend AI chips and AI algorithms. He left Huawei at the end of 2022 and co-founded Zhiyuan Robotics in February 2023.

In just two years, Zhiyuan Robotics has grown to become one of the leading domestic robot brands. According to its official website, Zhiyuan Robotics will begin mass production of general-purpose robots on December 16, 2024. On January 6, 2025, the 1,000th general-purpose embodied robot will roll off the production line

Zhiyuan Robotics is also one of the hottest projects in the venture capital circle, and the company entered the "unicorn" ranks in its founding year. According to Qichacha, Zhiyuan Robotics' previous shareholders include Hillhouse Capital, DCM, Sequoia China, Sanhua Holdings Group, and BlueRun Ventures.

Currently, Zhiyuan Robotics has three main product lines: Expedition, Genie, and Lingxi. Expedition mainly targets commercial scenarios and has launched the bipedal humanoid robots Expedition A1 and A2 series; Genie is a wheeled dual-arm robot G1 for general-purpose embodied operations; and the Lingxi product line is a small humanoid robot designed for expanding home scenarios.

On March 11, Zhiyuan Robotics officially released the bipedal intelligent interactive humanoid robot Lingxi X2. In the video demonstration, the Lingxi X2 robot excels at various tasks, whether it's riding a bicycle, jumping "Subject Three," or sewing grapes. Zhihui Jun also "spoiled" that the robot's three treasures, namely "security guard, nanny, and cleaner," will soon become a reality.

In terms of large models, on March 10, Zhiyuan Robotics released its first general-purpose embodied base model—Zhiyuan Qiyuan Large Model (Genie Operator-1). Based on this model, the robot can learn from human videos, achieve rapid generalization with small samples, lower the threshold for embodied intelligence, and be successfully deployed in multiple Zhiyuan robot bodies.

Risk Warning and Disclaimer

The market has risks, and investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not take into account the specific investment goals, financial conditions, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article align with their specific circumstances. Investing based on this is at one's own risk