JD.com invested in three smart hardware companies in one go

The embodied intelligence industry has witnessed a rare scene—three companies announced the completion of a new round of financing on the same day, all led by JD.com.

On July 21, Shanghai Securities News learned that Qianxun Intelligent completed a 600 million yuan Pre-A+ round of financing, led by JD.com; LimX Dynamics completed a new round of financing, strategically led by JD.com, which will deepen collaboration with JD.com in retail, logistics, and services; Zhongqing Robotics completed two rounds of financing, with the A1 round led by JD.com.

This simultaneous action marks JD.com's most concentrated investment in the embodied intelligence field since our report in March this year that "JD.com has entered the embodied intelligence sector." Previously, it also invested in Zhiyuan Robotics.

In comparison, Meituan's investments came earlier and more frequently this year, having invested in companies like Tishizhi Hang, Xinghaitu, and Ziyuan Robotics, and previously invested in Yushu Technology and Galaxy General—both of which are listed as part of the "first tier" players in the embodied intelligence field alongside Zhiyuan Robotics.

Industry insiders believe that JD.com and Meituan have rich scenarios in retail and logistics, providing them with a natural advantage in deploying embodied intelligence. For embodied intelligence startups that need to explore practical applications, industrial capital can open up more scenarios compared to financial investment institutions, allowing them to validate technology and iterate products in real commercial environments. In the embodied intelligence revolution, industry giants with inherent scenario advantages are expected to gain a first-mover advantage.

JD.com "Three Arrows Fired"

Specifically, Qianxun Intelligent announced that it recently completed nearly 600 million yuan in Pre-A+ round financing. This round was led by JD.com, with participation from the China Internet Investment Fund, Zhejiang Province Science and Technology Innovation Mother Fund, Huatai Zijin, Fosun Ruijun, and other well-known institutions. Additionally, existing shareholders such as Prosperity7 Ventures (P7), Shunwei Capital, Huakong Fund, Huafa Group, Qiancheng Capital, Jingya Capital, and Honghui Fund made oversubscribed investments.

Qianxun Intelligent was founded in February 2024, and its founder and CEO Han Fengtang has over ten years of experience in the robotics industry, having previously served as co-founder and CTO of Lashi Robotics, successfully leading the team to deliver dozens of product models. He stated that the gathering of heavyweight industrial investors not only recognizes Qianxun Intelligent but also reflects the industry's high consensus on the future value of the embodied intelligence track.

Zhongqing Robotics announced that it officially completed two rounds of financing in July, with the Pre-A++ round initiated by XPeng Motors as the cornerstone investor. The A1 round of financing was led by JD.com, with participation from industrial investors such as CATL's Puquan Capital, Intime Group, as well as financial investors like Huakong Fund, Dacheng Caizhi's Guocheng Fund, and Huangpujiang Capital.

Zhongqing Robotics was established in October 2023, and its full-size humanoid robot SE01 has gained widespread attention online due to its human-like gait. Currently, Zhongqing Robotics has established a deep collaborative ecosystem with leading industry partners both domestically and internationally (including NVIDIA, Amazon, JD.com, Tencent, ByteDance, etc.), covering diverse scenarios such as commercial services, hazardous operations, and cultural tourism, fully promoting the large-scale application of humanoid robots In addition, Zhujidongli announced that its new round of financing was strategically led by JD.com. Zhujidongli focuses on supporting and accelerating research, development, and application of a general platform for embodied intelligent robots. Previous industrial investors include Alibaba, China Merchants Venture Capital, Shangqi Capital, Nio Capital, Lenovo Capital, Beyond Times, and Nice Group.

Zhujidongli was established in January 2022, and its full-size humanoid robot has completed preparations for mass production, which will be publicly sold in the second half of this year. Zhujidongli stated that it will continue to promote the mass production and sales of full-size humanoid robots, the research and development of embodied large model technology, and the construction of the IDS ecological platform. This financing will deepen the collaborative exploration between Zhujidongli and JD.com in areas such as retail, logistics, and services.

Overall, JD.com's investment direction includes both hardware and brain models, with a strong emphasis on ecological collaboration.

Regarding the intensive investment in three companies, JD.com responded to reporters that it places great importance on technology hotspots, including embodied intelligence and large models, focusing on supply chain scenarios to promote innovative applications. JD.com continues to build a technological innovation ecosystem through internal technological innovation and external investments, creating value for industries and consumers.

JD.com's Approach to Embodied Intelligence

Looking back, JD.com has made significant investments in the embodied field this year. In March, a reporter from the Shanghai Securities News learned that JD.com had entered the embodied intelligence field, focusing on home scenarios, and had established relevant business departments. At that time, sources close to JD.com revealed that the company places great importance on innovation and application in fields such as artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics, with multiple internal teams working on research and development in cutting-edge areas like embodied intelligence.

In May, Zhiyuan Robotics completed a new round of financing, with JD.com and the Shanghai Embodied Intelligence Fund becoming new shareholders. This was also the first external investment in a startup in the track after JD.com was confirmed to have entered the embodied intelligence field in March.

Sources close to JD.com indicated that the company's extensive layout in the embodied intelligence field aligns with its positioning in supply chain technology and services, and is expected to quickly find opportunities to create value in real scenarios.

Specifically, JD.com has rich logistics and service scenarios and is itself an application of embodied intelligence. At the same time, JD.com's industrial large model is based on the supply chain, especially in the field of digital human representation, where it has accumulated a large amount of professional data and has advanced and rich technological innovation applications.

It is worth mentioning that JD.com is an important sales channel for robots. Data shows that during the "618" period, JD.com's self-operated sales of smart robots increased threefold year-on-year, while sales of embodied intelligent robots grew 17 times.

In terms of internal technological innovation, due to its own industrial needs, JD.com has already accumulated internal capabilities in embodied intelligent hardware. In the 2025 CVPR (IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition) Robot Dual-Arm Operation Simulation Challenge, JD.com's technology team "JD-TFS" won the dual championship with a significant advantage, surpassing well-known domestic and international companies and universities such as Horizon, Nio, Tsinghua University, and Harbin Institute of Technology Through dual innovation in model and data dimensions, the JD.com team has laid a solid foundation for the high-precision application of robotic arms in real-world scenarios. Previously, in April 2024, JD Technology released the first domestic dual-arm mobile robot operation dataset.

An important force within JD.com is the embodied intelligence brand JoyInside, which provides emotional companionship to users by embedding JD's large model-driven conversational agents into robots, robotic dogs, AI toys, and other hardware, enhancing product competitiveness. So far, JD.com has partnered with more than ten leading robot brands, including the Zhongqing PM01 JD JoyInside robot.

According to reporters, JD.com will announce collaborations between the embodied intelligence brand JoyInside and numerous robotics companies at the WAIC to be held at the end of July, including the recently popular AI trendy toys and AI educational robots, covering mainstream leading consumer robot brands on the market.

Author of this article: Sun Xiaocheng, Source: Shanghai Securities Journal, Original title: "JD.com Invests in Three Embodied Intelligence Companies at Once"

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