- Startup backed by Vision Plus Capital and Li Auto in undisclosed seed round
- Auto industry veterans increasingly pivot toward embodied AI ventures in recent years
A pair of former Li Auto executives have launched Hangzhou-based Slash Robotics (斜跃智能), joining a growing wave of automotive veterans turning to embodied AI as China’s next frontier in robotics.
The startup, founded by former Li Auto AI chief scientist Chen Wei and ex-product line president Zhang Xiao, has completed its first funding round backed by China’s leading venture firm Vision Plus Capital and electric-vehicle (EV) upstart Li Auto, according to corporate registration filings.
Financial terms and post-money valuation were not disclosed.
Public records show that Slash Robotics marks the only alumni startup Li Auto has invested in over the past two years, underscoring the automaker’s continued interest in extending automotive-grade intelligence into new hardware categories beyond vehicles.
Chen previously led Li Auto’s foundational AI model development and autonomous-driving VLA model deployment, focusing on embodied intelligence, multimodal systems and agent-based architectures.
Zhang, for his part, was an early key executive at the automaker, overseeing product strategy for flagship models including the Li One and Li L9. He helped scale mass-market delivery through a user-centric product philosophy.
The new robotics venture the duo founded aims to translate the automotive industry’s emphasis on safety, reliability and systems engineering into household embodied robots designed to integrate into daily life.
The company envisions robots evolving from experimental technology into collaborative, consumer-facing home companions.
According to Liu Yiran, managing partner at Vision Plus Capital, embodied AI’s next phase will hinge less on algorithmic breakthroughs and more on engineering execution, mass production experience and real-world deployment — areas where automotive experience provides an advantage.
“We believe the founders’ industrial background offers a rare combination suited to building practical home robotics products,” Liu said in a press release. “We are also immensely hopeful about their new journey in the world of embodied AI.”
The company’s name, “Slash,” is a reference to the forward slash symbol used in programming as a path delimiter, signaling what one of the founders describes as the team’s starting point on an embodied intelligence journey, according to information Vision Plus Capital shared with The Yangtzeer.
A broader pivot from auto
Slash Robotics has joined a broader migration of talent from China’s autonomous-driving and EV sectors into robotics startups as competition intensifies in autos.
In July 2025, former Li Auto autonomous-driving executives Jia Peng and Wang Jiajia, together with former CTO Wang Kai, founded Simplexity Robotics in Hangzhou.
The startup completed five funding rounds within six months totaling about 2 billion yuan ($292 million) and reached a valuation exceeding $1 billion, becoming one of the youngest unicorns in the embodied AI sector.
Other notable entrants include Gao Jiyang, a former Waymo and Momenta autonomous-driving algorithm lead, who founded Galaxea AI in September 2023 to develop embodied foundation models and a wheeled dual-arm robot known as R1.
In December 2024, former Horizon Robotics vice president Yu Yinan launched quadruped robotics startup Vita Dynamics, another Vision Plus Capital portfolio company.
Meanwhile, Du Dalong, a co-founder and former CTO of autonomous-driving firm PhiGent Robotics, established SynapX in January 2026 after PhiGent was acquired by NavInfo, focusing on so-called Physical AI technologies.
The growing roster of founders highlights how expertise built in autonomous driving — spanning perception systems, control algorithms and complex system integration — is increasingly being redirected toward embodied AI, a field many investors see as the next major platform shift after EV.
