- Westlake University spinout is developing humanoid robots powered by end-to-end embodied intelligence systems
- Latest round comes months after previous financing as investors continue pouring into China’s robotics sector
Westlake Robotics (西湖机器人), a startup incubated by Westlake University in Hangzhou, said on May 6 it had completed a new Pre-Series A+ funding round for an undisclosed amount.
Existing investor Shanghai Xiaomiao Langcheng Investment Management Co., Ltd. led the financing, with participation from new backers including Industrial Securities Capital and Beiyu Private Equity.
This marks the company’s second financing deal in just over two months, as capital continues flowing into China’s embodied AI sector.
Proceeds will mainly be directed toward developing what the company calls a unified whole-body foundational model for robots.
The fundraising follows a Pre-Series A round completed in February, shortly before the Lunar New Year holiday, when the startup raised “several hundred million yuan” from investors including SAIF Partners, chipmaker Loongson’s corporate venture arm and state-run Moganshan Fund.
Founded by a team led by Professor Wang Donglin, Chair of Westlake University’s Machine Intelligence Laboratory, Westlake Robotics focuses on embodied AI and reinforcement learning research aimed at giving robots human-like perception, decision-making and autonomous behavior.
The startup is developing end-to-end embodied large models combining both high-level reasoning and low-level motion control, becoming the first major commercialization project spun out from Westlake University’s AI and robotics research programs.
In March, the company unveiled its Titan o1 humanoid robot powered by a General Action Expert, or GAE, model — described internally as the robot’s “cerebellum” responsible for locomotion — allowing it to imitate human movements across different environments in real time.
The robot was initially designed for hazardous tasks including firefighting, mining operations and high-altitude maintenance work, where automation could improve efficiency while reducing risks to human workers.
The company said earlier that future deployment scenarios could also extend into universities, shopping malls, live performances and public safety applications.
