- Lei Jun thanks Unitree CEO Wang Xingxing as latest SU7 smartphone debuts
- Collaboration highlights China’s growing humanoid and embodied AI ecosystem
On the eve of its March 19 spring product launch in Beijing, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun publicly acknowledged Unitree Robotics founder and CEO Wang Xingxing for his contributions to China’s humanoid robotics sector, highlighting a five-year-old investment in the company.
Wang attended the event with Unitree’s latest robot to showcase the collaboration, posing for photos with Lei alongside the machine and Xiaomi’s new generation of flagship sedan SU7.
“This year marks Unitree’s tenth anniversary, and I want to thank you for the opportunity to invest five years ago,” Lei said, recognizing Wang, who founded the Hangzhou-based robotics unicorn in 2016 after a two-month stint at Shenzhen-based drone maker DJI.
Unitree, with registered capital of roughly 364 million yuan ($52.78 million), counts among its shareholders Wang, food delivery titan Meituan’s HanHai Information Technology, and Astrend IV (Hong Kong) Alpha Limited, affiliated with venture capital firm Shunwei, which Lei founded in 2011.
Public filings show Shunwei invested several million dollars in Unitree’s Series A round in 2021 and returned with follow-on funding of several hundred million yuan in the Series B+ round in 2022.
Unitree’s early years coincided with a difficult fundraising environment for bionic robotics, where commercial applications were limited and valuations remained modest. Shunwei was one of the first prominent VCs to back the startup.
Xiaomi itself has been an early mover in humanoid robotics, developing CyberDog and CyberOne, China’s first self-developed bipedal and quadrupedal robots. They made their debuts in 2021 and 2022.
The producer of electric car, smartphone and IoT devices has also been responsible for cultivating a pool of engineers who have since joined newer embodied AI ventures, reflecting the rapid expansion of China’s intelligent robotics ecosystem.
At yesterday’s launch event, Lei pledged to invest 60 billion yuan over the next three years in AI-related fields, including embodied intelligence and humanoid robotics.
