East Meets West: Robotics! Follow the money!
By @LarryHashpowerX
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In September 2025, the humanoid robot world exploded with liquidity —over 21 financing deals racked up more than 1.7billion dollars/ 10 billion yuan in disclosed funding, smashing the single-month record according to the Humanoid Robot Scene Application Alliance. It's wild how capital is piling into the big dogs, speeding up industry shake-ups as tech and commercial momentum hit key turning points.
Case in point: US startup Figure AI snagged over $1 billion (about 7.1 billion yuan) all by itself, cornering 70% of the month's total. That underscores how investors are laser-focused on top players.
Here's a quick rundown of the standout deals:
- Figure AI wrapped up a massive Series C on Sept 16, pulling in >$1B led by Parkway Venture Capital. Big names like Nvidia, Intel Ventures, LG Tech, Qualcomm, Salesforce, T-Mobile, Alien Ventures, Tamarack Global, Brookfield, and Macquarie jumped in. Post-round, they're valued at $39B (∼277.4B yuan). (Check out: Figure breaks records with $1B raise, nearing $40B val!)
- Variable Robot scored nearly 1B yuan in an A round on Sept 8, led by Alibaba Cloud and Guoke Investment, with CDB Financial, Sequoia China, and Strategy Capital following. Old backers like United Investments, Lenovo Star, and Jun Lian Capital doubled down. Cool note: Alibaba Cloud's first dip into embodied intelligence. Cash goes to model training and hardware tweaks. (More: Alibaba Cloud leads; Variable grabs nearly 1B yuan A !)
- Dyna Robotics, that Silicon Valley gem, closed $120M on Sept 16, led by Robostrategy, CRV, and First Round Capital. Investors included Salesforce Ventures, Nvidia, Amazon, Samsung, and LG Technology Ventures. Now valued over $600M (∼4.27B yuan). (Deets: Nvidia, Amazon, and Samsung bet big; upstart hits $600M val!)
- One Star Robot nailed a seed round worth hundreds of millions yuan, blending investors like BV Baidu Venture Capital and Tongchuang Weiye (market pros), Galaxy General and Landai Technology (industry folks), plus China New Group. Founded by Li Xingxing, with Pan Yunbin as chairman.
- Starborn Intelligent Robot raised 200M yuan in an angel round from Zhongke Chuangxing, Hillhouse, Yuanhe Origin, Yuansheng Venture Capital, and industrial players like Zhiyuan Robot, Solenoid Capital, SAIC Capital, and Zhongli Shiqiao. Born from Beijing Zhiyuan Research Institute (launched Aug 1, 2025), they're all about multi-modal spatial smarts and building a universal embodied brain. Funds fuel R&D and real-world rollouts.
- First Shape Technology (aka AheadForm) finished a multi-billion yuan round on Sept 29—their third this year! Led by Ant Group, co-invested by Jinqiu Fund, with Heavy Snow Capital, Honghui Fund, and Pengcheng Vision Fund in the mix. Oldies like Shun Capital, China Merchants Venture Capital, and Taihill oversubscribed; Deep Blue Capital advised. Started in 2024, they bridge human-machine interaction gaps. Money for empathy model upgrades and app expansions.
- Lewin Intelligent Technology (Enjoy Tech) grabbed 200M yuan in an angel round on Sept 28—their third in nine months, pushing total angel funding near 500M yuan. Zhongding Capital led, IDG Capital followed. Consumer-focused embodied intel outfit; funds hit core parts, robot bodies, motion control, and bionic model speed-ups for mass rollout.
This whole funding frenzy ties right into bigger trends, like crypto meeting robotics. Take
@UseRobora—a modular robotics platform with on-chain ownership and
$RBR token—it's surfing the vertical wave as a bridge builder. Its market cap jumped from $3.87M to $13.6M in just over a week, fueled by sector excitement from monster raises in capital. With so much regained momentum flowing into Robora's token ecosystem,
$RBR's uptrend gives everyday people liquid access to the trillion-dollar robotics boom. DYOR!