A Unitree humanoid robot performs Thursday, the first day of the Mobile World Conference in Shanghai.
Ying Tang/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Unitree Robotics, a Hangzhou-based maker of humanoid robots whose founder recently met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, completed series C funding this month that values the company at 12 billion yuan ($1.7 billion), according to people with knowledge of the matter.
As investors, the company attracted Chinese auto maker Geely Automobile, fintech giant Ant Group and investment firm HongShan Capital Group (formerly known as Sequoia Capital China), people familiar with the matter told Forbes Asia. The valuation of 12 billion yuan was confirmed by two investors who participated in the deal but requested anonymity.
A Unitree representative confirmed the company completed the series C funding but said it had no further information to provide.
Chinese media Late Post reported the deal first Thursday, saying that Unitree raised an undisclosed amount from investors that also included tech giant Tencent, e-commerce behemoth Alibaba and a fund affiliated with the state-run telecommunications giant China Mobile at a valuation of “over 10 billion yuan.”
Founded in 2016, the company is now at the forefront of China’s robotics industry. Its 35-year-old founder Wang Xingxing, who is CEO and CTO, landed in February a coveted front-row seat at a meeting with Chinese President Xi.
That meeting in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing also included Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma, Tencent Chairman Ma Huateng and DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng. Xi held the meeting to send a message of support to China’s private sector amid a plethora of economic challenges. Seated in the first row in front of Xi was Unitree’s Wang, who later shook hands with the president.
The bespectacled young entrepreneur is helping China’s development of humanoid robots, an emerging industry the country is keen to dominate as it vies for tech supremacy with the U.S. Unitree has developed products including a series of robot dogs that start from $1,600 and humanoid models priced from $16,000, according to its website.
That compares with the $20,000 to $30,000 Tesla intends to charge for each of its Optimus humanoid products. The bipedal product from the American electric vehicle pioneer can walk, dance and perform household chores such as cooking, cleaning up tables and dumping trash, according to video clips posted on its X social media account.
Unitree’s humanoids are shown performing similar tasks on clips posted on its website. They shot to national fame in China when the robots danced alongside real people during a performance at January’s 2025 Spring Festival Gala. A huge audience watched the performance as China celebrated the start of the Year of the Snake.
Unitree’s humanoid robots have also participated in marathons and battled real fighters in boxing competitions. The Unitree representative says the company controls over two thirds of the global market for quadruped robotics dogs and leads worldwide sales of humanoid robots. However, the representative declines to provide specific sales figures.
Founder Wang has traced his interest in robots to at least 2013. The young entrepreneur was pursuing a graduate degree in mechanical engineering at Shanghai University when he designed XDog, a quadruped robot that helped him win second prize in a local competition.
Wang briefly worked for Chinese drone maker DJI before founding Unitree in 2016. In 2017, he raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding before progressing to complete a series B round last year. At the time, his company raised at at least 1 billion yuan from investors including Chinese food-delivery giant Meituan, investment firm Source Code Capital and the state-affiliated Shenzhen Capital Group, according to the Qichacha local regulatory filing system.
