‘Arms race’: why investors can’t let go of robotic hand developers in China

Venture capitalists and industrial giants in China are aggressively backing developers of dexterous robotic hands – the toughest bottleneck in the global humanoid hardware arms race – in a funding blitz that is rapidly driving up start-up valuations.

The latest capital injection was announced on Friday by Xynova. The Hangzhou-based start-up said it had completed a series A round from investors including the venture arms of smartphone maker Xiaomi and electric vehicle giant Li Auto, bringing total capital raised to nearly 1 billion yuan (US$148 million).

The announcement came just two months after Xynova’s previous round, underscoring the frantic pace at which larger players in the sector are securing capital. The sheer speed of these transactions reflects a structural shift in how hard-tech start-ups are being financed in China.

AgiLink, backed by Chinese robotic star AgiBot, recently completed a funding round that propelled its valuation past the US$1 billion mark, according to reports last week by The Paper and several other state-run media. AgiLink did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

The start-up has made industry history by completing four funding rounds since it was spun off from humanoid robot manufacturer AgiBot in January.

A robot threads a needle at the World Intelligence Expo 2026 in Tianjin, north China, on May 28. Photo: Xinhua

“Achieving unicorn status in less than 150 days is unprecedented in the humanoid component sector,” said Wu Meimei, senior analyst at ITJuzi, which tracks China’s venture-capital market.

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