Leju raises $200M for humanoid production as Unitree unveils H2

The race for commercially viable humanoid robots continues, with Chinese companies making moves. Leju Robotics Technology Co. this week reportedly raised 1.5 billion yuan, or about $200 million U.S. Meanwhile, Unitree Robotics showed its agile H2 Destiny humanoid, which it claimed is designed for service use.

Spun out of the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in 2016, Leju has been developing robots for education, healthcare, heavy load transport, and elder care. It has established research and development centers around China and opened an innovation center in Shenzhen, China, with Huawei a year ago.

Also founded in 2016, Unitree recently raised Series C funding that brought its valuation to $1.7 billion U.S. In August, the Hangzhou, China-based company launched its A2 lidar-equipped quadruped, and its H1 humanoid participated in China’s World Humanoid Robot Games.

Unitree’s new H2 robot comes in a commercial model for $29,000 and an educational model for an unspecified price. It is 182 cm (5 ft. 11 in.) tall, weighs about 70 kg (154.3 lb.), and has 31 degrees of freedom (DoF).

Leju builds an ‘open platform’

Leju Robotics said it has built an ecosystem that encompasses core robot components, gait-control algorithms, and the open-source Robot Operating System (ROS). It provides wheeled, tracked, and bipedal robots, as well as robotics as a service (RaaS) for multiple industries.

The Shenzhen-based startup‘s product line includes the AELOS and ROBAN small and medium-size humanoid robots, as well as the KUAVO-MY and KUAVO 3.0 full-size humanoids. AELOS participated in the closing ceremonies at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea.

KUAVO-MY is an “open platform” for general embodied intelligence, suitable for both developers and industrial applications, according to Leju. It stands 1.4 m (4 ft., 9.8 in.) tall and has more than 40 DoF, but the company did not list its weight.

Investors pave the way toward IPOs

Leju Robotics said it was one of the first companies in the Tencent AI Accelerator, the fourth batch of the Microsoft Accelerator in Shanghai, and the twelfth batch of Lenovo Star. The company raised 36.2 million in Series B funding in June 2019.

CITIC Golstone Investment, Shenzhen Investment Holdings, Shenzhen Longhua Capital, Qianhai Basic Investment, Shijingshan Industrial Fund, Oriental Precision Tuopu Group, and China Securities Investment participated in Leju’s latest funding. Other supporters included Daohe Long-term Investment, Shengyi Capital, Lianxin Capital, Probe Venture Capital, Hefei Industrial Investment, Jiuzhao Investment, and the Sino-US Green Fund.

Leju said it plans to use the capital for research and development; preparing for mass production; and expanding partnerships with fellow Chinese companies such as Huawei, Alibaba, and Haier. The company is reportedly planning an initial public offering (IPO), as is Unitree.

Morgan Stanley predicted that the global market for humanoid robots could reach $5 trillion by 2050, not including related supply chains and support. The firm noted that China‘s government is investing directly in workforce development, as well as humanoid and physical AI companies.

By contrast, ABI Research forecast that the humanoid market would be valued at $6.5 billion by 2030, experiencing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 138%. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) has observed that China is focusing on the service sector and a scalable supply of components.