ROBOTERA
Tsinghua University-backed Chinese embodied-AI company that develops full-size bipedal humanoid robots, service humanoids, direct-drive dexterous hands and the ERA-42 embodied model, with deployments in logistics centers.
- CEO / Founder
- Jianyu Chen
- Stage
- Growth Stage
- Total Funding
- $700M
- Latest Round
- Series A
- Key Investors
- SF Group; China Chengtong Fund; Sequoia China (HSG); IDG Capital; CICC Capital; Geely Capital; Alibaba; Lenovo Capital; Samsung; BAIC; Dongfeng; Haier; Singtel; ICBC Capital; Kejie Intelligent; Tsinghua Holdings Tiancheng; CDH VGC; Hillhouse; Hony Capital
Technology & Products
Key Products
STAR1/L7 full-size bipedal humanoid (171 cm, 55 DoF); M7 half-body pillar-mounted humanoid (43 DoF, 12-DoF five-finger hands); service humanoid robots; XHAND1 / XHAND 1 Pro full direct-drive dexterous hands; ERA-42 end-to-end VLA embodied model; world-model research (PAD, VPP, UP-VLA, Ctrl-World, VLAW).
Technological Advantage
Vertical integration from motors, drivers and reducers to complete robots (>95% in-house); fusion of world models with VLA policies; large dexterous-hand data set from real deployments feeding a data flywheel; broad industrial investor base supplying deployment scenarios.
Differentiation
Value Proposition
Full-stack, in-house hardware and software (data, embodied brain, motion control, dexterous hands, humanoid body) with more than 95% self-developed hardware, intended to deliver humanoid robots that perform productive work in logistics and industrial settings.
How They Differentiate
Full direct-drive dexterous hands and nearly fully in-house hardware versus competitors relying on sourced components; end-to-end VLA with embedded world models; early commercial focus on logistics B2B deployments.
Market & Competition
Target Customers
Logistics operators, automotive and 3C electronics manufacturers, commercial service operators, and global tech companies and research institutions buying dexterous hands and humanoid platforms.
Industry Verticals
Logistics and parcel sorting; automotive manufacturing; 3C electronics; commercial services; research and education.
Competitors
Unitree Robotics; AgiBot (Zhiyuan); UBTech; also Figure AI, Agility Robotics, Tesla Optimus internationally.
Growth & Milestones
Growth Metrics
About 400 humanoid units shipped in 2025; thousand-unit batch deliveries began Q2 2026 with 300% growth; deployed in 10+ logistics centers; nearly ¥5B raised in 2026; valuation reportedly above ¥10B as of March 2026.
Major Milestones
2023-08 founded as Tsinghua IIIS spin-off; 2024-11 PAD model; 2024-12 VPP world model; 2025 first commercial dexterous-hand order; 2025-11 ¥1B A+ round led by Geely; 2025 UNIDO partnership; 2026-03 ¥1B strategic round; 2026-04 >$200M round led by SF Group; 2026-Q2 thousand-unit deliveries; 2026-07 ¥1B round led by China Chengtong.
Notable Customers
China Post; SF Group; OpenAI; Boston Dynamics; NVIDIA; Apple; Google; Amazon; ByteDance; MIT; UC Berkeley; Stanford (dexterous hand/hardware users, per company).