Decoding the Capital Behind Yushu Technology: Market-Oriented Institutions Seize the "Non-Consensus" Opportunity Sequoia's Booked Returns Exceed 2.5 Billion Yuan

Topic: External Uncertainty Clarified, A-shares Expected to Shift from Defense to Offense

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On March 20, Yushu Technology submitted its IPO prospectus, officially aiming to become China’s first humanoid robot company. With a 10% public offering ratio and an estimated fundraising amount of 4.2B yuan, the company’s initial market value is at least 42 billion yuan. After issuance, founder Wang Xingxing will hold about 30% of shares, with a net worth reaching the hundred-billion level.

The company’s top ten shareholders are quite prestigious, including industry giants like Meituan and Sinovation Ventures, top-tier institutions such as Sequoia China, Matrix Partners, and Dunhong Asset Management, as well as state-owned capital like CITIC Securities and Beijing Robot Fund. These institutions have collectively invested over 1.89 billion yuan, boosting the company’s post-investment valuation from 13M yuan to 13.36 billion yuan.

However, looking at the IPO materials, the returns for investors at different rounds vary greatly—Sequoia China, which entered in 2019, made an initial 15 million yuan investment at a post-investment valuation of only 150 million yuan, and after multiple rounds of additional investment, the current paper profit exceeds 2.5 billion yuan; Meituan, Matrix Partners, Sinovation Ventures, and Shenzhen Capital Group, which entered between 2020 and 2022, had post-investment valuations ranging from 250 million to 1.13 billion yuan, with similarly impressive returns; the last round investors like Tencent and China Mobile Capital also achieved nearly threefold returns within less than a year.

Of course, there are regrets in Yushu Technology’s investment history—DJI is one example. As Wang Xingxing’s former employer, DJI planned in 2018 to participate in Yushu Technology’s second round of funding through DJI New China PE Fund-1 L.P., investing 10.1286 million yuan at a valuation of only 60 million yuan. Although both parties completed business registration and related filings, DJI ultimately did not make the investment. Had this investment gone through and held until now, it could have yielded nearly 3 billion yuan in paper gains, making DJI the biggest external investor winner after the company’s listing.

If this leading enterprise, which has appeared three times on CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala and currently ranks first globally in quadruped and humanoid robot sales, successfully goes public, it will mean that the huge blue ocean market of humanoid robots is officially open to the secondary market. As quadruped and humanoid robots accelerate penetration into entertainment, power inspection, emergency rescue, and other scenarios, the company’s performance is set to explode: by 2025, revenue could reach 1.71B yuan, a year-on-year increase of 335.36%, nearly 14 times the 2021 revenue of 123 million yuan, with a net profit of 288 million yuan. All signs indicate that this growth has not yet reached its ceiling.

The day after the IPO prospectus was released, Guotai Haitong Securities analyst Xiao Qunxi published a research report stating that Yushu Technology, as an industry leader, is expected to continue its catalytic effect, driving upstream and downstream industry chain collaboration and broadening industry growth space.

Early-stage angel investors’ returns

In 2015, Wang Xingxing developed the X Dog electric-driven quadruped robot while studying at Shanghai University. After graduating in 2016, he joined DJI, but after only about two months, he left due to the attention and investment interest generated by X Dog in the robotics circle, founding Yushu Technology in August 2016.

In the early days, Yushu Technology was not short of investors, but at that time, the robotics track was still niche, and the company’s valuation was low. After screening, Wang Xingxing chose Yin Fangming, who had worked at MediaTek and 360, as the angel investor. Yin invested 2 million yuan for a 15% stake, corresponding to a post-investment valuation of about 13M yuan.

In 2018, Yin transferred part of his equity to Shenzhen Anchuang Technology Equity Investment Partnership (referred to as “Anchuang Technology”) for 1.3105 million yuan. In August 2020, he transferred the remaining 14.3k shares at 1 yuan per registered capital to Tianjin Junwan Hongyi Enterprise Management Consulting Partnership (referred to as “Junwan Hongyi”). According to disclosures, this transfer was part of a restructuring of Yin Fangming’s holdings, and after the restructuring, he still held about 16.62% of Junwan Hongyi, with an equity value of approximately 214 million yuan.

“Non-consensus” opportunity:

Market-oriented institutions take the lead

Before 2019, the robotics track was in the early stage of moving from lab to commercialization. During this period, robotics investment was not mainstream, but market-oriented institutions like Sequoia China, Anchuang Technology, Variable Capital (via Jishi Investment), and Daxun Investment seized the “non-consensus” opportunity, providing early capital support to Yushu Technology.

Among them, Sequoia China led a 15 million yuan investment in December 2019 through Ningbo Sequoia Kesheng Equity Investment Partnership (“Ningbo Sequoia”), and subsequently co-invested with Ningbo Sequoia and Xiamen Yaheng Venture Capital Fund Partnership (“Yaheng Venture”) to accumulate a total investment of 102 million yuan. After issuance, they held 25.89 million shares, with an estimated paper return of over 2.5 billion yuan. Wang Xingxing once said, “In the seed round, I preferred investors with more favorable terms, like individual investors. There are also institutions like Sequoia with more investor-friendly terms, and some with stricter requirements.”

Notably, on February 28, Zhongke Chuangda stated on the exchange platform that the company holds a 6.78% stake in Anchuang Technology, which previously held a small stake in Yushu Technology. According to the IPO prospectus, Anchuang Technology had exited completely before the IPO. Specifically, in April 2018, Anchuang Technology invested in Yushu Technology through capital increases and equity transfers; in 2024, it sold part of its stake for 50 million yuan to Guanghe Second Phase and Guangyue Investment; in 2025, it sold the remaining stake for 14.3k yuan to Tianjin Suanli, realizing total gains of 14.63M yuan. If still holding today, Anchuang Technology would have reaped over 500 million yuan in paper gains.

Before and after Yushu Technology’s IPO, several listed companies such as Yishida, Jingxing Paper, Jinfeng Technology, and Zhongji Xuchuang have indicated indirect holdings through venture capital funds, reflecting that listed companies are actively participating in frontier sectors via primary market funds, sharing the growth dividends of emerging industries.

Robotics sector heats up

Industry and state-owned capital mobilize together

Starting in 2020, quadruped robots gradually expanded from research to education, consumer, and industrial fields, with consumer-grade products rapidly reducing in price, driving continuous global market expansion.

A landmark event was the 2021 Spring Festival Gala, where Yushu Technology’s 24 A1 quadruped robots performed a group dance, breaking through the brand’s circle and bringing robots into the public eye. In 2022, projects like Tesla’s Optimus and FigureAI’s humanoid robots accelerated, industry enthusiasm continued to rise, and Yushu Technology became a key target for many institutions competing in the robotics sector.

During this period, large investments from state-owned and industry capital became the most distinctive feature compared to earlier stages.

Industry giants include Meituan, Ant Group, China Mobile Capital, Sinovation Ventures, and Alibaba. Among them, Meituan invested about 400 million yuan through Han Hai Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Galaxy Z Holding Limited, and Chengdu Longzhu Equity Investment Fund Partnership, reaching an 8.68% stake in 2024, becoming the largest external shareholder.

Xiaomi’s Sinovation Ventures was among the earliest industry investors. In January 2021, Sinovation invested 64.63M yuan via its overseas investment entity Astrend IV (Hong Kong) Alpha Limited, at a valuation of only 380 million yuan. In February 2022, Astrend IV added another 23.43 million yuan. In June 2024, Astrend IV transferred part of its stake for 10 million USD to Chengdu Longzhu and Galaxy Z, and another part for 15 million yuan to Shanghai Kechuang, currently holding 3.98% of Yushu Technology, ranking fifth among shareholders.

Tencent also entered the scene, investing 80.0008 million yuan at a post-investment valuation of 13.36 billion yuan in June 2025, holding 0.54% of shares, with an estimated nearly threefold paper return based on the post-issuance market value.

On the state-owned side, Shenzhen Capital Group was among the earliest to invest, directly funding through Shenzhen Innovation Investment Group and Jiangsu Jiqian Hongtu Intelligent Venture Capital, with a total of 5 million and 10 million yuan respectively in February 2022. From January 2024 to June 2025, they continued investing through Shenzhen Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund (Xinjiang) and Shenzhen Innovation Capital, with a total of nearly 92 million yuan invested, now holding 2.3%, with a post-issuance market value close to 1 billion yuan.

Additionally, CITIC Securities and the Robotics Fund are also major state-owned investors. CITIC Securities invested 155 million yuan and 14 million yuan in January and August 2024 respectively, holding a total of 4.04%. The Beijing Robotics Industry Development Investment Fund, a hundred-billion-level robotics专项基金 led by Beijing state assets, invested 150 million yuan and 36 million yuan in August 2024 and June 2025, respectively, holding a total of 3.44%.

It’s worth noting that while local governments in Shenzhen and Beijing have heavily invested in the sector, Hangzhou’s state assets have not directly backed Yushu Technology but have indirectly participated through Hangzhou Sci-Tech Fund and Hangzhou Innovation Fund’s sub-funds in four rounds of financing.

From early technological incubation to the active participation of industry and state-owned capital, Yushu Technology’s financing journey reflects the full trajectory of China’s robotics sector from niche research to mainstream capital markets.

As the first humanoid robot company in China to go public, Yushu Technology’s listing process confirms the industry’s rising heat and increasingly fierce competition. With commercial progress accelerating, companies like Galaxy General, Variable Robots, Zhihui Square, Zhuji Power, and Qianxun Intelligence have completed billion-yuan financing rounds. Under intense capital influx, industry competition will shift from technical prowess to product deployment, scene expansion, and commercialization efficiency. The dual support of capital and industry will further accelerate the transition of humanoid robots from concept to large-scale deployment.

(Source: Securities Times)