The former Huawei "genius youth" startup company has become popular! Three rounds of financing have been completed in just a few months

The startup company Zhiyuan Robotics, in which former Huawei genius boy Zhihui Jun participated, has recently ignited a fire.

According to information from Tianyancha, the affiliated company of Zhiyuan Robotics, Shanghai Zhiyuan New Innovation Technology Co., Ltd., underwent a business change, adding Peng Zhihui as a director and BYD Co., Ltd. as shareholders. At the same time, the registered capital of the company increased from approximately RMB 48.47 million to approximately RMB 50.97 million.

Public information shows that besides BYD, many investment institutions including BV Baidu Ventures, Dinghui Investment, Gaorong, Hillhouse, etc. have invested in Zhiyuan Robotics, which has attracted high attention in the primary market.

Former Huawei Genius Youth Entrepreneurship Promoted by Capital

According to public information, Zhihui Jun's real name is Peng Zhihui. He graduated with a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. During his undergraduate studies, his major was Biomedical Engineering. It was because he had been self-learning computer knowledge that he successfully transitioned to Information and Communication Systems as a graduate student.

Zhihui Jun was once an employee of Huawei. Through seven rounds of interviews and Mr. Ren Zhengfei's personal decision-making, he successfully joined Huawei and started his career with a million yuan annual salary. Since joining Huawei in 2020, he has actively participated in the research and development of big data models and chip projects. At the same time, he also posted a large number of videos of hardcore technology products on Bilibili, making him well-known in the technology industry.

In pursuit of personal dreams, Zhihui Jun resigned from Huawei at the end of last year and began his entrepreneurial journey, giving birth to Zhiyuan Robotics.

The company focuses on developing universal humanoid robots and embodied intelligence, committed to the deep integration of AI and robots, and long-term investment in building competitive robot products and ecosystems. The vision is to create the next generation of mass-produced robot products with high intelligence and practical value, which can provide labor services for humans in the real world.

According to Tianyancha information, the new company was established in February 2023, with Zhihui Jun as the co-founder and Shu Yuanchun as the legal representative. Its business scope includes the research and development of intelligent robots, the development of artificial intelligence theory and algorithm software, the sales of artificial intelligence hardware, and the sales of electronic products.

On April 1st this year, Zhihui Jun updated a video on his personal account on Bilibili, showcasing his brand new bipedal robot "Nezha". On the robot Nezha, you can clearly see the classic elements of Nezha, such as the Fire Point Gun, Huntian Ling, and Wind and Fire Wheel. And this combination structure also combines the characteristics of traditional bipedal robots like Boston Dynamics and various wheeled bipedal robots, which can flexibly adapt to various terrains and have extremely high endurance.

In just a few months since its establishment, Zhiyuan Robotics has completed three rounds of financing, with a valuation of over one billion US dollars. Famous VCs such as Hillhouse, Qiji Chuangtan, and Jingwei have emerged one after another. According to Tianyancha Equity Penetration, funds under CATL, as well as Chinese Academy of Sciences Venture Capital and Beijing Chaoyang Science and Technology Innovation Fund, are all prominently listed.

The new product has recently made its debut

On August 18th, the "Expedition A1" press conference of Zhiyuan embodied intelligent robot was held, which was Zhihui Jun's product debut since announcing his entrepreneurship. At the press conference, Zhihui Jun demonstrated the technological progressiveness of "Expedition A1", a "new human", from the aspects of humanoid robot body technology and embodied intelligence technology, as well as the possibility of future application in industrial applications, biomedical preparation, home services and other scenarios.

"Expedition A1 is Zhiyuan's first generation of universal embodied intelligent robots, which can autonomously complete mobile and operational tasks in various complex scenarios in the future. We are committed to closely integrating advanced robots and AI technology with human life and production manufacturing, making robots a powerful assistant for humans," Zhihui Jun said at the press conference.

At the press conference, Expedition A1 demonstrated the "superpowers" that a humanoid robot should possess: stable gait, assembly and assembly of 3C products, material handling, and even knocking eggs in cooking scenes to help the elderly take medicine. Behind the excellent performance of Expedition A1 is a series of core components and excellent technical indicators independently developed by Zhiyuan.

In addition to traditional software and hardware capabilities, the more noteworthy aspect of the Expedition A1 press conference is the support of the AI big model. It is reported that with the significant breakthroughs brought about by AI technologies such as LLM and VLM, Zhiyuan has made it possible for robots to autonomously perceive the environment, understand tasks, and arrange actions, achieving the extension from ChatGPT to WorkGPT. Unlike traditional AI technology, Zhiyuan's WorkGPT fully utilizes the vast prior knowledge base and powerful general understanding ability of language and image models, and achieves complex semantic multi-level reasoning ability, also known as the "thought chain".

Minsheng Securities believes that countries such as Japan, the United States, and the European Union were early large-scale players in the field of humanoid robots. Currently, China is gradually focusing on the robotics field and increasing resource investment. The technological gap between China and foreign countries has greatly narrowed, and there is no obvious technological gap. Moreover, China has many factors such as industrial policy support, complete industrial chain, engineer dividends, and fast response speed, and has the strength to grow into a highland for the humanoid robot industry.