Author | Meng Xiao

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Behind the booming Unitree and Wang Xingxing, various capital forces are competing.

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It took just one year for robot company Unitree to rise from obscurity to the top of the tech world. Even the overseas tech community is focusing on Unitree. According to China Business News, recently, Marc Raibert, the founder of Boston Dynamics, said in an interview with the media that their AI Institute has purchased robots from Chinese robotics startup Unitree to test their capabilities and analyze manufacturing costs.

Unitree is also extremely popular in China. First, in early 2024, Wang Xingxing appeared on Xinwen Lianbo as a representative of a key enterprise and was interviewed by the media. Then, Unitree's robots were featured on CCTV's Spring Festival Gala. Later, founder Wang Xingxing attended a symposium for private enterprises, sitting in the front row alongside industry giants like Lei Jun, Ren Zhengfei, Wang Chuanfu, and Pony Ma, becoming the only post-90s entrepreneur to attend and speak at the symposium.

Behind all this is Unitree's popularity with capital. Surprisingly, Wang Xing of Meituan and Lei Jun of Xiaomi are behind Wang Xingxing. Tianyancha shows that Meituan's Hanhai Information Technology holds an 8% stake in Unitree, making it the second-largest shareholder, after Wang Xingxing's 27%. Wang Xing and Meituan's extensive investments in the robot sector over the past three years have become hot topics in the industry.

Public data shows that Meituan has invested in 30 robot and related companies in just the past three years, including many leading enterprises in various sub-sectors, essentially buying half of the robot sector. This successful investment in Unitree has once again brought Wang Xing the hottest player in the sector. Wang Xing's investment in Wang Xingxing has also become a recent hot topic.

How impressive is Unitree to attract investments from industry giants like Lei Jun and Wang Xing?

1

Competing with Boston Dynamics

Before Unitree emerged, Boston Dynamics was the top dog in the robotics industry. Founded by Marc Raibert in 1992 at MIT, Boston Dynamics focuses on developing highly complex robots, including humanoid and quadruped robots. In 2004, Boston Dynamics developed its first quadruped robot to enter the real world from the lab – the robot dog that became a global sensation and the undeniable industry leader at the time.

With the participation of numerous capital forces, Boston Dynamics was first acquired by Google X in 2013, then by SoftBank Group in 2017, and finally by Hyundai Motor of South Korea in December 2020. It has changed hands several times and is no longer as prominent. The main reason is Unitree's comprehensive surpassing of Boston Dynamics due to its price advantage.

Over a decade ago, Boston Dynamics' robot dogs had a minimum price of over 2 million yuan. After years of development, their current products still cost over 500,000 yuan. The high price deters many people. However, Unitree's robot dogs are priced as low as 20,000 yuan or even a few thousand yuan.

Public data shows that Unitree holds a 70% market share in the global quadruped robot market, meaning that 7 out of every 10 quadruped robots worldwide are manufactured by Unitree. Boston Dynamics' market share is less than 1%, and Unitree's sales volume is 10 times that of Boston Dynamics.

On December 23, 2024, Unitree released a demonstration video of its latest robot dog product, B2-W, causing a sensation globally. Many foreign netizens praised it, expressing awe at China's technological prowess. The video even attracted the attention of tech tycoon Elon Musk, who not only liked and shared the video but also commented that "future wars will be fought by drones," believing that Unitree's products are far ahead of Boston Dynamics.

Boston Dynamics' AI Institute even recently purchased Unitree robots to test their capabilities. What puzzles Boston Dynamics even more is how Unitree achieves such extreme cost compression. Chinese tech enterprises have truly transformed from catch-up players to overtakers.

2

An Impressive Investment Lineup

Unitree's excellent performance has attracted numerous capital investments. However, Wang Xingxing's entrepreneurial journey was not smooth sailing. Born in 1990, Wang Xingxing graduated from the School of Mechanical and Automatic Control at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University with a major in Mechatronics. Due to his excellent performance in science but poor performance in English, he ultimately only gained admission to Shanghai University for his master's degree.

During his student years, Wang Xingxing created his first quadruped robot, XDog, in 2013. In 2015, he participated in a startup competition with XDog and won the second prize, which was 80,000 yuan. In June 2016, Wang Xingxing briefly worked at DJI, and in August of the same year, he left to found Unitree, using that prize money as his startup capital. Among the impressive investment lineup, Wang Xingxing is most grateful to Yin Fangming, Zhang Peng from GeekPark, and Lei Jun from Xiaomi.

Compared to Zhang Peng and Lei Jun, Wang Xing was not an early investor who recognized Wang Xingxing's potential.

In August 2016, Unitree was founded with Wang Xingxing self-financing 100,000 yuan. Shortly after, Unitree completed its angel round of funding, with Yin Fangming as the sole angel investor, investing 2 million yuan and holding a 15% stake.

Like many startups, the biggest challenge in the early stages was funding. Yin Fangming's 2 million yuan only lasted less than a year. With funds running out, Wang Xingxing began seeking investments everywhere. This led to Zhang Peng organizing a tea gathering in 2017 with industry giants like Lei Jun, Wang Xing, Zhou Yuan, and Su Hua. The initial intention of the tea gathering was for Zhang Peng to help Wang Xingxing secure investments. At that time, Wang Xingxing was somewhat inexperienced and nervous, and his hands looked unnatural in photos.

Zhang Peng from GeekPark saw the potential in Wang Xingxing and his XDog. At the tea gathering, he specially asked Wang Xingxing to present his startup project. In 2018, Zhang Peng led an investment in Unitree, helping Wang Xingxing survive when salaries couldn't be paid. In 2018, Unitree resumed normal shipments, revitalizing the entire production line. In 2021, Lei Jun's Shunwei Capital entered, followed by Wang Xing, who had previously overlooked Wang Xingxing.

The most unfortunate case is that of Yin Fangming, Unitree's early and only angel investor, who became the "most regrettable" investor. In August 2020, Yin Fangming chose to exit, even though he earned tens of millions, a return of up to five times, but missed out on hundreds of times the return. Based on Unitree's current financing and valuation, the next round of financing will value the company at no less than 20 billion yuan.

Unlike Yin Fangming's exit and Wang Xing's hesitation, Lei Jun favors Unitree. In July 2021, Shunwei Capital led Unitree's A round of funding with tens of millions of dollars. In April 2022, Shunwei Capital led Unitree's B+ round of funding. According to the latest shareholder structure, Shunwei Capital holds a 4.93% stake, making it the fifth-largest shareholder. Meituan and Sequoia China hold 8% and 6.91% stakes, respectively. However, Wang Xing entered the game late and paid a much higher price than Lei Jun.

3

iFLYTEK and Meituan Behind Unitree

On January 8, 2025, at the iFLYTEK AI Service Market Industry Partner Ecosystem Conference, Unitree won the "Annual Best Strategic Partner Award." This revealed Unitree's collaboration with China's leading AI model players.

It is reported that iFLYTEK and Unitree maintain close cooperation in the fields of AI and robotics. By collaborating with Unitree, iFLYTEK applies its AI technology to robot dogs, particularly in perception and motion intelligence, jointly promoting the development of intelligent services. This cooperation not only drives the development of each other's technologies but also provides users with a more intelligent product experience.

Specific areas of cooperation include AI design and software-hardware integration. In AI design, iFLYTEK applies its AI technology to Unitree's robot dogs, particularly in perception and motion intelligence, enhancing their intelligence level. In software-hardware integration, iFLYTEK provides a multimodal perception interaction through its robot superbrain platform and a large model robot brain, collaborating with Unitree to build new robot interaction methods.

Wang Xing's recognition of Wang Xingxing is part of Meituan's strategic layout. As a labor-intensive industry, Meituan has been exploring the fields of drones and robots. In recent years, Meituan has made significant investments in robotics companies, totaling about a hundred times in the past eight years. After 2021, Meituan's investment frequency increased, showing Wang Xing's preference for robots.

Meituan's investments in these robotics companies are not minor stakes but substantial, often making it a major shareholder in multiple enterprises. For example, Meituan holds shares in Galaxy General Robotics and Unitree.

BT Finance reviewed Meituan's early investments, which were mainly in upstream and downstream enterprises related to life services, such as Yijiupi and Beyondsoft, to strengthen its moat. However, in 2021, Meituan's investments began to focus on high-tech areas like robots and large models. Currently, Meituan has invested in over 30 robotics and related upstream and downstream companies, including many leading enterprises in various sub-sectors.

From 2020 to 2022, the market witnessed a surge in demand for digitization and automation, stimulating the market in the short term. In September 2021, Wang Xing first proposed the strategy of "Retail + Technology," elevating retail to a higher strategic level, no longer focusing on the "Food + Platform" centered around food. Meituan's investments have also shifted from "Food + Platform" to "Retail + Technology."

Now, Meituan's unmanned delivery has become a major highlight and moat. Many of its robot investments may bring revolutionary changes to the labor-intensive Meituan in the future. After all, delivery riders require social security and salaries, while robots are a one-time investment.

Unitree's rise is supported by many industry giants and is inevitable for the development of the industry. The changes brought by Wang Xingxing's robots are gradually becoming apparent. Robots and robot dogs have a far-reaching impact on labor-intensive sectors, with robot dogs replacing porters on Mount Tai as a prime example.

Recently, many tourists climbing Mount Tai witnessed an amazing scene: robot dogs with titanium alloy spines carrying 60 kg of supplies were preparing for a two-hour journey to the summit. This is perhaps the significance of human technological progress, where humans inherit the will of porters, while robot dogs shoulder their labor.

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