Insider Brief
- UBTech Robotics signed new agreements with FAW-Volkswagen and Xiamen C&D to expand humanoid deployments and sales channels, while Chinese Physical AI companies also reported fresh funding, acquisitions and model releases.
- Funding included several hundred million yuan for Litchibot, more than 100 million yuan for Wuxi Juxie Intelligent Drive Technology and about 100 million yuan for LivSyn Robotics, while LDRobot agreed to buy Germany’s Sabo-Maschinenfabrik for up to €6 million.
- Robotera open-sourced its VPP2 model after ranking first on the RoboDojo manipulation benchmark, while Westlake Robotics released WR1, a model that coordinates humanoid walking, posture and hand movements.
UBTech Robotics signed deals with an automaker and a supply-chain group to put more humanoids to work, leading a stretch of Chinese Physical AI news heavy on sales channels and funding for the parts and software inside robots.
UBTech
UBTech and FAW-Volkswagen will develop and test humanoids for logistics and build demonstration sites in smart manufacturing, according to a UBTech announcement reported by IT Home and Gasgoo. The deal extends work at FAW-Volkswagen’s Qingdao plant, where UBTech’s Walker S Lite has trained on vehicle quality inspection. No robot count, value, timeline or site for the logistics work was given.
UBTech also signed a strategic agreement with Xiamen C&D Inc. (SSE: 600153), according to a C&D announcement. C&D brings sales channels, supply-chain services and finance leasing to put UBTech robots in government exhibition halls, shopping complexes and industrial parks. The partners will also cooperate on after-sales service and overseas markets. Terms were not disclosed.
LDRobot and Sabo
Shenzhen LDRobot Co., maker of Anthbot robot mowers, agreed to buy German lawn-care maker Sabo-Maschinenfabrik for no more than €6M, a €1M purchase price plus up to €5M in new capital, according to a Hong Kong exchange filing. LDRobot wants Sabo’s more than 1,400 European specialist retailers to sell its robot mowers. Sabo’s revenue fell to €18.2M in 2025 from €22.6M in 2024, the filing shows. Closing needs Chinese outbound-investment clearance and a third party’s consent.
“This strategic acquisition of Sabo brings together the Company’s technological innovation strength with a mature European industrial platform,” LDRobot Chairman Vic Zhou said in a Sabo release.
Funding News
Beijing-based Litchibot, also called Liqing Intelligence, raised several hundred million yuan (tens of millions of dollars) across angel and angel-plus rounds, according to RoboRadar. Ant Group invested in both and led the angel-plus, joined by CMC Capital and a CICC Capital fund. The money goes to robot data pipelines, model training, simulation and deployment. Founder Li Yiming is a former Nvidia research scientist.
Wuxi Juxie Intelligent Drive Technology closed a Series A-plus of more than RMB 100M (about $15M) led by Huatai Zijin, with Johnson Electric, Ninebot Capital and X Square Robot joining, according to China Robot Network. The joint-module maker plans capacity of 200,000 sets in 2026 and 1 million in 2027.
LivSyn Robotics raised a Series A of about RMB 100M (about $15M) from Huafang Capital, Daohe Yuanqi, Suwen Electric Energy and an unnamed strategic investor, PEdaily reported. Its RUDA software lets data and skills carry across different robot bodies.
Sensor maker Keli Sensing invested tens of millions of yuan in Lumos Robotics and will build its force and torque sensors into Lumos machines, a Keli release noted. AI model developer ModelBest separately agreed to run its models on Lumos robots while Lumos supplies real-robot data and factory deployments, according to a ModelBest announcement.
Models and Deployments
Robotera open-sourced VPP2, a model that predicts how a robot’s actions will change its surroundings, after it ranked first on the University of Hong Kong-led RoboDojo manipulation benchmark with a 32.26% average success rate, according to a Robotera release. The company noted its humanoids work in more than 10 China Post and SF Express logistics centers.
Westlake Robotics released WR1, a single model that plans a humanoid’s walking, posture and hand work together, according to a company post. Demos show humanoids folding trousers with dexterous hands. No benchmark results were published.
