Hangzhou-based Unitree, China’s biggest humanoid robot company, is seeking a valuation of up to 50 billion yuan ($7bn, £5.2bn) for a planned initial public offering on Shanghai’s technology-focused STAR Market, Reuters reported, citing unnamed people.
The company said last week it was advancing IPO preparations and expected to submit listing application documents in the fourth quarter of this year, suggesting its IPO was planned to arrive relatively soon.
Unitree did not say when it expected to hold the listing itself.
AI enthusiasm
The company did not say how much it is seeking to raise in the IPO, but a company with a valuation of around 50bn yuan would typically have to issue more than 10 percent of its shares in an IPO in China, the report said.
A 50bn yuan valuation would be a sharp jump from the company’s reported 12bn yuan valuation in Unitree’s last fundraising round in July. The company is already profitable, according to Reuters’ sources.
Founder Wang Xingxing said after the July fundraising round that Unitree’s annual revenue had surpassed 1bn yuan.
The IPO comes at a time when investors are pouring billions into AI companies and are viewing robots as a way of translating that technology into physical form.
China’s government views AI and robotics as top priorities and is also offering generous financial backing and a conducive regulatory environment.
Unitree’s domestic offering is seen as a win for China in keeping its large tech “unicorns” in onshore capital markets.
This year the company has secured backers such as China Mobile, Alibaba Group, Ant Group and Tencent, sending its valuation soaring.
It said last week that 65 percent of its revenue last year came from quadruped robots, with 30 percent from humanoid robots and the remainder from component products.
Quadrupeds
About 80 percent of its robot dogs were sold for research, education and consumer use, with the remaining 20 percent for inspection and firefighting.
It said its humanoid robots were all used in the research, education and consumer markets.
Unitree competes with Tesla, which makes the Optimus humanoid robot that is not yet available for sale to the public, and domestic competitors such as UBTech whose robots such as the Walker product line are aimed for use in factories.
China’s robotics industry is expected to grow by 23 percent annually to reach $108bn in 2028 from $47bn last year, boosting the country’s already dominant position in the sector, Morgan Stanley researchers said in a research note in June.
link