Galbot Secures Record-Breaking $150 Million in New Funding, CATL Leads Investment

 

 

Shenzhen, China – Galbot announced on June 23 that it has successfully closed a new funding round, raising an impressive RMB 1.1 billion (approximately $150 million USD). This significant investment not only shatters previous records for a single funding round in the embodied large model sector but also pushes the company's cumulative funding to over RMB 2.4 billion ($330 million USD) in just two years.

 

The latest funding round attracted a roster of top-tier new investors, including CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd.), CATL Capital, CDB Sci-Tech Fund (National Development Bank), Beijing Robotics Industry Investment Fund, and GGV Capital. Existing shareholders, notably Shoucheng Holdings, also significantly increased their investments.

 

Established in May 2023, Galbot previously made headlines a year after its inception with a record-breaking RMB 700 million angel round. The company's rapid ascent highlights the burgeoning interest and investment in the embodied AI sector.

 

Industry observers note that CATL has a prior track record of investing in embodied intelligence companies through its ventures, such as Qianxun Intelligent and Vita Power. Furthermore, CATL has collaborated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University on the research and development of five types of intelligent robots, including humanoid robots. This latest lead investment in Galactic General signals a deepening commitment to the field.

 

source: Galbot

Why CATL is Leading the Charge

 

According to Yahoo Finance (Hong Kong), the global embodied AI market, valued at $1.8 billion last year, is projected to reach $13.8 billion by 2028. From a national strategic perspective, embodied intelligence is a core component of fostering "new quality productive forces" and driving high-quality development in China, aligning with the high-level development requirements recently outlined at the Third Plenum.

 

Embodied AI has officially been elevated to a national strategic priority in China. While Galactic General is a relatively new entrant in the embodied intelligence space and one of NVIDIA's robot partners, its leadership team brings substantial pedigree. The company's founder and CTO, Wang He, born in 1992, is a Tsinghua University alumnus who earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2021 under the tutelage of Professor Leonidas J. Guibas, a member of three U.S. National Academies. After graduating from Stanford, Wang He joined Peking University's Frontier Computing Research Center as an Assistant Professor and Ph.D. supervisor, where he founded the Embodied Perception and Interaction Lab (EPIC Lab).

 

Co-founder Yao Tengzhou also boasts an impressive background, holding a master's degree from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Institute of Robotics, where he was mentored by Professor Wang Tianmiao, honorary director of the Beihang Robot Institute and president of Zhongguancun Intelligent Friends Institute.

 

Advancing Embodied AI Applications

 

Backed by its exceptional founding team, Galactic General has progressively launched end-to-end embodied large models such as GraspVLA and TrackVLA. These models efficiently integrate four core modules—motion, perception, manipulation, and planning—enabling robots to perform diverse tasks in various real-world environments, including industrial manufacturing, commercial unmanned retail, and home services.

 

Galactic General has achieved significant progress in smart retail, industrial applications, and elder care/medical scenarios. In March this year, the company unveiled the world's first humanoid robot smart retail solution. This system features the wheeled dual-arm robot Galbot, which can autonomously manage a 50-square-meter unmanned store 24/7, handling inventory, replenishment, fetching, and packaging for 5,000 product categories, 6,000 product slots, and over 10,000 boxes of goods. A new store can be deployed in just one day. Nearly ten stores are already operational in Beijing, with plans to expand to a hundred stores nationwide within the year.

 

Furthermore, Galactic General continues to expand its collaborations in the automotive industry. On June 17, the company announced the establishment of a joint venture with Boyuan Capital, a subsidiary of the global industrial giant Bosch Group. They also signed a tripartite strategic memorandum with Bosch China and Boyuan Capital, focusing on industrial manufacturing applications to jointly promote the commercialization and global market penetration of embodied intelligent robots.

 

Notably, in the investment announcement, Galactic General emphasized that CATL, as the strategic industry lead investor, will continuously deepen industrial synergy, providing crucial support for the technological implementation and scaled application of Galactic General's embodied intelligent large models in the industrial sector.

 

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The State of China's Embodied AI Industry

 

This year has seen a flurry of publicly listed companies entering the robotics supply chain. For instance, a subsidiary of Joomoo Intelligent established a joint venture with LimX Dynamics, and Great Wall Motors signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Unitree Robotics. The core reason for manufacturing and automotive companies to enter the humanoid robot sector is the high overlap between the humanoid robot supply chain and that of new energy vehicles and 3C consumer electronics. Industry insiders suggest that China's well-developed intelligent manufacturing ecosystem, with its deep accumulation in precision manufacturing, technological integration, and industrial synergy, provides a significant advantage for developing humanoid robots. Xing Zhiqiang, Chief China Economist at Morgan Stanley, also notes that China's concentrated industrial chain advantages lower robot manufacturing costs, with 60 of the world's top 100 humanoid robot companies based in China, demonstrating clear upstream and downstream component and scale advantages. Some industry experts firmly believe that China's humanoid robot industry is poised for "corner overtaking" to lead global development.

 

Featured Chinese Robotics Companies and Applications

Unitree Robotics:

Unitree's quadruped robots are deploying new smart power inspection solutions. Designed for hazardous, urgent, and repetitive tasks, these solutions provide efficient assurance for power system construction and maintenance. Their modular design also supports intelligent reconnaissance applications.

 

UBTECH Robotics:

UBTECH has unveiled a commercial humanoid robot smart exhibition solution. Centered around the Walker C, a full-sized, pure-electric humanoid robot capable of human-like running, the solution integrates self-developed embodied intelligent interactive large models, semantic V-SLAM navigation, and bionic joint control algorithms. This creates a comprehensive "listen, speak, and move" full-stack guidance capability, suitable for widespread application in exhibition halls, shopping malls, and transportation hubs.

 

DOBOT Robotics:

DOBOT's collaborative robots are demonstrating significant human-robot collaboration value across various sectors, with notable examples including:

• Laboratory Automation: Labor Berlin, Europe's largest clinical laboratory, has integrated DOBOT collaborative robots to achieve fully automated sample processing, including sorting, centrifuging, and archiving. This has freed researchers from repetitive labor to focus on data analysis and experimental design. The robots process thousands of samples daily with near-zero error rates, reducing human input by 70%.
• Precision Manufacturing: In automotive electronics production lines, DOBOT's dual-arm robots perform "human-robot relay" tasks. Robots handle repetitive operations like circuit board soldering and screw fastening, while human workers focus on quality inspection and anomaly handling, leading to a 40% efficiency improvement.
• Life Services: DOBOT humanoid robots, leveraging knee-walking technology and dexterous five-fingered hands, are enhancing coffee shop experiences. They autonomously operate coffee machines, arrange dishes, and deliver orders, and even learn latte art patterns based on user habits for personalized service.

 

Conclusion

 

As robots increasingly integrate into laboratories and factories, we are witnessing more than just automated tools; we are seeing a fundamental restructuring of productive relationships. The ultimate significance of intelligent collaborative robots lies in liberating humanity from mechanical labor, allowing us to dedicate ourselves to creation, care, and exploration.