Dalu Technology founder Huang Xiaoqing, image source: Visual China
Interface News Reporter | Li BiaoInterface News Editor | Wen Shuqing
In 2025, leveraging the concept of “AI + Embodied Intelligence”, the domestic robotics industry entered a peak period of financing. However, Dalu, a well-established robotics unicorn founded nearly ten years ago, is facing a survival crisis due to interrupted funding.Earlier this month, multiple domestic media outlets reported that Dalu Robotics was in trouble due to a broken capital chain, with significant layoffs occurring across various offices. After the official statement denied rumors of “empty offices” and related bankruptcy claims, it announced a joint venture with Hong Kong-listed company Guohua Group (00370.HK) to establish a new company, Gangzi Robotics.Guohua Group is a publicly listed company in Hong Kong, with its main business spanning multiple fields, including international aviation and maritime freight logistics, securities trading, financing leasing of factories and machinery, and building contracting and property management, with a market capitalization of HKD 1.51 billion. Following the announcement of its collaboration with Dalu to enter the robotics sector, Guohua Group officially announced its name change to “Gangzi Robotics Group”.“This is the best combination of technology and capital.” At a media communication meeting held by the two companies on April 20, Dalu’s founder and CEO Huang Xiaoqing stated that in the new joint venture, Dalu indirectly holds 49% of the shares, responsible for the technology and business of the robotics company, while Guohua Group holds 51% and consolidates financial statements, using the listed company platform to finance the joint venture.As one of the earliest robotics companies in China, Dalu was once highly sought after by investors.Before founding Dalu, Huang Xiaoqing’s career was primarily in the communications field, having co-founded the telecommunications operator UTStarcom in Silicon Valley, USA, and served as the head of the China Mobile Research Institute after returning to China in 2007.In 2015, Huang Xiaoqing left China Mobile to establish Dalu. At the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey, he proposed the concept of a “cloud brain”, advocating for the cognitive system of robots to be placed in the cloud, connecting the robotic hardware through mobile communication networks, with computational tasks assigned to the cloud brain. Robots with physical bodies would only need to act as “hands and feet” and “eyes”, responsible for perception and task execution. Following this design, Dalu launched humanoid robots “Xiao Jiang”, bipedal humanoid robot “Xiao Zi”, and the “Hai Rui” cloud brain software platform.In 2016, SoftBank Group, led by Masayoshi Son, along with Fuji Investment, invested $30 million, marking Dalu’s first seed round investment. In 2017 and 2018, SoftBank continued to invest in the company’s Series A and B rounds. In 2019, Dalu submitted a prospectus to pursue a listing on the NASDAQ, with SoftBank being its largest external shareholder, holding 34.6%. However, the U.S. Department of Commerce halted the process, citing “prohibiting the transfer of its technology and technical information from its U.S. R&D branch back to Beijing”. The company not only failed to go public in the U.S. but was also placed on the U.S. Entity List the following year.After being added to the Entity List, Dalu shifted to domestic capital financing. In July 2023, the company secured its last round of over 1 billion yuan in Series C financing, led by local government-backed funds including Shanghai Kechuang, Shanghai Guosheng Investment, and Ningbo Tongshang Fund. After completing the Series C financing, Dalu’s valuation peaked at nearly 20 billion yuan (approximately $3 billion).“Starting in 2024, our financing has become particularly difficult,” Huang Xiaoqing told reporters from Interface News and other media outlets. One reason is that last year, many humanoid robots flooded into numerous startups, increasing investors’ choices, allowing them to invest in earlier rounds of financing for lower-valued robotics companies, while high-valued unicorns like Dalu, which were later in the financing process, received little attention.Without new investors coming in, Huang Xiaoqing spent last year seeking funds through various channels. Due to being placed on the Entity List, Dalu found it challenging to raise U.S. dollar funds. Domestic financing also faced cold reception; a previously negotiated new investment with an institution was canceled, and he attempted to seek Middle Eastern capital, but the latter often comes with requirements to land projects locally, which fell through. After failing to secure financing in the primary market, the company also considered going public to raise funds in the secondary market. After the previous failed attempt to go public in the U.S., Dalu had plans to pursue a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange around 2023, but ultimately did not materialize.According to a report by Economic Observer on April 18, Dalu once had over 800 employees at its peak, but after mass layoffs in 2024, only over 200 remained by the end of the year. The company’s debts primarily consist of employee unpaid wages and supplier debts, with employee wage arrears amounting to tens of millions and supplier debts in the hundreds of thousands. According to records from the China Execution Information Disclosure Network, after being exposed by employees and suppliers for failing to pay compensation and goods, Dalu has had over a hundred execution records since March 2025, with a total amount exceeding 30 million yuan, and Huang Xiaoqing has also been listed as a restricted consumer by the court.At the media conference for the establishment of the joint venture, Huang Xiaoqing stated that after downsizing its offices, Dalu’s current business and team are mainly distributed in Beijing, Chengdu, and Tianjin, with the Shanghai headquarters and projects in cities like Shenzhen undergoing adjustments due to issues, but contrary to external claims of “empty offices”, the company’s official headquarters remains in Shanghai. Dalu has also signed an important cooperation project with the Tianjin local government for a robotics manufacturing base, which will fully resume production once implemented.When asked about the previous issue of employee wage arrears, he responded that relevant issues are being actively and effectively resolved, stating, “The first thing to solve is the issue of the company’s development and survival, which is to learn to survive first, and then to develop.”In an interview with the aforementioned media, Huang Xiaoqing reflected that his biggest mistake in entrepreneurship was not enabling the company to achieve self-sufficiency quickly and not engaging in truly profitable business. Dalu previously aimed to encompass many categories of robots, creating six product lines (humanoid robots, delivery, inspection, cleaning service robots, special operation scenario robots, smart hardware product line, cloud brain and software product line, and intelligent flexible joint product line), which consumed a lot of funds. After last year’s downsizing, the company has cut five product lines, retaining only the humanoid robot product line.Establishing Gangzi Robotics with Guohua Group is a self-rescue measure for Dalu. According to both parties, on March 6, Dalu and Guohua announced the establishment of Gangzi Robotics through restructuring, completing the reorganization in just 22 days.When asked if there is a possibility of Dalu being acquired after the establishment of the joint venture, Huang Xiaoqing stated that the establishment of Gangzi Robotics means new paths for financing and listing for Dalu, but this cooperation “did not involve any acquisition”. However, he also mentioned, “If there is an acquisition, it is a future possibility”, with the specifics entirely depending on market developments.According to Interface News, as a condition of the cooperation agreement, Dalu promises that Gangzi Robotics will achieve audited revenues of no less than 500 million yuan and 1 billion yuan in 2025 and 2026, respectively.The new company will prioritize the commercialization of robots in the fields of education, healthcare, and elderly care. In the education sector, the company is developing AI teaching assistant robots for primary and secondary school students. Additionally, it is negotiating with leading real estate companies in Hong Kong for cooperation on humanoid robot products for property management, with a contract value of HKD 2 billion. In the future, the company also plans to discuss with healthcare companies to promote the commercialization of humanoid robots in the elderly care sector.
Huang Xiaoqing believes that embodied intelligence and humanoid robots are still in the early stages of industrial development, and the next 1-2 years will be a pioneering period that requires research and funding to develop the market and implement specific applications. It will only be after 2-3 years, with a large number of implemented projects, that the industry’s profitability can emerge. Currently, the company’s products are primarily wheeled robots, and in the future, they will also attempt the commercialization of quadruped robots like robotic dogs, while the commercialization of bipedal robots is expected to take some time to gradually enter the market.
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