Chinese embodied intelligence startup Dexmal has raised almost 1 billion yuan ($140.6 million) from investors, including Alibaba Group and NIO Capital. Separately, Hong Kong-listed DL Holdings Group is becoming the largest institutional shareholder of Youngtimers AG, the operator of APAC-focused asset management firm C Capital.
Alibaba, Nio Capital lead $140.6m deal in Dexmal
Chinese embodied intelligence startup Dexmal has raised almost 1 billion yuan ($140.6 million) across two early-stage funding rounds from investors including Alibaba Group and NIO Capital.
E-commerce giant Alibaba poured “a few hundred million Chinese yuan” into Dexmal as the only investor in its Series A+ round, Dexmal announced on Friday.
NIO Capital led its Series A round, with participation from Hongtai Aplus, Lenovo Capital & Incubator Group, Wuxi Capital Group, and Zing Capital. Existing shareholders Legend Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and Ubiquant Partners doubled down on Dexmal through the deal.
The sizeable financing will see this nascent startup invest heavily in software and hardware technologies to promote the R&D and commercialisation of embodied intelligence.
Founded in March 2025, the startup is led by a team with extensive AI-focused academic backgrounds and over a decade of experience in AI applications, especially in the logistics sector, where their expertise covers the development of smart logistics robots and warehouse automation solutions.
Dexmal has joined a growing list of Chinese embodied intelligence startups, including TARS, Galaxea AI, and EngineAI, with big-cheque financing under their belts.
Funding into privately-held embodied intelligence startups has reached a new high in China as the number of private-market investments in robotics startups more than doubled to 610 in the first three quarters of 2025, compared to just 294 such deals during the same period last year, according to data from IT Juzi.
The fundraising total by these robotics startups in the January-September period reached about 50 billion yuan ($7 billion), approximately 2.5 times that in 9M 2024.
HK-listed DL Holdings to join Youngtimers’ board
Hong Kong-listed DL Holdings Group is poised to become the largest institutional shareholder of Youngtimers AG, a Swiss company that operates an APAC-focused asset management firm, C Capital, whose portfolio companies include the likes of social media app RedNote and logistics service Lalamove.
DL announced on Thursday its plan to subscribe up to $12 million of newly-issued shares in Youngtimers, which is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticker “YTME.”
The transaction, which remains subject to approval by Youngtimers’ shareholders, is expected to be closed this December. Upon its completion, the deal will see DL nominate a representative to the Youngtimers’ board of directors.
Alongside the direct subscription from DL, Youngtimers also announced its plan to raise up to $90 million, structured through debt-to-equity conversion, cash, and equity investments.
“Through this partnership, DL gains direct access to high-quality small and mid-sized enterprises in Switzerland and Europe,” said Andy Chen, chairman of the board of DL Holdings, in a statement. He said that DL’s financial technology DNA and deep understanding of the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong markets will strongly complement Youngtimers’ investment expertise in Europe.
Youngtimers operates, amongst others, C Capital, an asset management platform co-founded in 2017 by Adrian Cheng, the third-generation scion of Hong Kong’s Cheng family.
