Chinese embodied AI startup Galbot has secured 1.1 billion yuan ($153 million) in a fresh funding round co-led by Chinese battery giant CATL and its strategic investment arm Puquan Capital.
The latest round also saw participation of the venture investment arm of state-owned China Development Bank; Beijing Robot Industry Development Investment Fund (wholly-owned by Hong Kong-listed Shoucheng Holdings, which is under state-owned steel producer Shougang Group); and Chinese VC firm Jiyuan Capital, the company said in a statement on Monday.
“This investment is a follow-up to the one in September 2024, further promoting the iteration and upgrading of the investee company’s products, accelerating their application in real-world scenarios and enhancing ecosystem empowerment,” Shoucheng Holdings said in an exchange filing on Monday.
The proceeds will also help drive the acceleration of the commercial closed loop of the domestic embodied intelligence industry, per the filing.
Galbot was founded in May 2023 by Wang He, an assistant professor at China’s prestigious Peking University, where he leads the Embodied Perception and InteraCtion (EPIC) Lab with his research specialty spanning 3D vision, robotics, and machine learning.
The firm engages in the R&D of embodied multimodal large model general-purpose robots. It counts a number of notable investors, including the likes of Lanchi Ventures (previously known as Bluerun Ventures), IDG Capital, and MPC (previously known as Matrix Partners China) in its cap table.
Besides R&D centres in Beijing, Shenzhen, and Suzhou, the Beijing-based firm has also set up a joint laboratory with Peking University (PKU), and a research centre with Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI), for research in embodied AI. Currently, the company has a team of over 80 people specialising in algorithms, software, and hardware development, according to its company website.
Previously, the firm pocketed another 500 million yuan ($69 million) in a strategic funding round in November 2024, shortly after closing its angel round in June.
Galbot’s deal comes at a time when Chinese firms continue to push the boundaries of integrating AI with physical systems. A wave of capital has been piling into firms in embodied intelligence, especially as the segment is mentioned under China’s 2025 Government Work Report, showcasing national support for the sector.
However, Terence Ho, Greater China IPO Leader at consultancy firm EY, told a local news outlet recently that investors are being “overoptimistic” towards the sector, as the path to commercialisation remains uncertain.
In the first half of 2025, China’s Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) sector saw the completion of 49 deals, or around 5.6 billion yuan ($785.3 million) was raised as of June 15, according to data provider ITjuzi. The deal count was 41.5% of the 118 deals recorded in the full year of 2024; while the total deal sum was 15.2% of the 37.1 billion yuan ($5.2 billion).
