The humanoid robot industry is transitioning from prototype demonstrations to real-world industrial scenario deliveries. Another embodied intelligence enterprise with large-scale landed orders has secured a new round of capital support.
On October 26, CASBOT officially disclosed its A++ round financing of hundreds of millions of RMB. This round involved joint investment by multiple institutions, including Zhilai Investment, Yonghua Investment, Maotian Investment, Yuanhe Chenkun, Guoke Kezhi, and Luning Investment, covering market-oriented VCs, fund-of-funds, and hard-tech industrial platforms.
01、Fund Allocation: Prioritizing Mass Production and Scenario-Specific Embodied Brain
The funds raised in this round will be primarily allocated to three directions: accelerating mass production and delivery of complete machines and solutions, iterating the embodied brain algorithm system for industrial scenarios, and expanding the market and engineering delivery teams, thereby continuously transforming laboratory technologies into operational capabilities usable in factories.
CASBOT, spun out of the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was established in August 2023. The company develops full-stack self-researched humanoid robots and embodied intelligence solutions, launching the Lingbao CASBOT product matrix. This includes both the 52-degree-of-freedom full-size humanoid CASBOT01 and the lightweight CASBOT02 model designed for implementation. Its business is anchored in two hardcore scenarios: industrial manufacturing and mining energy, while also deeply participating in the formulation of over ten national industry standards.
Unlike many enterprises that remain at the prototype testing stage, CASBOT has chosen footwear and apparel manufacturing as its core breakthrough point, securing scaled orders that are rare in the industry. In 2025, the company received orders worth tens of millions from several leading shoe manufacturers; in 2026, the backlog of shoe-making robot orders exceeded CNY 400 million, with equipment production scheduling reaching thousands of units. Industrial projects have been implemented in Fujian and Chongqing, forming a replicable industrial landing model and verifying its commercialization capability.
02、Led by CAS PhD Supervisors: From Table Tennis Robots to Production Line Operation Robots
The company's founder, Zhang Zhengtao, is a researcher and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Automation, CAS. He has deep expertise in robot control theory. As early as his doctoral studies in 2007, he researched dynamic trajectory prediction and motion rotation judgment for robots, with a thesis topic focused on robots playing table tennis. The core challenge addressed was solving the perception-motion closed-loop problem in dynamic environments. This technical accumulation continues to underpin current embodied robot products.
The team's R&D foundation leans towards motion control in the real physical world rather than pure large model simulation. They treat industrial factories and underground mines as product testing grounds, refining the robots' perception, force control, and manipulation capabilities under unstructured real-world working conditions.
Summary
In the past, many embodied intelligence projects emphasized model capabilities. By 2026, the evaluation criteria on the industry side have shifted: can they secure real customer orders, and can they achieve batch production and delivery?
CASBOT's financing represents a trend in the sector: humanoid robot companies with strong scientific research institute backgrounds, which simultaneously penetrate industrial scenarios to establish a commercial closed loop, will continue to attract capital preference.
This article is compiled based on public network information, for reference only, and does not constitute investment advice.