A joint venture established less than a year ago has won two consecutive contracts within four months, with a cumulative value approaching CNY 400 million.
Recently, Zhejiang Zhaofeng Mechanical and Electronic Co., Ltd. announced that its controlled subsidiary, Zhejiang Zhaoju Intelligent Co., Ltd., won the bid for the "Robotics Innovation Service Platform Project," with a winning bid amount of CNY 299.92 million. Just four months prior, this company had secured the Huizhou Humanoid Robot Innovation Center project, valued at approximately CNY 92.27 million.
Zhaoju Intelligent was established in November 2025 with a registered capital of only CNY 10 million. It is held 80% by Zhao Feng Co., Ltd. and 20% by Leju Robotics. How did such a "young" joint venture manage to secure major orders from government and industrial platforms consecutively?
01、Two Orders in Four Months: Who Is Paying?
The tenderer for the Huizhou Humanoid Robot Innovation Center project was "Huizhou Embodied Intelligence Innovation Investment Co., Ltd.," positioning the project as an industrial innovation platform. The recent nearly CNY 300 million "Robotics Innovation Service Platform Project" was procured by Zhejiang Jinyihu Venture Capital Co., Ltd., with a project budget of CNY 350 million, ultimately awarded at CNY 299.92 million.
Both procurement entities are industrial investment platforms backed by local state-owned capital, and the nature of the projects is "innovation service platforms" rather than single equipment purchases. This means it is not about a factory buying a few robots to tighten screws; rather, local governments are building the industrial infrastructure for embodied intelligence—computing power, data, training scenarios, and incubation services—packaged into a single platform project.
Zhaoju Intelligent's ability to undertake such orders relies on the complementary capabilities of its shareholders. Zhao Feng Co., Ltd. is a listed company in the automotive wheel hub bearing sector, possessing mature manufacturing and supply chain management experience. Leju Robotics is a top-tier domestic player in humanoid robots, ranking among the global leaders in humanoid robot shipments in 2025, and is currently aiming for an IPO on the ChiNext board. The combination of manufacturing foundation and robot body capabilities perfectly matches the requirements of "service platform" projects, which need to balance hardware deployment with long-term operations.
02、Order Landscape: Who Is Spending Real Money on Robots?
Zhaoju Intelligent's consecutive wins are a slice of the 2026 robotics industry order boom. Broadening the perspective, publicly disclosed robotics procurement orders over the past year outline a clear "tiered map of payers."
Tier 1: Industrial Manufacturing, the Most Certain Payers.
UBTECH delivered over 1,000 units in 2025, with more than 80% entering industrial scenarios, and total annual orders exceeding CNY 1.4 billion. Automakers such as BYD, Geely, and Audi FAW have purchased its Walker S series for training. Zhi Pingfang signed a three-year order for 1,000 units with HKC, a semiconductor display giant, worth nearly CNY 500 million, covering warehousing logistics, parts assembly, and quality inspection processes. Spirit AI's robots have been deployed in batches on CATL battery PACK production lines, handling critical tasks such as high-voltage test plug insertion.
The commonality of these orders is that ROI can be clearly calculated. With labor shortages in factories and significant yield fluctuations, the business case for replacing human labor with machines balances more easily here than in any other scenario.
Tier 2: Public Utilities and Energy, Driven by Central SOE Bulk Procurement.
State Grid plans to invest CNY 6.8 billion in 2026 for the bulk procurement of approximately 8,500 embodied intelligent devices, covering four major scenarios: power inspection, live-line work, emergency rescue, and warehousing logistics. Among them, the single-category procurement of quadruped inspection robot dogs reached 5,000 units. This is currently the largest single bulk procurement order in the domestic embodied intelligence sector. The significance of central SOE budget backing lies in the fact that embodied intelligence has officially moved from "enterprise pilots" into the procurement channel of "industry standards."
Tier 3: Industrial Service Platforms, A New Variable Led by Local State-Owned Capital.
The two orders won by Zhaoju Intelligent belong to this tier. Unlike factories buying equipment, local state-owned capital is purchasing "innovation service platforms"—essentially using fiscal or state-owned capital budgets to build a regional robotics industrial base. These orders involve large amounts and long cycles but impose higher requirements on suppliers' comprehensive capabilities: they must not only deliver hardware but also participate in platform operations, scenario integration, and ecosystem cultivation.
With a project budget of CNY 350 million in Jinhua and nearly CNY 100 million in Huizhou, the scale exceeds most single-factory robotics procurements. Local state-owned capital is becoming one of the most generous payers in the early stages of the robotics industry.
03、Why Zhaoju?
Returning to Zhaoju Intelligent itself. The value of this joint venture lies in integrating the capabilities of its two shareholders.
In May 2026, Leju Robotics' application for an IPO on the ChiNext board was accepted, planning to raise CNY 2.6 billion, making it the first applicant under the fourth set of listing criteria for the ChiNext board. Its revenue in 2025 was CNY 258 million, with a compound annual growth rate of 118.68% over the past three years. The localization rate of core components increased from less than 5% in 2018 to 95%. The average price of the Kuafu series products dropped from over CNY 410,000 in 2024 to just over CNY 300,000 in 2025, while sales volume multiplied by 18 times.
More critically is mass production capability. In March 2026, Leju completed a ten-thousand-unit level humanoid robot production line in Foshan. This means that when platform-type projects require batch deployment of robots, Leju has the delivery capacity.
On the side of Zhao Feng Co., Ltd., its manufacturing management experience and status as a listed company provide funding and compliance backing for project execution.
Zhaoju Intelligent's consecutive wins are essentially a validation of capability grafting: the listed company provides manufacturing and capital, the robotics company provides technology and products, and local state-owned capital provides scenarios and budgets, with each party taking what they need.
In its announcement, Zhao Feng Co., Ltd. explicitly noted that if the project proceeds smoothly, it will help improve the company's layout in the embodied intelligence industry. However, the delivery content, acceptance standards, and payment schedule for the Robotics Innovation Service Platform Project have not yet been disclosed. For a joint venture established only one year ago, simultaneously advancing both the Huizhou and Jinhua platform projects poses realistic tests for organizational capability and delivery pressure.
This article is compiled based on public online information and is for reference only; it does not constitute investment advice.