On May 11, Vbot, a company specializing in embodied intelligence, announced the completion of its Pre-A round of financing, raising nearly 500 million yuan, setting a record for the largest single financing in the current consumer-grade embodied intelligence sector.

This round of investment was jointly led by Oriental Fortune Capital, Huatai Zijin, and Fosun RZ Capital, with participation from SAIC Motor's Shangqi Capital and Minghui Zhiyuan. Existing shareholders, including Cathay Capital, Today Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Yingce Capital, BV Baidu Ventures, and Bairui Capital, all increased their investments.

Along with the financing news, the company also released delivery data. The company announced that the delivery of its first product, the Vbot Super Robot Dog, officially started on May 8. The first batch of 500 products has been completed and rolled off the production line. It is expected that more than 1,500 users will be delivered in May, and the production capacity will be increased to more than 2,500 units in June.

According to co-founder Zhao Zhelun, since the product launch, the total number of orders has exceeded 8,000 units, and the dedicated production line built in cooperation with Huaqin can reach a monthly production capacity of more than 4,000 units when operating at full capacity.

This means that in the current embodied intelligence industry, "mass production" is replacing "technology demonstration" as the most important indicator for capital.

The key milestones for the industry in 2026 will be the delivery of tens of thousands of humanoid robots and the shipment of hundreds of thousands of consumer-grade legged robots. However, most consumer-grade embodied robots are still in the proof-of-concept stage.

VitaPower's ability to establish a closed loop encompassing product design, supply chain management, and omnichannel sales became its core asset in securing substantial financing.

It is understood that VitaPower was jointly founded in December 2024 by Yu Yinan, former vice president of Horizon Robotics, Song Wei, former chief architect of Horizon Robotics' software platform, and Zhao Zhelun, former director of intelligent driving products at Li Auto.

Yu Yinan is a core member of the founding team. He previously led the development and implementation of Horizon Robotics' Journey series of intelligent driving products, achieving mass production of millions of pre-installed units.

This background means that the founding team already has practical experience in promoting the mass production of hardware products from scratch in the enterprise sector, which is not common among current embodied intelligence startups.

In March 2026, Qin Hailong, former chief scientist of Qianli Intelligent Driving, joined VitaPower as vice president of R&D, responsible for the development of world models, spatial intelligence, and humanoid robots. Currently, the company's R&D team has exceeded 100 people, forming a closed loop of full-stack capabilities from product design, structural development, AI algorithms to supply chain management and omni-channel sales.

The composition of investors in this round of financing is noteworthy. Among the lead investors, Orient Capital, Huatai Zijin, and Fosun RZ Capital represent mainstream financial investment institutions; Shangqi Capital, as a platform under SAIC Motor, reflects the intention of industrial capital to position itself in this sector.

Notably, Xu Xin, founder of Capital Today, known for its investments in consumer goods, continued to participate, marking her latest move in the field of embodied intelligence. The full-scale follow-up investment from existing shareholders including Hillhouse Capital, Yingce Capital, and BV Baidu Ventures demonstrates their approval of the team's execution pace.

Thus far, from the seed round to the Pre-A round, VitaPower has completed four rounds of financing in less than a year and a half, raising a total of over 700 million yuan.

However, despite the continued surge in industry financing, the contradiction of "capitalization significantly outpacing commercialization" persists in the embodied intelligence industry. While financing ability is a temporary indicator, whether it can sustainably absorb funds and translate them into real market share remains to be seen.

It is understood that after completing the initial delivery of its consumer-grade quadruped robot, VitaPower has simultaneously launched the research and development of a full-size humanoid robot. The core directions include robot development, a world model integrating hands and feet, and an embodied intelligent operating system based on the Agentic OS architecture. According to Yu Yinan, the humanoid robot prototype is expected to make its debut in August this year.

The company also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with JD.com, and the two parties will cooperate in the field of consumer-grade smart devices in terms of channels and sales, setting a sales target of one million units within three years.

From an industry fundamentals perspective, data disclosed by the China Business Industry Research Institute shows that the size of China's embodied intelligence market will reach approximately 915 billion yuan in 2025, representing a year-on-year increase of 20.4%. The institute predicts that the size of China's embodied intelligence market will reach 1.0904 trillion yuan in 2026.

On the policy front, "embodied intelligence" has been included in the 2026 Government Work Report, and the first "Standard System for Humanoid Robots and Embodied Intelligence (2026 Edition)" has been officially released, providing institutional support for the large-scale development of the industry.

However, the risks facing the industry should not be ignored.

Objectively speaking, the nearly 500 million yuan in funding is sufficient to support VitaPower in ramping up production capacity and educating the market for its first consumer-grade product, and to buy time for its pre-research on humanoid robots.

However, long-term commercial success still depends on whether its robot dog products can maintain a stable monthly sales base in the general public market after leaving the early geek and tech-savvy group, and whether the speed of its supply chain cost optimization can outpace the patience of capital.

In the wave of "AI + hardware", VitaPower has delivered its first mass production report card, but the long-term test of production capacity and business model of embodied intelligence has only just begun.