(Yicai) Nov. 20 -- Chinese humanoid robot manufacturer and embodied intelligence developer Robotera has secured almost CNY1 billion (USD140.5 million) in its third funding round in just over a year, led by Geely Capital, the investment arm of auto giant Geely Holding Group.

Other participants in the A+ round include BAIC Capital, a subsidiary of Beijing-based automaker BAIC Group, as well as two state-backed funds, namely the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund and the Beijing Robotics Industry Development Investment Fund, Robotera said today.

This round of financing will accelerate the technological iteration and real-world application of Robotera's end-to-end Vision-Language-Action embodied intelligence model, ERA-42. The involvement of Hangzhou-based Geely and BAIC will open up further opportunities to apply the technology across their industrial ecosystems, Robotera said.

ERA-42 is already being deployed in robots across a number of scenarios within logistics, manufacturing and commercial services. In the logistics sector, the robots can sort and scan packages. In manufacturing, they handle component picking, assembly and quality checks. While in commercial settings, they can clean stores, deliver items and guide visitors, Robotera said.

Robotera has now held three funding rounds in just over a year, raising a total of CNY1.8 billion (USD253 million). Last October, the Beijing-based company closed a CNY300 million (USD42.2 million) pre-A funding round led by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding as well as venture capital firms Crystal Stream Capital and Vision Capital.

And in July, Robotera, which was founded in August 2023 by a research team from the prestigious Tsinghua University, raised another CNY500 million (USD70.3 million) in an A round. This was led by CDH Venture and Growth Capital, a subsidiary of asset management company CDH Investments, as well as Haier Capital, the investment arm of home appliance giant Haier Group.

Since the beginning of the year, Robotera has been scaling up its commercial rollout, with total orders exceeding CNY500 million (USD70.2 million). Overseas business now accounts for half of this figure, and the company has a strong presence in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Japan and South Korea, it added.

In addition to Geely and Qingdao-based Haier, Robotera's industrial partners include French automaker Renault, Chinese logistics firm SF Holding, home appliance maker TCL Group and IT giant Lenovo Group, the company said.

Editor: Kim Taylor