(Yicai) July 10 -- Chinese robotics companies, including Geek+ and a dozen others, are pursuing listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this year, with a view to securing much-needed funding after the bourse loosened up the initial public offering process for technology firms.

Geek+, the world's largest supplier of warehouse fulfillment robots, became the first robotics company to go public in Hong Kong yesterday. Its stock [HKG: 2590] closed 7.8 percent higher at HKD19.08 (USD2.43) today, after gaining 4.7 percent yesterday.

Twelve other companies in the field are waiting to list in Hong Kong, half of which applied just last month. Four of them -- Roborock Technology, Zhaowei Machinery and Electronics, Fibocom Wireless, and Estun Automation -- are already listed in the Chinese mainland.

The rush to go public reflects efforts to ease operational pressure caused by fierce competition in the industry and to expand the uses for their products, Lu Hanchen, director of the Gaogong Robotics Industry Research Institute, told Yicai.

Lu noted that mobile, industrial, and service robots are no longer considered emerging technologies, so with the market now highly developed, businesses in these segments are facing intense competition.

Most new investment in robotics is going into next-generation tech such as embodied and humanoid robots. As a result, mobile and industrial robot makers are finding it increasingly difficult to secure early-stage funding, while technological progress in these more established categories has also begun to plateau, Lu added.

In the first five months of this year, investment in Chinese robotics startups topped the total for all of last year, according to figures from market research firm IT Juzi. Companies in the sector raised CNY23.2 billion (USD3.2 billion) between them, surpassing the CNY20.9 billion secured in 2024. Eighty-seven percent of that went to firms working on embodied artificial intelligence.

In the industrial robotics sector, price wars have eroded profit margins, Lu said. Estun, for example, saw its gross margin drop to 28.3 percent last year from 32.9 percent in 2022. The decline was largely due to price cuts aimed at retaining key customers, according to its IPO prospectus.

With private funding drying up and ongoing financial losses, many robotics firms are turning to the public markets, Lu pointed out. This not only offers an exit route for early investors but also helps the companies secure much-needed capital to support research and their day-to-day operations, he said.  

The service robot market is also highly competitive, according to Lu. Yunji Technology’s hotel delivery robots, for instance, have hit a growth ceiling, and in order to survive the firm now needs to explore new uses for them such as in commercial cleaning, Lu said. 

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione