(Yicai) Oct. 21 -- One Star Robotics, a Chinese startup formed less than six months ago by the son of carmaker Geely Holding Group's founder Li Shufu, will be disbanded despite securing funding in the hundreds of millions of Chinese yuan, equivalent to tens of millions of US dollars.

One Star Robotics is in the process of dissolving, an insider told Yicai. "Any personnel related to Geely have essentially withdrawn,” the person said.

Observers speculate that its dissolution may reflect disagreements among the founders -- one of whom was Li Xingxing -- and strategic overlap with Geely's unit Afari Technology, which filed to go public in Hong Kong on Oct. 16.

As of press time, One Star Robotics has not commented on the matter.

The company’s WeChat social media account has been deleted, and the Xiaohongshu profile of co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Ding Yan shows him working at One Star Robotics only up to this month.

National Business Daily visited One Star Robotics' office in Hangzhou and reported that items stacked at the entrance remain unopened, while names and logos associated with the firm have been removed, with only a handful of staff still around.

One Star Robotics was set up in May, with Li Xingxing owning almost 66 percent. Legal Representative Pan Yunbin was previously president of Geely's satellite division, while its research and development team includes professors from Fudan University and Tsinghua University, as well as professionals from the internationally renowned FastUMI data collection team.

The startup bagged several hundred million yuan in a seed funding last month from investors such as Baidu Venture and Cowin Capital. It also secured investments from Geely-backed CaoCao Mobility and Zhejiang Geener Microelectronics in August.

One Star Robotics' rapid rise and fall reflect the challenges facing the embodied intelligence sector, according to industry insiders.

Despite a report by the Guangdong Association of Artificial Intelligence Industry predicting that the Chinese market for embodied intelligence will exceed CNY1.25 trillion (USD175.6 billion) by 2027, the sector still faces high investment needs, heavy R&D demands, low returns, and other hurdles, they pointed out.

Scaling production and achieving mass deployment remain major unresolved issues, according to the insiders.

Editor: Martin Kaidev