Over 20 Capital Players Join Forces; Meituan, Didi and Other Tech Giants Co-invest in Robot Chip Foundation; Digger Robot Raises $120 Million in Funding

The wave of embodied intelligence is surging, and a capital battle over the underlying infrastructure of robots has already begun.

On March 16, domestic robot hardware and software infrastructure provider Digua Robotics announced the completion of a $120 million Series B1 funding round. This follows their $100 million Series A funding in 2025, and within less than a year, the company has secured additional capital, bringing the total funding to $220 million across two rounds.

The current funding lineup is considered “top-tier”: Synstellation Capital, Didi, Meituan Longzhu, and other leading industry investors have joined, along with strategic investors such as Borui Capital, Jiuyang Family Office, Yongning Gaoxin, BAIC Industry Investment, Jiukun Venture Capital, Xinlian Capital, Yary Capital, and more. Leading financial investors like JinQiu Fund, Xingrui Capital, Chuxin Capital, Gengxin Capital, and Yunbai Capital have also co-invested. Additionally, prominent existing shareholders such as Hillhouse Ventures, Vertex Growth Fund under Temasek Singapore, Linear Capital, Hexuan Capital, Huangpu River Capital, Wuyuan Capital, and Meihua Venture Capital have all participated with oversubscriptions.

Digua Robotics evolved from Horizon Robotics’ robotics division and became independent after a split in the first half of 2024, with its founding team largely remaining intact. CEO Wang Cong was previously head of Horizon’s AIoT and robotics division. Since its inception, the company has not focused on developing robot bodies but instead provides a “bottom-layer toolbox”—including chips, algorithms, and software—for various robots, essentially a robot “operating system + chip” platform. Its main revenue comes from chip sales to consumer electronics clients.

According to incomplete statistics from the Daily Economic News, besides Meituan and Didi, since the beginning of this year, general embodied intelligence companies like Variable Robotics and Qianxun Intelligence have received investments from ByteDance, Yunfeng Capital (Alibaba-affiliated), and others. The participation of over 20 investors, spanning industry giants and financial investors, is extremely rare in the current capital environment.

This investment list reveals a clear industry logic: on the eve of the explosive growth of embodied intelligence, capital is rushing to bet on the foundational infrastructure that could become the “Wintel” (a portmanteau of Windows and Intel, representing a dominant business alliance) of the robot era.

Industry Capital’s “Ambition”: Strategic Positioning

Unlike typical financial funding, Digua Robotics’ current round is characterized by dense industry capital backing. Names like Didi, Meituan Longzhu, BAIC Industry Investment, Xinlian Capital, and Jiuyang Family Office are involved, representing leading players across mobility, local services, automotive manufacturing, chips, and home appliances.

This “industry coalition” is no coincidence.

Didi’s involvement targets future robot applications in mobility and logistics. As the largest mobility platform in China, Didi has already made autonomous driving a core strategy, and robot technology shares the same foundational logic—perception, decision-making, and control. Investing in Digua Robotics indicates Didi’s desire to seize the computing power gateway for future “driverless” mobility scenarios.

Meituan’s intentions are equally clear—ranging from drone delivery to autonomous delivery vehicles, it is already the largest potential user of domestic instant delivery robots. By investing in Digua Robotics, Meituan is not only securing future supply chain safety but also participating in defining the technological standards for the next generation of delivery robots.

Notably, behind JinQiu Fund in Digua Robotics’ funding team is ByteDance. According to the Daily Economic News, ByteDance is one of JinQiu Fund’s many LPs (Limited Partners). JinQiu Fund was founded by Yang Jie, former head of ByteDance’s financial investment division, and its name derives from ByteDance’s first office location, “JinQiu Home.” The core team also includes many from ByteDance’s investment department and other top-tier investment firms and industry companies.

Although ByteDance has previously taken a relatively low-profile approach in the embodied intelligence sector—mainly through indirect investments via JinQiu Fund and related entities—its direct lead investment in Variable Robotics in 2026 marks a shift from behind-the-scenes to front-stage positioning. Investing in Digua Robotics through JinQiu Fund is a key step in building a complete embodied intelligence ecosystem.

BAIC Industry Investment’s support reflects a broader industry perspective—extending from automotive to robotics. In recent years, BAIC Industry Investment has been active in embodied intelligence, investing in star projects like Xinghaitu, Xingdong Jiyuan, Galaxy General, and Zhiyuan Robotics. Automotive manufacturing is the largest application scenario for industrial robots, from smart cars to humanoid robots, with technology stacks accelerating toward integration. BAIC’s continuous investments are based on betting on the “manufacturing of manufacturing”—robots becoming the next-generation smart terminal, with automotive giants needing to control core supply chains.

In contrast, the oversubscription by financial investors like Hillhouse Ventures, Vertex Growth (Temasek), Wuyuan Capital, and Linear Capital represents a different investment logic: betting on the most scarce infrastructure-level companies in a certainty-driven sector.

Entering the Scale Year: Major Companies Betting on the “Foundation” of Embodied Intelligence

Ultimately, the enthusiasm from capital must return to technological strength. Digua Robotics’ technological foundation is closely tied to its major shareholder Horizon Robotics.

As Horizon’s most important strategic partner in robotics, Digua maintains a “shared technology source and strategic synergy” relationship with Horizon. This means Digua inherits Horizon’s proven BPU intelligent computing architecture and Foundation Model capabilities, validated through millions of units in mass production.

According to the Daily Economic News, in terms of market validation, over the past year, Digua Robotics’ shipments increased by 180% year-over-year, and customer numbers grew by 200%. Its Xuri series intelligent computing chips have shipped over 5 million units; in the developer ecosystem, it has served over 100,000 robot developers across more than 20 countries and regions.

It’s noteworthy that the major companies’ investments in Digua Robotics also reflect an upgrade in the investment logic within the embodied intelligence sector—from blindly chasing core body R&D hotspots to focusing on the value of underlying infrastructure.

Previously, the embodied intelligence sector experienced a “heavy on the body, light on the base” investment boom, with massive capital pouring into robot body R&D, leading to severe homogenization. The lack of foundational infrastructure became a bottleneck restricting industry development. As the industry matures and rationalizes, major companies realize that a solid technological foundation is crucial for large-scale deployment. Only by mastering core chips, algorithms, and software systems can they gain an advantage in future industry competition.

Digua Robotics’ vision is to “become the Wintel of the robot era.” In the PC era, the combination of Microsoft + Intel defined the industry’s underlying standards; in the smartphone era, ARM + Android/Apple built the mobile ecosystem; and in the robot era, Digua Robotics hopes to play a similar role.

This vision is entering a critical time window. 2026 is widely regarded as the year humanoid robots transition from “lab prototypes” to “mass production.” Digua’s flagship embodied intelligence high-performance platform S600 has announced it will be officially released in the first quarter, with leading companies like Fourier, Accelerate Evolution, Xingdong Jiyuan, and GAC Group becoming its first global strategic customers. By the first quarter of 2027, Digua will also launch three new chips based on more advanced processes and the latest BPU architecture.

As the underlying infrastructure becomes more complete, the large-scale explosion of the robotics industry may truly be just around the corner.

(Article source: Daily Economic News)