Astribot raises $140M at a $2.1B valuation

The cable-driven humanoid maker closed its fourth round in six months, led by state-backed Toposcend Capital.

Astribot has closed a new round of 1 billion yuan, about $140 million, at a valuation of 15 billion yuan, roughly $2.1 billion, the Shenzhen embodied-AI company announced on October 13. The round was led by Toposcend Capital, the investment unit of Shenzhen Investment Holdings, with Hongtai Fund, the Ninghai Xingtaihe Fund managed by Guanghua Sunshine, Soliton Capital and existing shareholder Xianmu also participating.

It is the company's fourth financing in six months, following A+, A++ and B rounds that began in March 2026. The B series alone totaled more than 1 billion yuan in June at a valuation above 10 billion yuan, meaning Astribot's price tag has climbed by 5 billion yuan in three months — a pace rarely seen even in China's crowded humanoid field.

Astribot says the new funds will go toward iterating its AI models, hiring, commercial deployment, capacity and its three-in-one full-stack architecture combining an AI foundation model, an embodied operating system and a cable-driven robot body. Chief executive Lai Jie described investors as partners backing the company's product roadmap.

The company presents itself as the first to bring cable-driven AI robots into mass production, arguing that rope drives combine sensing, compliance and precise force feedback in a way rigid joints cannot — useful in homes, eldercare and education, where human contact is constant. Like all company claims of industry firsts, that framing awaits independent validation.

Founded in late 2022, Astribot has been moving from models to deliveries: its S-series flagship opened thousand-unit-level orders in September 2025 and its T1 humanoid began shipping in June 2026, with deployments across retail, tourism, industry, research and education.