蚂蚁18个月投12家人形机器人企业 领投Zeroth5亿融资

This article discloses Ant Group's latest investment expansion into the humanoid robot sector, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Latest financing: In July 2026, humanoid robot startup Zeroth (Suzhou Leyin Intelligence) closed a 500 million yuan pre-Series A round led by Ant Group, with participation from multiple other investors. This brings Zeroth's total cumulative funding to 1 billion yuan.

2. Ant Group's overall layout progress: Over the 18 months since early 2025, Ant has completed 12 investments in the humanoid robot sector, covering full-machine manufacturers, component suppliers, and software startups. Additionally, Ant established an in-house humanoid robot subsidiary at the end of 2024, launched an Alipay version adapted for AI and robotics scenarios, and will follow up with relevant collaborations with its portfolio companies.

3. Zeroth's business progress: Zeroth currently focuses on home-use humanoid robots for elder care and pet companionship, with cumulative orders exceeding 30,000 units. Its revenue in the first half of 2026 grew 600% year-over-year. The company plans to launch products for children's education, and will expand to European and North American markets in fall 2026 after completing local compliance reviews.

This article provides multi-dimensional insights for brands looking to enter the humanoid robot sector, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Consumer trends: The domestic humanoid robot sector is gaining growing attention, and home use is a clearly defined entry point for commercialization. Elder care companionship, pet companionship, and children's education are all C-end demand directions that have been initially validated, with relatively high market acceptance.

2. Layout strategy reference: Leading tech firm Ant Group has adopted an "investment + in-house R&D + ecosystem collaboration" layout strategy. It has invested in 12 companies across all upstream and downstream segments over 18 months, while developing in-house products and adapting ecosystem for use cases, creating synergies with its portfolio brands. This model serves as a valuable reference for other brands.

3. Market expansion reference: Zeroth achieved over 30,000 cumulative orders and 600% year-over-year revenue growth in the first half of 2026 just over a year after its founding, validating the demand feasibility of home-use scenarios. Expanding to European and North American markets after validating product-market fit in China is a replicable growth path.

This article provides sector opportunity and operational insights for humanoid robot and related hardware sellers, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Sector growth opportunity: Humanoid robots are a high-growth sector widely endorsed by the capital market. C-end demand for home-use segmented scenarios has been initially validated, with huge growth potential. Zeroth secured over 30,000 cumulative orders just 18 months after founding, and posted 600% year-over-year revenue growth in H1 2026, far outpacing growth rates of traditional hardware categories.

2. Segmented demand opportunities: Elder care companionship, pet companionship, and children's education are currently clear unmet C-end demands with relatively limited competition, making them ideal entry points for new sellers.

3. Operational expansion reference: After validating the business model in the domestic market, sellers can plan expansion to North American and European markets to unlock new growth. Sellers can also partner with leading players like Ant that have already laid out AI and robotics scenarios to integrate into their ecosystems for resource support and improve competitiveness.

This article provides transformation and business expansion insights for manufacturing factories serving the humanoid robot sector, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Product design and production demand: The core commercialization direction for humanoid robots is currently home-use scenarios, with market demand concentrated on products with elder care, pet companionship and children's education functions. Core components such as chips also see steady incremental demand, and factories can adjust their production and design directions accordingly.

2. New business opportunities: The humanoid robot sector is currently in a period of rapid growth, with massive capital inflow. Ant alone has invested in 12 upstream and downstream startups over 18 months, and a large number of new brands have steady demand for manufacturing and OEM services. Factories can partner with these startup projects to secure new orders.

3. Transformation insights: Humanoid robots are an emerging AI+hardware growth track. Factories can capitalize on the industry boom to advance their own digital upgrades, adapt to new brands' requirements for flexible production and e-commerce-enabled operations, and enter the emerging sector to drive new growth.

This article provides industry trend and business opportunity insights for service providers serving the humanoid robot sector, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Industry development trend: China's humanoid robot sector is currently in the early stage of explosive growth. Leading technology companies are increasingly ramping up布局, capital investment continues to grow, and the sector's overall visibility is steadily rising. A large number of new service demands have emerged across the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, creating broad market space.

2. Core customer pain points: A large number of early-stage humanoid robot startups lack capital support and access to ecosystem resources. At the same time, many are planning to expand overseas and have clear demand for overseas market compliance-related services, as seen in Zeroth's need to complete local compliance reviews before launching sales in Europe and North America.

3. Business layout direction: Service providers can develop targeted offerings for humanoid robot startups, including financing matchmaking, ecosystem resource connection, and outbound compliance consulting, serving clients across full-machine manufacturing, components, software and other segments to capture the sector's growth dividend.

This article provides layout and operational insights for platform operators active in the tech hardware sector, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Industry demand direction: The humanoid robot sector is currently in the pre-boom stage, with a large number of upstream and downstream startups having demands for financing, ecosystem collaboration, and traffic matching. On the scenario side, there is also demand for functional upgrades to adapt to the new sector, as demonstrated by Ant's launch of an Alipay version optimized for AI and robotics scenarios. Platforms can adjust their service offerings accordingly.

2. Recruitment and operations direction: Platforms can allocate more resources to recruit startups in the humanoid robot sector, covering full-machine, component, and software segments. These projects are generally already endorsed by capital and grow very fast: for example, Zeroth achieved over 30,000 orders and 600% revenue growth just over a year after founding, and can bring new traffic to platforms.

3. Risk mitigation reference: While the sector is booming, platforms should proactively address compliance risks, especially compliance review requirements for outbound businesses. Platforms need to update relevant rules in advance to avoid future operational risks.

This article provides the latest industry update materials for humanoid robot industry researchers, with key takeaways as follows:

1. New layout trends among leading players: After aborting its IPO in 2020, Ant Group has continuously expanded into new business lines, ranging from health services to in-house large AI models, and now humanoid robots. It has built an ecosystem layout combining investment and in-house R&D, investing in 12 companies across the industrial chain over 18 months to become a new core leading player in the humanoid robot sector.

2. New trends in go-to-market business models: Leading startups currently adopt a phased commercialization model: they first validate demand by entering home-use scenarios such as elder and pet companionship, then expand into children's education, and finally enter European and North American markets after validating the model domestically. This model has been initially validated and delivered above-expectation growth.

3. New trends in capital participation: Beyond professional investment institutions and technology giants, capital from traditional manufacturing (Geely Capital) and the gaming industry (Sanqi Interactive Entertainment) has also entered the humanoid robot sector, indicating that cross-industry recognition of the sector is growing rapidly.