Humanoid robot startup LimX Dynamics showcases its product at its offices in Shenzhen, China, on July 3, 2026.
Evelyn Chen | CNBC
BEIJING — Humanoid startup LimX Dynamics is preparing to go public just over four years after it was founded during the pandemic.
Founder Will Chan said, “Listing is essential,” emphasizing the importance of timing. He spoke to reporters Tuesday ahead of the company’s announcement that it had raised $200 million in a pre-IPO round.
Zhang compared the situation to electric car startups in China. Nioh, Spen and lee autowas listed one after another in the United States from 2018 to 2020. “Once the technology matures, if (the company) doesn’t go public, it may disappear like WM Motor,” he said in Mandarin, as translated by CNBC.
Several foreign investors, including UAE-based Stone Venture, Italy-based GGG and Germany-based Redstone VC, participated in LimX’s latest round, valuing the startup at 15 billion yuan ($2.21 billion), according to a press release.
The company said it is already preparing for an IPO, possibly in Hong Kong, and is currently in a confidential review stage.
This urgency is heightened by the fact that China currently has well over 100 humanoid companies, which are the subject of a national push for “body-based AI.”
Reflecting the rapid increase in interest, investment in the sector in the second quarter reached 47.09 billion yuan ($6.95 billion), more than double the first quarter, and more than six times the year-ago period, according to industry data provider Xiniu.
new stage
China swiftly approved humanoid company Unitree’s listing in Shanghai, and Hong Kong is processing applications from more than 500 companies from all sectors.
“Competitive pressures are likely to continue as more industrial and collaborative robot companies may participate in IPOs,” Morgan Stanley said in a report last week, citing sector players DeepRobot and Leju that are seeking to go public soon.
The investment firm predicts that China’s industrial robot market will grow 18% this year, with 50,000 humanoids shipped.
LimX aims to develop fully autonomous commercial service robots. The company announced it is launching a multi-year plan to ship thousands of humanoids to the Middle East and will deliver its entertainment-focused humanoid Luna to customers in South Korea.
For founder Zhang, the technology behind humanoid robots has already crossed the “zero-to-one” line of innovating from scratch. The next barrier to entry, he said, is creating a great product that meets user needs.
Other backers in the latest funding round include Chinese precision parts company Lens Technology, IDG Capital, WestSummit Capital, Nio Capital and Hefei Binhu Industrial Development Group, according to the release.
