Meituan Makes Major Move into AI Robotics with Strategic Investment in Innovative Company
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Meituan has taken new action in the robotics field.
Recently, Beijing Galaxy General Robotics Co., Ltd. (referred to as Galaxy Robotics) completed a Series Angel+ funding round worth hundreds of millions, introducing strategic investors and multiple investment institutions. Among them, Meituan led the strategic investment through Haite Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (Dianping), with follow-up investments from institutions such as Peking University Yanyuan Venture Capital, Tsinghua SEE Fund, and IDG Capital.
This is not Meituan's first move in the robotics field. Several years ago, Meituan began focusing on unmanned delivery vehicles and invested in a batch of autonomous driving and robotics companies.
Galaxy Robotics was established in June 2023. Although its registered capital is only 180,000 yuan, its co-founder Wang He is an assistant professor and doctoral supervisor at Peking University's Frontier Computing Research Center, as well as the head of the Embodied Large Model at Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence.
On June 12, the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI) released a series of multimodal model achievements, namely the WuDao 3.0 large models, establishing its foothold in China's large model domain. Prior to this, Chinese Online also announced a collaboration with BAAI to promote the implementation of IP multimodal applications.
Before Meituan's investment, Galaxy Robotics had already completed its angel round of funding with participation from BlueRun Ventures, Source Code Capital, Matrix Partners, iFlytek, and SenseTime.
Despite being less than six months old and having no products, why has Galaxy Robotics attracted so much attention from VCs and major companies? A Beijing-based investor told reporters, "Haidian District, where BAAI is located, is home to Tsinghua University, Peking University, and the Institute for General Artificial Intelligence, among other AI research institutions. Many of China's large model developments originate here. On the other hand, startup projects by professors from universities or research institutes are also the most favored cases for investors."
For example, DeepLang Technology, invested by Sequoia, Tencent, and the Tsinghua Alumni Fund, was incubated by the Tsinghua Natural Language Processing Laboratory (THUNLP) and BAAI. Zhipu AI, in which Meituan has invested, has its core co-founder Tang Jie, who is also the leader of the Knowledge Engineering Group (KEG) at Tsinghua University's Department of Computer Science, the academic vice president of BAAI, and the head of the WuDao project. Yang Zhilin of Moonshot AI (formerly known as Recurrent AI) is also an assistant professor at Tsinghua University...
The market generally recognizes that in this year's wave of large model startups, Tsinghua-affiliated teams and the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI) have emerged as the biggest winners.
Galaxy Robotics, which recently received strategic investment from Meituan, has demonstrated some innovations in the field of large models.
An investor focusing on the robotics sector told reporters that the combination of large models and machines has ushered in more advanced robots. "The most distinctive feature that differentiates robots from mechanical equipment is 'intelligence.' Without breakthroughs in intelligence, robots would be fundamentally no different from ordinary automated equipment."
"Currently, robotics companies are researching how to use large models to solve problems in various scenarios, such as automatically generating action logic," the investor explained. "This includes visual generation on one hand - using 3D models to automatically generate robot work trajectories, and on the other hand leveraging natural language to enable robots to understand and generate corresponding programming languages for their work paths."
Wang He, CTO of Galaxy General Robots, stated that they aim to integrate 3D vision-driven generalized perception and manipulation capabilities into robots. Leveraging China's manufacturing advantages, the company plans to produce low-cost, versatile dual-arm mobile robots to advance the development of embodied multimodal big data.
Meituan's investment in Galaxy Robots represents another step forward in its robotics strategy. The company first entered the robotics field in 2018 with the acquisition of a drone company and an investment in an IoT sensor company, though both projects remained relatively unknown.
Since 2020, Meituan has accelerated its investments in robotics. It has invested in companies like Pudu Robotics, Gaoxian Robotics, and Flexiv Technology, a general-purpose intelligent robotics firm. Later, platform-based robotics companies like InnoRobo, industrial robotics firm Mech-Mind, and Future Robotics caught Meituan's attention.
Meituan CEO Wang Xing once mentioned that robotics is one of the key verticals for the company's investments. "Robots, as intelligent hardware, are crucial. Driven by various advanced technologies, they can enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and unlock significant potential in life services."
The Galaxy Robotics, in which Meituan has strategically invested, is currently developing a dual-arm + wheeled product. The company plans to launch its first-generation humanoid robot in 2024, deploying it in retail scenarios such as pharmacies and supermarkets. By 2026, the aim is to improve the robot's performance and achieve mass production and sales.
Regarding this investment, sources close to Meituan told reporters that it is simply an investment, with no further details to disclose. However, CEO Wang Xing has previously stated that no matter how exciting a technology may be, it is merely a means, not an end. "The ultimate goal is to 'help people eat better and live better.' Therefore, how we use and perceive technology is what truly matters."