LumiBot привлёк десятки млн юаней на ловкие руки роботов с визуально-тактильными сенсорами

Chinese startup LumiBot (拾玥科技) has completed an angel funding round of tens of millions of yuan — reported by 36Kr on July 23, 2026. The round was led by a fund managed by Changyou Technology, with two more funds from state investment platforms joining as co-investors; the money will go toward expanding the team, small-batch production, and data collection for dexterous robotic hand control models.

What LumiBot does

LumiBot was founded in early 2025 and develops solutions for precise robotic manipulation in industrial assembly and manufacturing. The company has already released four product lines and is betting on a "full stack" — from hardware to the control model.

• Angel round — tens of millions of yuan, lead investor — a fund managed by Changyou Technology
• Founded — early 2025; focus — industrial assembly and precision operations
• Four lines: Lumi-Dex dexterous hands, Lumi-Tac visual-tactile sensors, the Lumi-Mind model, Lumi-Mod motor modules
• Lumi-Tac sensor — spatial resolution of 10 μm, force control precision of 0.02 N
• Founder — Wu Yuwen, a former Wall Street investor

The team was assembled from alumni of Ant Group and Baidu's autonomous driving division. CTO Song Kaiyou led the training of the Bailing multimodal model at Ant Group.

What sets the technology apart

LumiBot's main distinction is its proprietary visual-tactile sensor, Lumi-Tac: a miniature camera captures the deformation of a gel surface and breaks it down into force, texture, and slippage. This approach delivers spatial resolution of 10 μm and force control precision of 0.02 N — noticeably higher than traditional array-based tactile sensors.

"The academic community sees visual-tactile perception as the future for dexterous hands...

We're the only team among dexterous hand manufacturers with our own visual-tactile solution," — Wu Yuwen, founder of LumiBot, in comments to 36Kr.

LumiBot has also introduced, according to its own data, the world's first micro-joint module with active cooling. It lowers the temperature by more than 50°C and raises continuous no-load operating life to 5,000+ hours, allowing the dexterous hand to work in industrial round-the-clock shifts (24/7). Engineers redesigned the motor layout, freeing up space inside the cramped housing for an air channel.

Why the bet on industry

LumiBot is pursuing two lines by degrees of freedom. The 11-degree-of-freedom hand (the Lumi-Dex-11S model) targets the mass market: small-batch production is already underway, sales launched in June 2026, and projected annual revenue is 20–30 million yuan on shipments of 100–200 units.

The flagship, with 23 active degrees of freedom, is aimed at high-end scenarios; the actively cooled version will launch in October 2026. According to 36Kr, the company has already signed a contract worth millions of yuan with a major industrial customer — the dexterous hands are being tested alongside industrial manipulators in painting operations; partnerships with China Unicom and Sieyuan Electric are also in the works.

The founder notes that for factories, "durability" matters more than "dexterity": the client's main question is how many hours the hand will work before breaking down. It's industrial manipulators, not humanoid robots, that generate the most solvent demand today.

What it means

Dexterous hands are the "last centimeter" for robots' fine operations, and Chinese startups are increasingly closing this gap with their own "hardware + data + model" stack. LumiBot is betting on four product lines and a closed loop of "collection → training → deployment → data return," showing where the practical center of gravity of embodied AI is shifting — toward industrial application.

Frequently asked questions

Who invested in LumiBot?

The angel round of tens of millions of yuan was led by a fund managed by Changyou Technology; two funds from state investment platforms served as co-investors.

When will the flagship actively cooled hand launch?

The version of the dexterous hand with 23 active degrees of freedom and active cooling is expected in October 2026; a variant with hollow-rotor motors is launching in parallel.

How is the visual-tactile sensor better than a conventional one?

According to LumiBot, Lumi-Tac delivers 10 μm resolution and 0.02 N force control precision, and noticeably improves manipulation success rates compared to array-based tactile sensors.