Joyance raises 100 million yuan for robots that walk almost like humans

While the Western world holds its breath for the next video from Tesla or Boston Dynamics, a quiet but very expensive revolution is under way in China. Startup Joyance, known in narrow circles as Zhuoyide, has just closed a Pre-A+ funding round of about 100 million yuan. This is not just another piece of venture-capital news but a clear signal: the race for "embodied intelligence" is moving from polished presentations to a phase of hard industrial scaling.

Investors of the caliber of Shanghai Pudong Leading Area Investment and Zhangjiang Science and Technology Venture Capital are not in the habit of throwing capital around for empty promises. They are buying a ticket to a future in which the robot stops being a clumsy manipulator behind a factory fence and becomes a full participant in urban space.

Joyance is betting on high biomimetics. That means its machines should not merely perform tasks, but move and interact with the physical world as naturally as we do.

Why now? For the past couple of years we have marveled at large language models writing poetry and code. But intelligence without a body is just a brain in a jar. For AI to become truly useful in the real economy, it needs "hands" and "legs" that can navigate the chaos of the human environment. Joyance understands that the main problem of today's humanoids lies not only in a lack of computing power, but also in imperfect mechanics and energy efficiency. The money raised will go precisely toward refining the hardware, iterating on the product and building a reliable supply chain.

The round included not only financial funds but also strategic players such as Qingdao Zhenghe Industrial and Xiamen Sunlion Tech. That points directly to Joyance preparing for mass production. When large industrial groups join a project, it signals a shift from lab prototypes to assembly-line production. China's ecosystem lets companies do this faster and, importantly, considerably cheaper than anywhere else in the world. We used to see China as the "factory of the world"; now it is the "lab and factory" in one.

The term "high biomimetics" deserves particular attention. Most current robots look like a heap of servos and plastic, provoking curiosity at best and the "uncanny valley" effect at worst. Joyance, by contrast, aims for machines that replicate the kinematics of the human body with unnerving accuracy. This is critical for working in spaces designed by people and for people: from narrow doorways to staircases with non-standard steps. If a robot moves unnaturally, it is not only less efficient but also triggers subconscious rejection among staff or customers.

The industry's rhetoric is changing, and it is interesting to watch. The word "innovative" now draws a mild yawn, so Joyance and its partners talk about "building an ecosystem" and "market penetration." They are building not just a robot but infrastructure. That includes everything from specialized servos to reinforcement-learning algorithms that keep a robot from falling on a slippery floor. The funds raised will help the company not merely turn out ten more prototypes, but build a delivery and servicing system, without which any technology remains an expensive toy.

What does this mean for the market? Most likely, we will see the first commercially successful humanoids not in the living rooms of California villas, but in warehouses and logistics centers in Shanghai. Joyance is clearly aiming to lead this segment, and 100 million yuan is fuel for its first serious push. China has stopped playing catch-up and started setting its own rules in robotics. While we debate AI ethics, Joyance is building factories.

The key question: will Western companies be able to compete on price with Chinese robots once those reach the global market with mass production already dialed in?