Although the Chinese humanoid robot track is in the early stage, there have been a number of mergers and acquisitions, and recently ushered in the first merger and acquisition between startups: Stier Technology announced the completion of the strategic acquisition of Zhongqing Technology.
Recently, Stial announced the completion of the strategic acquisition of STFcore, a leading six-dimensional force sensor company in China, and simultaneously released the world's first humanoid robot focusing on polishing scenes, Stial Steven. As of press time, Steele Technology has not officially disclosed specific valuation data.
This M&A case is a precedent for mergers and acquisitions between humanoid robot startups.
With its full-stack self-developed core technology, Stier Technology occupies a leading position in the global AI polishing robot track. Its technical advantages include flexible force control system, AI multi-modal perception technology and advanced flexible grinding algorithm, which makes it widely recognized in high-precision manufacturing fields such as automobile manufacturing, aerospace, and electronic semiconductors.
Different from traditional robot manufacturers, Steele focuses on polishing this segment, and adopts a full-stack self-developed technical path of hardware, software, algorithms, and processes to build a complete technology closed loop. At the same time, in terms of humanoid embodied intelligence and AI vertical large models, Steele also continues to deploy to further promote the application capabilities of robots in complex scenes.
Since its establishment in 2018, STFcore has become a dark horse in the industry with its high-performance six-dimensional force sensor technology, and its products have surpassed the international mainstream level in terms of volume, accuracy and sampling frequency, and are widely used in grinding robots and humanoid robots and other scenarios with extremely high requirements for force feedback. Compared with industry giants such as ME System in Germany and ATI in the United States, Zhongqing Technology's six-dimensional force sensor is not only competitive in performance, but also breaks the monopoly of foreign technology, filling the gap in the domestic high-end force sensor market.
The company's founder and chief force scientist, Chen Xiliang, graduated from the Department of Engineering Mechanics of Tsinghua University and received his Ph.D. in Computational Mechanics from the National University of Singapore. He has a strong academic background in mechanics and robotics, and has a long research experience (Research Fellow, Ph.D.) supervisor at top academic institutions such as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the University of Michigan in the United States, leading a number of innovative research and development of sensors and robotic systems.
Core technology breakthroughs. Through the self-developed "magnetoelectric coupling" technology, Zhongqing Technology has improved the accuracy of the six-dimensional force sensor to ±0.3%FS and the anti-overload capacity of 300%, breaking the monopoly of European and American enterprises and filling the gap in the domestic high-end force sensor market. Through the vertical integration of the force control system, motion algorithm and perception module, Stier has developed a "dynamic force control platform" with a 5 times faster response speed, realizing a full closed-loop control from force perception to motion compensation within 0.1 seconds.
Humanoid robot innovation. Stial Steven uses a bionic joint design to achieve 150° degrees of freedom, combined with digital twin environment modeling technology, to autonomously plan paths in unstructured scenarios. The actual measurement shows that it has reduced the scrap rate of aluminum castings in an auto parts factory in Jiangsu from 8% to 0.3% through haptic feedback, and the equipment utilization rate has increased to 92%. The modular design supports fast switching of end effectors to achieve seamless integration of grinding, assembly and other processes.
Industrial ecological reconstruction. This acquisition promotes the transformation of China's robotics industry from "machine substitution" to "human-machine symbiosis". In the mixed formation mode of a die-casting workshop in Ningbo, three Stial Steven collaborated with workers, and the human-computer interaction efficiency was increased by 40%. According to data from the Institute of Advanced Robotics, flexible solutions will account for 35% in 2023, and the Boston Consulting Group predicts that collaborative robots will account for 35% of the market share in 2030.
Through the closed-loop technology of "perception-decision-execution", Stier builds an industrial intelligent operating system, and its vertical integration model provides the industry with an innovative paradigm of "scenario definition technology". In the future, intelligent robots with environmental perception and autonomous evolution capabilities may become a new benchmark for China's intelligent manufacturing.
In 2020, Xpeng Motors acquired Duo Enough Robotics without disclosing specific valuation data.
In 2021, Pengxing Intelligence was established.
In September 2023, Xpeng Motors acquired the remaining 74.82% stake in Pengxing Intelligent for about US$98.96 million, achieving wholly-owned ownership and an overall valuation of US$132 million.
In October 2023, Zhao Tongyang, the former founder of Pengxing Intelligence, founded Zhongqing Robotics and received 3 rounds of financing within 8 months
Zhongqing Robot has received 3 rounds of financing in 8 months, the picture comes from Whale Zun
On November 1, 2024, after Nanjing Chemical Fiber disclosed its plan to acquire Nanjing Technology, the stock price rose to the limit for 12 consecutive trading days, from 7 yuan/share with a maximum slope of 80° to 27.27 yuan/share, an increase of 390%.
Nanjing Chemical Fiber's share price rose at an 80° slope, up 390%, the picture comes from Xueqiu
Nanjing Chemical Fiber Challenge: The main viscose fiber business has continued to lose money in recent years, and the non-net profit deducted in 2023 will be -199 million yuan, and the operating pressure is greater.
Nanjing process advantages: the leading enterprise in the field of rolling functional components in China, including ball screws, rolling guides, etc.
Acquisition valuation: The valuation is expected to be no more than 1.8 billion yuan. Nanjing Technology's net profit in 2023 will be 76.6652 million yuan, and the net profit in the first half of 2024 will reach 47.9383 million yuan, with strong profitability.
Strategic breakthrough: Through this acquisition, Nanjing Chemical Fiber will shift from the traditional chemical fiber business to the field of high value-added robot core components.
On February 14, 2025, Zhejiang Rongtai announced that it intends to acquire 51% of the equity of Ditz Precision at a valuation of 400 million yuan. Founded in 2008, DIZ Precision focuses on the R&D and production of precision transmission components such as ball screws, planetary roller screws, and linear modules.
In 2023, Ditz Precision's revenue will be about 63.51 million yuan, and its net profit will be 22.48 million yuan.
Since September 2024, Zhejiang Rongtai's share price has risen by 303% unilaterally, and the stock price has hit a record high.
Zhejiang Rongtai's share price rose unilaterally by 303%, the picture comes from Xueqiu
The above three M&A cases have been highly sought after by the capital market!
Referring to the historical M&A cases of the humanoid robot track, after the integration of this M&A, the intrinsic value and financing valuation of STIHL may be greatly improved. The first merger and acquisition between start-up companies also brought new merger and acquisition ideas to the humanoid robot track.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Morning Whistle M&A" (ID: MW-Group), author: Morning Whistle Jun, 36 Krypton is authorized to publish.
The views in this article only represent the author's own, and the 36Kr platform only provides information storage space services.
