A 30 Billion Surge in Two Months: How a Tsinghua-Bred Team from Suzhou Captivated Investors

In just two months, a company based in Suzhou has raised an astonishing 3 billion yuan! The ‘Tsinghua Dream Team’ of post-90s entrepreneurs has captured the attention of investors. What makes them so appealing?

On April 2, it was reported that Xinghai Tu secured 2 billion yuan in its B+ round of financing, just a short while after completing a 1 billion yuan Series B round in February. Over a span of just 50 days, the company has attracted a total of 3 billion yuan in funding, leading to a skyrocketing valuation exceeding 10 billion yuan. Xinghai Tu is continuously breaking records in the field of embodied intelligence, backed by top-tier venture capitalists.

The recent 2 billion yuan financing was led by industrial giants such as Hua Deng Technology and Lens Technology, with additional backing from national funds like Financial Street Capital and Jinpu Investment. Prominent firms such as Shouxin Capital and China International Capital Corporation also joined the investment. Previous investors have included major players like Baidu, Ant Group, miHoYo, Meituan, Hillhouse, IDG, and Today Capital.

So, who is Xinghai Tu, and what sets them apart? Founded in September 2023 in the Suzhou Industrial Park, the company focuses on developing embodied intelligent robots with a concept called “One Brain, Multiple Forms.” This means creating a universal brain for robots that can adapt to different physical bodies, enabling them to perceive, decide, and act like humans in the real world.

Unlike other companies that excel in specific aspects of embodied intelligence, Xinghai Tu boasts comprehensive in-house development across data collection, model construction, robot design, and application scenarios, showcasing a robust full-stack technical capability. This is likely one reason for its strong appeal to investors.

Xinghai Tu is backed by a group of talented individuals, often referred to as the ’90s Tsinghua Dream Team.’ Out of the four founders, three hail from Tsinghua University and possess experience from leading autonomous driving companies. The combination of Tsinghua professors and expertise in intelligent driving is considered top-tier in the industry.

However, while experiencing rapid growth, this unicorn company from Suzhou plans to relocate its registered address to Beijing in 2024, rebranding itself as Xinghai Tu (Beijing) Artificial Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd. This raises an important question: why would a company that grew from nothing to an industry leader in Suzhou choose to move north?

The deeper narrative lies within this geographical shift. Xinghai Tu’s departure isn’t the end of Suzhou’s story; rather, it unexpectedly validates and deepens the city’s irreplaceable value in high-end manufacturing and innovation incubation.

About the Founders: Gao Jiyang, the CEO and one of the founders, was born in 1992 and was accepted into Tsinghua University through a physics competition. He began studying electrical engineering before switching to micro-nano electronics. During his university years, he developed a desire to start a business but initially found the chip industry too challenging. His turning point came during his senior year when he interned at SenseTime, one of the ‘AI Four Little Dragons,’ where he first encountered artificial intelligence. He recognized the potential of machine learning to tackle complex problems traditionally difficult for programming.

After earning his PhD at the University of Southern California in just 3.5 years, Gao Jiyang chose to gain experience in the autonomous driving sector before starting his own venture. He joined Waymo, contributing to the development of their autonomous vehicle brain, VectorNet, and later worked with domestic companies like Momenta.

By 2023, Gao felt it was the right time to establish Xinghai Tu with his fellow co-founders Zhao Xing, Xu Huazhe, and Li Tianwei, all of whom share a strong background in intelligent driving technology. They chose Suzhou for its unique advantages, including a solid manufacturing base and a growing AI ecosystem that could support their vision of combining software and hardware.

Why has Xinghai Tu attracted top investors? The company’s distinct technological approach plays a critical role. It focuses on the synergy between algorithms and hardware rather than just the robot’s appearance. Currently, their flagship products include the R1 Pro and R1 Lite wheeled robotic arms, which have become essential development platforms for leading labs and companies worldwide.

Moreover, Xinghai Tu prioritizes real-world data over simulation data, committing to a higher-cost yet more effective approach. In 2025, they plan to release the world’s largest embodied data set for real-world tasks, along with a foundational model and deployment code, which will be widely utilized by top global institutions.

From a broader perspective, while the departure of a star company might seem like a loss for Suzhou, it brings hidden value to the city. Firstly, Suzhou successfully incubated a leading hard tech company, demonstrating its capability to nurture unicorns.

Secondly, the supply chain relationships Xinghai Tu built during its time in Suzhou will remain, as the company retains a wholly-owned subsidiary there, serving as a core base for R&D and manufacturing. This collaboration will continue to support production and innovation in embodied intelligence hardware.

Lastly, the talent cultivated at Xinghai Tu, primarily composed of highly educated engineers, has the potential to either start new ventures locally or contribute to other tech firms in Suzhou, spreading their expertise and experience throughout the industry.

As Suzhou evolves from simply attracting investments to cultivating a robust ecosystem, the city is positioned to become a hub for artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing. With a solid foundation, a dense supply chain, and an influx of capital and talent, Suzhou is set to nurture the next wave of innovative companies.