Chinese Robotics Startup Galbot Secures $151 Million Funding Round
Chinese robotics startup Galaxy General Robot Co. — widely recognized as Galbot — has made headlines after raising an impressive $151 million in a funding round spearheaded by battery titan CATL and investment firm Puquan Capital. This latest financial boost brings the total investment in the company to over $330 million since its inception in 2023. Notably, this funding is viewed as part of a broader national strategy to elevate embodied intelligence as a core driver of China’s future industrial competitiveness.
The Vision Behind Galbot
At the helm of Galbot is Professor He Wang from Peking University, whose accolades include training at Stanford. He founded the company to specialize in embodied artificial intelligence, which bestows robots with the capability to perceive and interact with their environments much like humans. This approach holds promise for multiple sectors, including retail, automotive, and industrial applications. Noteworthy investors participating in this funding round include the China Development Bank, its Science and Technology Innovation Fund, the Beijing Robot Industry Fund, and Qiming Venture Partners.
Breakthroughs in Embodied AI
Galbot’s rapid ascent is fueled by several key technological advancements, notably the introduction of the GraspVLA model in January 2025. This groundbreaking system is heralded as the world’s first end-to-end embodied AI model, trained on billions of simulated physical interactions, which enables “zero-shot learning.” Essentially, this means robots can adapt to new tasks without the need for exhaustive retraining.
In practical terms, one of Galbot’s notable innovations is its GroceryVLA model that allows robots to handle a diverse range of items, from delicate jars to soft packaging, adapting in real-time to unpredictable and cluttered environments. A feature highlighted by Nvidia in November 2024 was Galbot’s employment of Nvidia Isaac Sim for training simulations, along with its establishment of DexGraspNet — an extensive dataset consisting of over 1.3 million grasps by a robotic hand interacting with more than 5,000 distinct objects.
Galbot G1: The Store Management Robot
Among Galbot’s offerings is the dual-arm wheeled robot, Galbot G1, currently undergoing testing in unmanned convenience stores across Beijing. Each unit is engineered to autonomously manage inventory, replenish shelves, and execute packaging tasks. Impressively, a single robot can proficiently operate a 50-square-meter store, with installation taking less than a day. With ten pilot locations up and running, Galbot aims to expand this initiative to 100 stores by the end of the year.
Strategic Collaboration with Bosch’s Boyuan Capital
On June 17, Galbot entered into a noteworthy strategic alliance with Bosch China and Boyuan Capital, establishing the Boyin Innovation Alliance. This partnership is set to concentrate on the development of embodied AI robots specifically tailored for industrial applications within automotive and manufacturing contexts. Dr. Ingo Ramesohl, managing partner at Bosch Ventures, emphasized the transformative potential of embodied AI, highlighting the partnership’s capacity to yield commercially viable and scalable robotics solutions with substantial real-world impact.
Innovations in Navigation and Learning
Galbot has also launched a new navigation model, TrackVLA, which excels in visually tracking individuals or pets within complex settings using only voice commands and onboard perception. This capability includes resuming tracking after brief visual obstructions, making it ideal for dynamic environments like hospitals, shopping malls, or airports.
The company’s growth strategy involves a unique integration of simulation-based motor learning with real-world data fine-tuning. This approach enables rapid adaptation as well as enhancement of robot performance in unstructured environments.
Future Directions in Manufacturing
Professor He Wang expresses a future vision where intelligent, adaptive systems learn from real-world data will epitomize manufacturing innovations. Through the partnership with Bosch and Boyuan Capital, Galbot seeks to establish a global value chain centered on embodied AI systems that can radically transform the landscape of smart manufacturing.
With ambitious goals and a series of groundbreaking technologies, Galbot is poised to make an indelible mark not only in the robotics sector but also across various industries reliant on automation and intelligent systems.