E-commerce and Finance Roundup: Unitree Robotics Sees 8,734 Shares Abandoned in IPO; Former Head of ByteDance's Robotics Division Joins Xiaomi

[Ebrun Original] Unitree Robotics sees 8,734 shares abandoned in IPO; FaceWall Intelligence kicks off IPO process; Zhangxue Motorcycle secures exclusive new round of investment from Sequoia China; former head of ByteDance's robotics division joins Xiaomi.

Capital Highlights

1 Unitree Robotics: 8,734 shares abandoned by investors

Unitree Robotics announced on August 14 that online investors subscribed for 9,698,266 shares, while 8,734 shares were left unsubscribed by online investors. Offline investors subscribed for all 22,650,148 allocated shares with zero abandoned subscriptions. All unsubscribed shares from online and offline tranches will be fully underwritten by the sponsor (lead underwriter). The sponsor will underwrite 8,734 shares, valued at RMB 1,317,087.20, accounting for approximately 0.03% of the total offering size after deducting the final strategic placement portion, and 0.02% of the total issuance scale.

On August 11, Unitree Robotics announced a total of 19,414 winning allotment numbers, with each winning number eligible to subscribe for 500 A-shares of the company. The IPO price for Unitree's STAR Market listing is RMB 150.80 per share, meaning a winning allotment of 500 shares requires a subscription payment of RMB 75,400.

2 Liang Wenfeng secures largest private fund allotment in Unitree Robotics IPO, with net worth up over RMB 130 billion this year

Following his participation in Changxin Technology's IPO, private funds under Liang Wenfeng have again subscribed for new shares of Unitree Robotics, securing the largest allotment among private fund managers. A total of 2,839 products from 135 private fund firms received offline allotments for Unitree's offering, with a total allocated value of RMB 4.299 billion. Among them, 198 products under Liang's Ningbo Magic Square Quant and Zhejiang Jiuzhang Asset Management received a combined 258,200 shares, worth approximately RMB 38.9374 million, the highest number of allotments among all private fund institutions by number of allocation recipients. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of July 15, Liang Wenfeng's net worth reached USD 36 billion (approximately RMB 244 billion), ranking 63rd globally. His wealth has increased by USD 19.9 billion (approximately RMB 134.2 billion) so far this year, a growth rate of over 120%. (Source: National Business Daily)

3 FaceWall Intelligence launches IPO process

According to a disclosure on the China Securities Regulatory Commission website, Beijing FaceWall Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd. filed for IPO tutoring registration with the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau on August 11, 2026, in preparation for an initial public offering and listing. CITIC Securities will act as the tutoring institution. The tutoring filing report shows the company has no controlling shareholder, with its largest shareholder being Beijing Qingyu Qihang Technology Center (Limited Partnership) holding a 16.45% stake.

4 Lin Junyang founds AI firm Pragmatic Technologies, with angel round valuing the company at USD 2 billion

On August 12, Lin Junyang, former head of technology at Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen, announced he has founded a new company called Pragmatic Technologies in Shanghai, focusing on next-generation agents that bridge the digital and physical worlds. He also revealed that Gaorong Capital and HSG (Sequoia China) co-led the financing round, with participation from Tencent and Shanghai Future Industry Fund. Sources familiar with the matter confirmed that the financing round mentioned is the company's angel round, valuing Pragmatic Technologies at USD 2 billion. According to previous reports, Lin Junyang, born in 1993, was once the youngest P10-level technical expert at Alibaba. He is known as one of the "Four Founding Pillars of Foundation Models" along with Tang Jie, founder of Zhipu AI; Yang Zhilin, founder of Moonshot AI (Kimi); and Yao Shunyu, chief AI scientist at Tencent. Lin announced his departure from Alibaba in March this year to launch his own venture. (Sources: Securities Times, Yicai Global)

AI Frontiers

1 DeepSeek V4 Pro official version launched

In the early hours of August 13, DeepSeek updated its API documentation on its official website, with the DeepSeek V4 Pro model updated to DeepSeek-V4-Pro-0813, available for developers to call via API. This marks the official launch of both the Flash and Pro versions of DeepSeek V4. The documentation shows that the official V4 Pro still supports 1M context window and a maximum output length of 384K, priced at RMB 3 per million input tokens and RMB 6 per million output tokens, with cached input priced at RMB 0.025 per million tokens. According to previous reports, DeepSeek launched the official V4 Flash version at the end of July, which delivered significantly enhanced agent capabilities and quickly topped the global token call volume rankings. (Source: LanJing News)

2 DeepSeek announces pricing adjustment plan, off-peak prices at half of peak rates, effective August 17

On August 13, DeepSeek officially announced it will update the pricing of its DeepSeek API, adopting peak-valley pricing where off-peak prices are half of peak-hour rates. Peak hours are 9:00-12:00 and 14:00-18:00 Beijing time, with all other hours classified as off-peak. The new pricing will take effect at 00:00 Beijing time on August 17, 2026. (Source: China Economic Net)

3 Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen Open Platform launches, enabling conversational services for renting housing/cars, sending parcels and more

On August 10, the Tongyi Qianwen Open Platform was launched, opening access to ecosystem partners and developers for three types of terminals: mobile phones, PCs and AI glasses. The first batch of partners covers more than 10 sectors including logistics, real estate, local life, wealth management and automotive. Through the open platform, third parties can build AI agents that operate as independent conversation spaces, providing users with a full service chain from consultation and recommendation to fulfillment within the Tongyi Qianwen app. (Source: IT Home)

4 "Qianwen AI Arena" launched! First task focuses on cross-border e-commerce

Alibaba announced on August 12 that its Qianwen AI platform has launched the "Qianwen AI Arena", a challenge and evaluation platform for AI agents that generates challenge tasks from real business scenarios. The platform provides developers with models, operating environments and evaluation capabilities, soliciting and validating agent solutions that solve real-world problems. The first task, co-initiated by the Qianwen AI Platform and Aidge, focuses on cross-border e-commerce product listing scenarios. (Source: IT Home)

5 Manus to resume independent operations

On August 11, Manus released *A Letter to Manus Users*, stating that it will soon resume operations as an independent company. As part of the resumption of independent operations and to comply with regulatory requirements in specific jurisdictions, data generated by some users on or after December 29, 2025 will be deleted between 08:00 August 23 and August 24, 2026 (Singapore Time, SGT). Affected users can back up their data from now until 07:59 August 23, 2026 (SGT), and data access will be restored for these users from 08:00 August 25, 2026 (SGT). During this period, unaffected users can continue using Manus services as usual without any action required. (Source: Interface News)

6 Unitree's humanoid robot cumulative production reaches approximately 18,000 units

On August 12, Unitree Robotics announced that cumulative production of its humanoid robots has reached approximately 18,000 units. This figure only includes bionic bipedal humanoid robots, excluding other humanoid-like robots or humanoid robots with wheeled chassis. (Source: Phoenix Tech)

Investment Opportunities

1 "IO-AI Tech" completes RMB hundreds of millions in financing

IO-AI Tech, a robotics and embodied intelligence data infrastructure provider, announced it has completed a financing round worth several hundred million yuan. The round was co-led by Shunwei Capital, Pineone Partners and Shenzhen Venture Capital Group, with strategic investment from leading robot body manufacturers. The funds will be used for three key areas: increasing investment in core product R&D, building a diversified R&D team, and accelerating global market expansion to improve large-scale application capabilities of robots.

2 Deep Sea Intelligent completes over RMB 500 million in Series A financing

Deep-sea robotics firm Deep Sea Intelligent announced it has completed a Series A financing round of over RMB 500 million. New investors include Photosynthetic Ventures, Fortune Capital, GGV Capital, Addor Capital, China Insurance Investment, CETC Investment, and the Energy Technology Fund managed by Cathay Capital with TotalEnergies as the capital contributor. Existing shareholders including Zhenxuan Investment, Yunze Capital, Yunshi Capital, Gao Jie Capital and Xingzhi Capital also participated in the round with large follow-on investments.

3 Neuron Intelligence completes RMB 500 million in angel+ round financing

On August 10, consumer-grade embodied intelligence large model firm Neuron Intelligence announced it has completed a single RMB 500 million angel+ round financing. The round was led by Matrix Partners, with participation from Redpoint Ventures, SenseTime Guoxiang Capital, Walden International and L2F Light Source Founders Fund. The funds will be primarily allocated to R&D of more generalized embodied large models, continuous iteration of the GLOW generative world model, and acceleration of product validation and mass production.

4 Westlake Robotics completes over RMB 100 million in Series A financing

Westlake Robotics Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. announced it has recently completed a Series A financing round of over RMB 100 million, led by Haiyuan Fund. The funds will be used for technical breakthroughs in unified large models for humanoid robots, iterative upgrades of its self-developed general brain, and refinement of the GAE avatar system, among other uses. Headquartered in Hangzhou, Westlake Robotics is a leading domestic developer of general brain and cerebellum systems for robots. It has previously completed multiple financing rounds, with investors including SAIF Partners, Xiaomiao Langcheng, and Henan Investment Group Huirong Fund.

5 Dimon Robotics announces completion of RMB hundreds of millions in financing led by Ant Group

On August 11, Dimon Robotics announced it has completed a financing round worth several hundred million yuan, led by Ant Group, with existing shareholders participating with additional oversubscribed investments. In the past two months, Dimon has consecutively completed a RMB 100 million Series A round and a several hundred million yuan strategic financing round, with previous investors including Inovance Industry Investment, China Mobile Chain Leader Fund, Lenovo Ventures, China Merchants Venture Capital, and China Telecom. Founded from a research team at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Dimon Robotics officially began operations in 2023, with headquarters in Shenzhen and a R&D center in Hong Kong. It aims to build a full-stack physical AI system integrating tactile perception, data and models.

6 Morph Intelligence completes Series A financing

On August 10, Morph Intelligence, known as the "Token Super Factory", announced it has completed a Series A financing round. The round was led by Addor Capital, with participation from multiple strategic resource providers, including Chengyuanxiang Investment, Hongshan Capital, Ruifeng Capital, Nantong Chankong Siyuan Artificial Intelligence Fund (co-founded by Nantong Industry Control Group and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Hanyuan Asset), and Haojun Investment. Existing shareholders including Delta Capital and Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Venture Fund also continued to participate. The funds will be used to advance technological iteration and commercialization of computing infrastructure.

7 Zhangxue Motorcycle secures exclusive new round of investment from Sequoia China, revenue expected to more than triple this year

Zhangxue Motorcycle recently received an exclusive investment from Sequoia China, with specific transaction terms not disclosed. The company generated RMB 670 million in revenue last year, and is expected to reach RMB 2-2.5 billion this year, representing more than 200% year-on-year growth. Its monthly production capacity has exceeded 10,000 units. Following the financing, the two parties will carry out in-depth cooperation around corporate governance, talent development, industrial resources and global expansion. (Source: Caixin)

8 US live commerce platform Whatnot completes Series G financing at USD 20 billion valuation

US live commerce platform Whatnot recently announced the completion of its latest financing round, with a post-money valuation of USD 20 billion, nearly doubling its valuation from less than a year ago. Official data shows the platform adds over 650,000 new users per week, and its gross merchandise value so far this year has exceeded the full-year 2025 figure of USD 8 billion, with the number of buyers doubling year-on-year. The USD 545 million Series G round was led by Iconiq, Lightspeed and Avra. The funds will be used to optimize seller tools, integrate AI technology into more sales processes to help sellers reach more buyers, expand into new markets, and build the world's largest and most trusted transaction marketplace.

Personnel Changes

1 Former head of ByteDance's robotics division joins Xiaomi to lead base model R&D

Multiple independent sources confirmed that Kong Tao, former head of ByteDance's robotics team, has joined Xiaomi and currently serves as head of Xiaomi's robotics base model team. Multiple insiders revealed that Kong joined Xiaomi in the summer of 2025, bringing with him many former ByteDance employees. Xiaomi's robotics division currently has approximately 200 employees. "Xiaomi's robotics base model team operates under high confidentiality. Kong Tao's team has a separate office space. When Xiaomi's senior management holds meetings on Feishu, Kong does not even need to turn on his camera," a source close to Xiaomi's robotics division revealed. Xiaomi's robotics division also operates under strict internal confidentiality protocols. (Source: 21st Century Business Herald)