Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree has cleared the listing review for its initial public offering (IPO) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. As China accelerates the development of future industries under the banner of technological self-reliance, Unitree plans to raise approximately 900 billion won through the listing to expand research and development (R&D) and production facilities.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange announced that Unitree's IPO on the STAR Market, a board dedicated to science and technology stocks, passed deliberation by the listing review committee on Monday. Unitree had filed its IPO application with the Shanghai exchange on March 20. The company plans to raise approximately 4.202 billion yuan (about 936 billion won) through the offering, to be used for robot R&D and the construction of production facilities.
According to the prospectus, Unitree's first-quarter revenue this year reached 423 million yuan (about 94.2 billion won), up 68.49% from the same period last year. However, considering that the year-on-year growth rate in the previous year had reached 332.64%, the pace of growth is seen as somewhat slowing.
Profitability deteriorated. As R&D investment and sales costs increased, net profit fell 52.55% from a year earlier to 40.25 million yuan (about 9 billion won). The company nevertheless projected that first-half revenue this year would rise 35.62% to 45.41% year-on-year, reaching 1.052 billion to 1.128 billion yuan (about 234.3 billion to 251.2 billion won).
Founded in 2016, Unitree is regarded as a leading company in China's humanoid robot industry. It drew public attention during this year's Lunar New Year special TV program by showcasing martial arts performances more advanced than those of the previous year. Last month, the company announced that its humanoid robot had recorded a sprint speed of 10.1 meters per second.
Chinese authorities have recently focused on lowering financing hurdles for domestic tech firms while pushing the line of "self-reliance in advanced technology." At the end of last month, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), the country's largest DRAM maker, won approval for a STAR Market IPO on the Shanghai exchange, while large language model (LLM) developer MiniMax has formalized preparations for a Shanghai listing.
