Fourier's Care-bot bet: rehab-robot leader turns GR-3 into a companion

Fourier Intelligence, founded in 2015 and based in Shanghai's Zhangjiang district, is a general-purpose robotics company whose core rehabilitation robots serve more than 2,000 institutions and hospitals across 40+ countries. Its humanoid line runs from GR-1 (2023) and GR-2 (2024) to the GR-3 Care-bot (2025), plus the open-source Fourier N1 and a doll-sized companion concept.

Full-size humanoids whose tactile, companion-first personality is the product, extending Fourier's rehab-robot base into care scenes before consumer homes

Series E financing totaling nearly ¥800M (about $109M) was announced in January 2025, with Guoxin Investment, Pudong Venture Capital, Zhangjiang Kechuang Investment, Zhang Keyaokun Fund, Saudi Aramco's Prosperity7 and Junshan Capital participating (TMTPost, 36Kr).

Gu Jie founded Fourier in 2015 in Shanghai, and the company released China's first commercial lower-limb exoskeleton in 2017. Its internal general-purpose humanoid project began in 2019; GR-1, launched in 2023, was one of the first humanoids to reach mass production, and GR-2 followed in September 2024 with more dexterity and longer battery life. The rehabilitation business financed the years of development.

In January 2025 Fourier closed its Series E near ¥800M and released Fourier N1, billed as China's first open-source humanoid. On 2025-08-06 in Beijing it unveiled GR-3, its first full-size 'Care-bot': 165 cm tall, 71 kg, 55 degrees of freedom, with a soft-touch shell, tactile interaction, and a dual-path response system that reacts fast to a touch or call and shifts to language-model reasoning for complex conversation. Fourier said the robot would likely cost over ¥200,000 and would be sold to hospitals, nursing homes and enterprises before any consumer-grade version.

GR-3 made its US debut at CES 2026 in January, where Fourier demonstrated dance, live chess play and touch-based interaction; the company also showed a doll-sized companion concept from the same design language. Founder Gu Jie said robots entering family homes would take a long time, but public service, community elder care and reception scenes were mature enough to commercialize now, and GR-3 carries the mission of extending from social companionship into assisted care.

A decade in rehabilitation robots gave Fourier actuators, safety engineering and a hospital-installed base that most humanoid startups lack

Companionship is a harder emotional problem than task execution, and getting the interaction layer right first creates a defensible product position

Selling to institutions that already trust the brand lets Fourier test the Care-bot at scale before consumer prices and expectations arrive

Full-stack development from hardware to AI keeps the interaction design, sensor layout and language reasoning under one team's control

Sell the relationship before the gadget: a decade of trusted rehab relationships let Fourier place its Care-bot with institutions first, proving companionship before risking consumer markets

As of January 2026, Fourier is showing GR-3 internationally at CES while keeping its stated path: deployment in hospitals, nursing homes, community elder care and reception roles, with a doll-sized companion concept exploring home-scale presence. The company offers an interaction API for scene developers and positions GR-3 as the bridge from social companionship to assisted care. Founder Gu Jie says the industry accelerated three to five times in the past year and Fourier will focus on the 'greatest common denominator' of robotics rather than chasing every use case.