The archive · Hardware & Devices · Strategic decision · 2023–2026
RoboParty bets open-source humanoids need a shared stack; CATL backs 22-year-old founder
HIT student Huang Yi's dorm-built AlexBot became an open-source humanoid platform startup; 6 rounds in 8 months, ~20x valuation, CATL-led ~¥500M.
RoboParty (萝博派对)
What the business is
Shanghai startup building fully open-source, full-stack bipedal humanoid robots - open hardware, Party OS, and training tools - sold to developers, universities, labs and model companies, with higher-end RP1 robots for real-world deployment.
Starting capital：Reported raises: ~$10M seed (mid-2025, Matrix Partners China/Xiaomi/Galbot/LightSource founders fund), $20M angel (Mar 2026, SenseTime Guoxiang/IDG), multi-$10M angel+ (May 2026, Shunwei lead), and a combined ~¥500M angel++ plus CATL-exclusive Pre-A (Jul 2026).
How it started
Huang Yi, born 2004, entered Harbin Institute of Technology's Future Technology College in 2022; in late 2023 he and a roommate built a ~1.2m biped robot, AlexBot, in their dorm in weeks and open-sourced the full design. Over a dozen companies and universities replicated it, and in Feb 2025 Huang graduated early and co-founded RoboParty in Shanghai's Zhangjiang Robot Valley with HIT classmates.
What happened
A listed company offered money plus hundreds of locked-in overseas orders; Huang refused, arguing immature tech would poison first users. Instead, Matrix Partners China, Xiaomi Strategic Investment, Galbot and LightSource backed a ~$10M seed in summer 2025. Funding then closed almost monthly: a $20M angel in March 2026, an angel+ led by Shunwei in May 2026, and in July 2026 an ~¥500M angel++ plus a Pre-A led exclusively by CATL - 6 rounds in 8 months, ~20x valuation. In Jan 2026 the team released RPO, a fully open-source biped; by Aug 2026 it claimed 2,000+ GitHub stars, ~10k developer-community followers and ~1,000 orders, and open-sourced Party OS tools including MimicLite (SOTA whole-body tracking on ~1/500 the compute) and INTACT (JEPA-based, ~300x lower planning latency).
How it ended up
Scaling pre-revenue: ~90 staff, RPO in developers' hands, RP1 for real-world deployment scheduled for Q4 2026, and CATL co-developing manufacturing/energy applications.
Background
RoboParty (萝博派对) is a Shanghai startup founded in February 2025 by Huang Yi, a 2004-born Harbin Institute of Technology student who dropped into robotics stardom by building a ~1.2-meter bipedal robot, AlexBot, in his dorm in late 2023 and open-sourcing the entire design. Over a dozen companies and universities replicated it, giving him a name before he had a company.
The company's bet is that humanoid robotics will consolidate around an open, full-stack platform, the way large models consolidated around DeepSeek-style open releases. RoboParty open-sources the robot body, modules and engineering tools; Party OS and tools like MimicLite and INTACT are the reusable substrate, while RP-series robots are the commercial hardware. Huang early on rejected a listed company's cash-plus-hundreds-of-overseas-orders deal, saying immature products would damage first users - he wanted quality developers before volume.
Capital followed the thesis unusually fast: a ~$10M seed in summer 2025 from Matrix Partners China, Xiaomi Strategic Investment, Galbot and LightSource was followed by a $20M angel in March 2026 and an angel+ led by Shunwei in May 2026. In July 2026 RoboParty closed a combined ~¥500M angel++ and Pre-A, the Pre-A led exclusively by CATL - six rounds in eight months at a roughly 20x valuation, with no betting or repurchase clauses, per PEdaily.
By August 2026 RoboParty reported ~90 employees, 2,000+ GitHub stars and near-10k global developer-community followers for its January 2026 RPO release, close to 1,000 unit orders, and an RP1 launch planned for Q4 2026. TMTPost and PEdaily both note the gap between financing speed and product proof: revenue and repeat deployment, not rounds, will decide whether the open-stack bet holds.
What has to be true
- Closed body makers force every model company to reinvent hardware, so an open standard can become the industry substrate.
- AlexBot's replication by 10+ firms and universities proved demand for open robot designs before RoboParty existed as a company.
- Refusing volume orders to protect first-user experience kept the developer-focused strategy credible to investors.
- CATL's direct strategic investment signals industrial customers see open humanoids as a shared infrastructure play.
- DeepSeek's open-model precedent makes the 'open full-stack for embodied AI' story legible to Chinese capital.
What can be applied
An open-source strategy can outbid locked order books: when the product is a standard others build on, quality developers and follow-on investors arrive faster than volume deals.
Aftermath
As of early September 2026 RoboParty is the fastest-rising Chinese open-source humanoid startup, with RPO in developers' hands and RP1 scheduled for Q4 2026. Huang is deliberately anti-hype: he keeps benchmarks and product reliability ahead of volume, and internal research claims SOTA whole-body tracking with radically less compute. CATL is exploring real manufacturing and energy applications with the team. The gap between a ~20x valuation in eight months and shipped, repeatable deployments remains the open risk.
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