The archive · Hardware & Devices · Product decision · 2024–2026
Sharpa Bets on Dexterous Hands to Repeat LiDAR Story
Hesai CEO Li Yifan co-founded Sharpa, raised over RMB 4.5B, valued at RMB 22B.
Sharpa
What the business is
Sharpa makes general-purpose robots and core components: its first product is the SharpaWave tactile dexterous hand with 22 active degrees of freedom (mass production in October 2025), followed by the wheeled full-body humanoid robot North and the dexterous manipulation model CraftNet, and it uses a robot restaurant operating as a real business to validate full-process autonomy.
Starting capital：Cumulative financing exceeded RMB 4.5 billion (45亿元) (first disclosed in August 2026), with a post-money valuation of about RMB 22 billion (220亿元); investors include Alibaba (阿里巴巴), Meituan (美团), Tencent (腾讯), JD.com (京东), Transsion (传音), and Sequoia China (红杉中国), Qiming Venture Partners (启明创投), Meituan Longzhu (美团龙珠), etc.
How it started
At the end of 2024, Hesai Technology (禾赛科技) CEO Li Yifan co-founded Sharpa with CTO Xiang Shaoqing and chief scientist Sun Kai, operating independently from Hesai. The three are the founding team of LiDAR company Hesai, and had previously bet correctly on autonomous driving through LiDAR; Li Yifan judged that the robot market would be 10 times the car market, but concentration would be far higher than in cars, and that general-purpose robots worldwide would ultimately perhaps have no more than 5 players.
What happened
In January 2026, its existence was first disclosed by First Financial (第一财经) and LatePost Auto (晚点Auto); the first product SharpaWave had already entered mass production in October 2025. On August 28, 2026, financing was first disclosed publicly: cumulative more than RMB 4.5 billion (45亿元), post-money valuation about RMB 22 billion (220亿元), with industrial capital such as Alibaba (阿里巴巴), Meituan (美团), Tencent (腾讯), JD.com (京东), Transsion (传音) and investors such as Sequoia China (红杉中国), Qiming Venture Partners (启明创投) participating; on the same day, it announced the opening of a robot restaurant in partnership with DQ at the Wujiang Road (吴江路) store in Shanghai, where the robot completed a 55-step process for a Blizzard (暴风雪) from ordering to delivery, with a current single-cup success rate of about 90% and about 6 minutes (about 3 minutes for a store employee). Hesai's interim report showed that it provided power modules to Sharpa.
How it ended up
Still running: financing is used for core technology R&D and talent; the DQ Shanghai Wujiang Road store became the world's first 'zero retrofit, fully autonomous' robot restaurant, and Sharpa plans to first 'drill through' several real scenarios, accumulate generalization capability and real data, and gradually enter homes starting in 2028.
Background
Sharpa, founded in 2024 by Hesai's founding team, operates independently. It makes dexterous hands, then humanoid robots and models.
On Aug 28, 2026, Sharpa disclosed over RMB 4.5B financing at RMB 22B valuation from Alibaba, Meituan, Tencent, JD, etc. Li Yifan sees robot market 10x cars, under 5 players.
Same day, DQ robot restaurant opened in Shanghai: zero-retrofit, fully autonomous, 55-step process, 90% success, 6 minutes. Training took under 5 months.
Strategy: drill commercial scenario, then compress training time from 100k to 100 hours; if not, it's one-off. Homes by 2028.
What has to be true
- Proven founding team attracted investors, enabling RMB 4.5B in a year.
- Starting with dexterous hand creates barrier and data entry.
- Real-scenario requirement yields scarce tactile and failure data.
- Alibaba, Meituan, Tencent, JD equity signals robots as infrastructure.
- Valuation faces bubble and in-house development pressure.
What can be applied
A winning founding team can repeat its playbook in adjacent hardware, but success depends on reusing training data, not past glory.
Aftermath
By Aug 29, 2026, Sharpa disclosed financing (over RMB 4.5B, valuation RMB 22B) and opened DQ robot restaurant in Shanghai. Funds for tech and talent, homes by 2028. No revenue disclosed; Hesai supplies power modules, independent.
Sources
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