Youibot jumps on IPO assembly line to seize on robot vogue

China’s robotics sector has become an investor darling lately on strong government support, prompting a growing number of IPOs by money-losing companies

Key Takeaways:

• Youibot has applied to list in Hong Kong, reporting its revenue surged 27.6% year-on-year in first half of 2025
• The maker of embodied AI robots has accumulated nearly 840 million yuan in losses over the past three and half years

By Lau Chi Hang

Hong Kong’s financial markets never lack for good narratives. The artificial intelligence (AI) bonfire dating back more than a year has ignited another story this year in robotics stocks, sending shares soaring for a growing number of related companies coming off the IPO assembly line. Seizing on that momentum, Hefei Youibot Robotics Co. Ltd. — a specialist in mobile manipulation robotics — filed last month for its own Hong Kong IPO.

Youibot develops embodied AI systems that bring together cognition and motion. Its technology, built on hardware foundations, empowers machines to perceive physical environments and interact with them through complex maneuvers.

Embodying such AI requires hardware platforms ranging from intelligent robots that can multitask, to nascent humanoids. Standard types include wheel- and belt-based robots, and hybrids outfitted with industrial arms — all capable of environmental perception, making contextual decisions, and performing adaptive interactions. Such anthropomorphic designs have emerged as promising tools for full humanlike task emulation in unstructured settings.

Youibot’s products fall into three main groups based on their functionality. The first includes autonomous mobile robots that can undertake basic shuttle navigation using spatial awareness. The second are mobile manipulation robots that pair mobility with articulating arms to extend operational versatility. The third are collaborative robots designed to perform assembly tasks with human workers.

Big name investors

On a broader basis, Youibot’s products target industrial automation using advanced mobility functions with embodied AI. The company was co-founded in 2017 by Zhang Zhaohui, a young robotics Ph.D. graduate born in the 1990s, together with a group of his peers in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen. Their pivot towards manufacturing automation and inspection systems ultimately defined their corporate focus, as they delivered integrated solutions for semiconductor manufacturers and energy infrastructure operators.

The company’s rapid rise attracted big-name investors including SIG China, Lanchi Ventures, an entity backed by Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, Shenzhen Greenpine, and several entities under venture capital giant IDG, including Sharp Dynasty.

Revenues jump as losses widen

Youibot’s revenue has grown rapidly from 77.9 million yuan ($10.9 million) in 2022 to 255 million yuan by 2024. But it has also issued a steady stream of red ink over that time, including a loss of 235 million yuan in 2022, another 260 million yuan in 2023 and 200 million yuan last year. The company’s revenue grew 27.6% year-on-year to 127 million yuan in the first half of this year. But its loss jumped by an even larger 36% to 140 million yuan, bringing its cumulative net losses to 840 million yuan over the last three and a half years.

The company’s net liabilities have also swollen steadily, rising from 859 million yuan in 2022 to 1.37 billion yuan last year, and growing further still to 1.54 billion yuan by June 2025.

Youibot’s cash used in operations moderated from 173 million yuan in 2022 to 79.46 million yuan last year. But then the pressure began to escalate again, as its cash burn jumped 67% year-over-year to 106 million yuan in the first half of 2025.

Improving gross margins

While Youibot Robotics continues to lose money, has big debt, and is burning through cash, a bright spot for the company lies in its strengthening gross margins, which rose from 11.2% in 2022 to 35.2% in 2024, and climbed further still to 38.1% in the first half of this year. Such progress indicates the company is becoming increasingly cost effective in its operations, as it gains experience and economies of scale.

The company is also playing in a market with strong potential. The global mobile manipulation robotic solution market was worth 9.2 billion yuan last year and is expected to grow at an explosive annual rate of 60.4% to reach 156.9 billion yuan by 2030, according to third-party market data in the preliminary prospectus. A more relevant lens for the company is its home China market, which was worth 3.4 billion yuan in 2024 and is expected to rocket to 62 billion yuan by 2030, representing an average annual growth rate of 62.3% over that time.

Such figures show the market is just getting started and set to explode, positioning Youibot well to seize on that coming boom. Last year the company ranked first in its business segment among its peers in China with 7.1% of the market, based on revenue. That means that as the market continues to grow, Youibot, as the leader, should become a major beneficiary.

While they’ve become a flavor of the day, nearly all of Hong Kong’s listed robotics stocks are currently losing money – a fairly common theme for this type of young industry requiring big up-front investment. Based on price-to-sales (P/S) ratios, the most highly valued of the group is Dobot (2432.HK) at 72 times, while Ubtech Robotics (9880.HK) and Horizon Robotics (9660.HK) are both around 55 times. Black Sesame (2533.HK) is lower but still lofty at about 28 times, while Geekplus (2590.HK) is the laggard of the group at 17 times.

Given that Ubtech and Horizon are much larger than Youibot in terms of revenue and market value, Black Sesame and Geekplus are probably the most suitable references for trying to determine how investors may value Youibot. An average of about 22 times for that pair would value Youibot at more than HK$5 billion ($642 million).

With the Hong Kong IPO market booming this year and Youibot at the forefront of a group of robot makers with strong policy support at their back, the company is likely to draw strong investor interest if it completes its listing. Such interest could come not only from longer-term investors who like the company’s story, but also short-term speculators looking to make some quick cash on the latest Hong Kong listing narrative.

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