Hypershell Closes Two Rounds Totaling $70 Million in Funding

"Toward a Future Where Everyone Is Iron Man?" By Zhiyan Chen

Anywaves has learned exclusively that consumer exoskeleton brand Hypershell completed two funding rounds totaling $70 million within a matter of months — a Pre-B and a Series B. The Series B was co-led by Photosynthesis Ventures and 5Y Capital, with Meituan Longzhu participating; the Pre-B was led by Monolith, with 5Y Capital also participating; Gaogu Capital served as exclusive financial advisor. Hypershell's post-money valuation now approaches $400 million.

Founded in late 2021, Hypershell is the world's first startup to bring mechanical exoskeleton products from medical and industrial applications to the consumer market. Founder Kuan Sun, born in 1991, brings a decade of combined experience in robotics hardware management, exoskeleton academic research, and building overseas hardware brands. His team comprises experts in robotics, human factors engineering, and AI algorithms, with backgrounds at leading hardware and robotics companies.

"Humanity is slowly losing its connection to the physical world. Modern urbanization, aging populations, and digital immersion — our bodies are degenerating, our average mobility declining. The physical world relevant to us is being compressed to what our fingers and eyes can reach, as if the real world were only as big as a couch," Sun told Anywaves in an interview. In his view, human happiness and drive come from connection to the real world; when mobility is weakened, cognition, curiosity, intelligence, and will all atrophy. So Hypershell's ambition is: to use new technology to enhance human mobility.

"Tools determine the scale of human imagination."

Part 01

The Birth of a New Species

Though Hypershell now boasts a shareholder roster that could only be described as luxurious for a four-year-old company, before 2023 Sun had been rejected by nearly a hundred investors. At the time, traditional exoskeleton products cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of yuan, used only in B2B and specific medical scenarios. The questions were always the same: Why would exoskeletons have a consumer opportunity? Why would a Chinese team be the one to do it?

The turning point came in 2023.

Hypershell invented the world's first single-motor-driven exoskeleton system, and in 2023 officially launched its globally patented Omega architecture. This innovative configuration halved the cost and weight of exoskeletons; going further, by combining the latest robotics technology with self-developed core components, Hypershell ultimately brought exoskeleton product pricing down to the consumer-accessible thousand-yuan range. On March 7, 2023, Hypershell launched its first consumer exoskeleton product, Hypershell Go, on Kickstarter, ultimately raising $1.23 million from 2,638 backers — 40% from the United States — and becoming that year's Kickstarter Best Seller.

In early 2024, targeting hardcore outdoor enthusiasts, Hypershell released the Hypershell X series, validating its ability to mass-produce consumer exoskeletons. This September, the newly launched Hypershell X Ultra features a second-generation AI motion-intent recognition algorithm, and through coordinated optimization of the power system and algorithms, delivers 2.5x the battery life at equivalent capacity. The product was a hit at IFA Berlin and became the world's first exoskeleton product certified by third-party authoritative testing body SGS.

To date, Hypershell has sales channels in over 70 countries globally, with cumulative shipments reaching tens of thousands of units.

Image source: Company provided

In market strategy, this emerging hardware company has adopted an approach similar to two hardware superstars — DJI and Bambu Lab — namely "overseas first, domestic second." In August this year, Hypershell X made its China debut, entering trendy boutique retailer drivepro's nationwide stores and online channels.

"Hypershell's market strategy has been global from day one. It's just that early customers were mainly outdoor enthusiasts, and outdoor culture is more mature in Europe and America, so we did spend more energy on the outdoor market initially," Sun told Anywaves. "Today, China already has sufficiently good conditions and infrastructure for Hypershell to become a born-global brand."

Part 02

The Heavy Business of a Long Chain

When asked about the use of proceeds from this $70 million financing, Sun candidly explained that because exoskeletons involve an entire long-chain heavy business — spanning lab R&D, product design, supply chain manufacturing, global marketing communications, and sales channel deployment — the fundraising was primarily driven by the business's own capital requirements. Additionally, funds will go toward continued recruitment of top talent.

Currently, Hypershell maintains offices in Shenzhen and Shanghai, with a team of roughly 200.

According to Anywaves, Hypershell is currently one of the most closely watched star startups in the primary market. Consumer-category innovation, AI + hardware, robotics concept, global layout — every characteristic of Hypershell precisely hits the hottest keywords in the venture capital world.

Having proven its capabilities through multiple products and mass production, Hypershell's fundraising history in the capital markets can only be described as "smooth sailing" —

In 2022, Hypershell was born within the MiraclePlus incubation system and received millions in angel funding. From May 2023 to the end of 2024, Hypershell completed three consecutive funding rounds, with Decent Investment, Oasis Capital, Hongshan, and IDG Capital successively joining its shareholder register.

In the just-completed latest two rounds, existing shareholders IDG Capital, Hongshan, and Oasis Capital all oversubscribed.

Part 03

Ceiling, Moat, Future Competition

As the consumer exoskeleton market has grown, Hypershell's competitors have emerged one by one. For example, ChengTian Technology expanding from medical-grade to consumer-grade exoskeletons, and Skip backed by Arc'teryx. So despite Hypershell having the strongest investor roster among them, whether its future path will be smooth or rugged remains difficult to predict.

On this, Sun believes that "to do a complex hardware product well, you can't have weaknesses — from research, productization, and user insight, to mass production, globalization, and multi-channel marketing." In his view, the true moat is "first becoming a hexagonal warrior" — strong on all sides.

In the consumer exoskeleton field, the keys to winning out are influenced by multiple factors, including: smoothness of human-machine interaction, degree of lightweighting, cost-performance enabled by supply chain control, and precision of scenario definition. Among these, Hypershell was the first to complete the leap from medical and industrial scenarios to outdoor sports as a consumer scenario. The next question is similar to what drones and 3D printers faced before: how to truly evolve from "geek toy" to "daily essential for the masses." Only when exoskeletons become not just a power accessory but a digital interface connecting people to the real world will this industry's ceiling truly be opened.

Specifically, Hypershell's "cerebellum" — MotionEngine — bears the task of exploring possibilities across different user types and complex scenarios. Sun has said that "the AI capability behind MotionEngine is one of Hypershell's core competencies."

Just how high can the "ceiling" of consumer exoskeletons go? Xi Cao, founding partner of Monolith, believes this long-established industry is undergoing massive change due to developments in embodied intelligence and AI. "As product forms continue to innovate, we've already seen exoskeleton products being widely used by consumers in outdoor, elderly assistance, commuting, and other scenarios. As a new category that's accelerating into form, consumer exoskeletons have enormous growth space and imagination."

Recently, South Korean exoskeleton company WIRobotics launched its first general-purpose humanoid robot ALLEX, announcing its entry into the humanoid robotics segment. Could humanoid robots become another way for exoskeleton companies to push their ceiling higher?

Sun's answer is: different missions.

"The goal of all robotics companies is to have robots do what humans don't want to do, while Hypershell's mission is to enhance human mobility, to make people's worlds bigger," he told Anywaves. Hypershell does have plans to expand its product categories in the future, but will stay tightly focused on this mission.

5Y Capital, co-lead of the Series B, began tracking Hypershell in 2022 and maintained continuous follow-up, validating Sun's team's category-defining capability from crowdfunding hit to scaled mass production. 5Y Capital partner Ye Yuan told Anywaves: "With the accelerated development of the robotics and artificial intelligence industries, we are optimistic that Hypershell will lead industry standards through AI innovation and mass-production advantages, creating breakthrough experiences for global consumers through exceptional products."

Layout by Nan Yao | Image source: Still from the film Iron Man

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