Poke Robotics

Poke Robotics (破壳机器人) is a home embodied-intelligence startup founded by Huazhe Xu, an assistant professor and PhD advisor at Tsinghua University's Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, and the creator of TEA Lab, described as China's first embodied AI lab focused specifically on robot manipulation . Its technical agenda centers on the "manipulation" challenge in embodied AI, with home robotics as its target scenario — Xu frames this as the "real ticket" to physical AGI . On funding, Yunqi Capital led its angel round in the tens of millions of dollars — among the first deals from the SJTU–Yunqi AI angel fund — and subsequently led a nine-figure Pre-A round . Xu has been a recurring voice in recent embodied-AI debates, appearing alongside Sudu Tech, Ant Group's Lingbo, and Independent Variable Robotics at the 2026 Inclusion · Bund Conference roundtable on "physical intelligence" .