"Spirit Universe" Secures Another 200 Million Yuan in Pre-A Series Funding, Singles' Day Sales Surge 230% | Linear Portfolio

Today, AI-powered consumer robotics company Ling Universe announced it has completed a 200 million yuan Pre-A series funding round. The proceeds will be used primarily for product R&D, domestic and international market expansion, and further development of its developer platform and content ecosystem.

During the recently concluded Double 11 shopping festival, Ling Universe's "Little Square" device ranked at the top of multiple lists on JD.com and Tmall, once again securing first place on both JD's AI toy "Brand Cumulative Ranking" and "SKU Cumulative Ranking." Sales grew more than 230% compared to the 618 shopping festival earlier this year.

Ling Universe founder Jiawei Gu is a serial entrepreneur who previously led human-computer interaction at Baidu's Deep Learning Institute and served as a researcher at Microsoft Research Asia. Linear Capital was Ling Universe's angel-round investor, and we continue to track innovation and investment opportunities in AI hardware.

On November 17, AI-powered consumer robotics company Ling Universe (Shanghai Ling Universe Technology Development Co.) announced it has recently completed a 200 million yuan Pre-A series funding round. This round was led by a consortium of leading financial institutions and listed companies including Guofang Innovation (under Shanghai International Group), Guotai Haitong, GF Xinde Investment Management, DiDi, Lakala's Koala Fund, and Runjian Co., Ltd., with existing shareholders making additional investments beyond their pro-rata rights.

As an innovative technology company focused on artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction, Ling Universe is dedicated to building "companion-type" AI robot products for families and individual users worldwide, reshaping how humans and machines interact.

The funding will be used primarily for product R&D and domestic and international market expansion. Through investment in its LingOS operating system and multimodal AI interaction technology, the company will continue optimizing product experience and expanding its product lineup. It will also further develop its developer platform and content ecosystem, building an integrated "hardware + software + services" business model.

Ling Universe had already completed three consecutive funding rounds within six months of its founding, drawing investments from 37 Interactive Entertainment, Xueda Education, SenseTime, Yaotu Capital, Linear Capital, Tsinghua SEE Capital, and Yinxinggu Capital — clear evidence of capital markets' strong confidence in its team and the "AI + consumer robotics" sector. This latest round brings together state-backed institutions, leading securities firms, internet strategic investors, and industrial giants, further demonstrating investors' endorsement of its commercialization path.

In terms of commercial proof points, Ling Universe could be called an "invisible champion" in the industry. The portable AI terminal "Ling Universe Little Square" that the team developed topped both the AI toy and overall toy rankings during its debut 618 shopping festival. During the recently concluded Double 11, "Little Square" ranked at the top of multiple lists on JD.com and Tmall, once again securing first place on both JD's AI toy "Brand Cumulative Ranking" and "SKU Cumulative Ranking," with sales growing more than 230% compared to the 618 period earlier this year.

As an essential AI growth companion for the new generation, the Ling Universe AI Little Square is not just a popular gift for "getting ahead at the AI starting line" — it fundamentally redefines the value proposition of educational companionship. Moving beyond the pain points common to children's smartwatches — entertainment addiction, social comparison, and small-screen eye strain — it has become an everyday carry fashion item for Generation Alpha, the AI natives. This revolutionary AI terminal breaks free from traditional screen-based learning and single-function limitations, realizing the vision of "the world is the classroom, everything is teaching material."

Through multimodal AI spatial interaction technology, Little Square's intelligent agent can interact with the real world from a first-person perspective. Combined with Ling Universe's proprietary "relationship algorithm," it continuously accumulates users' exploration trajectories, interest preferences, memory sequences, and growth data, creating a personalized "portable AI study companion" that transforms AI from a "learning tool" into a "smarter, more capable, growth-aware, and warm companion." And the "user-physical world interaction context" it captures is precisely the operating system entry point for the Personal AI era.

Behind this steady growth lies Ling Universe's commitment to a differentiated, long-term path. The company's core engine is its self-developed LingOS interactive operating system. This is not simply a device OS, but one designed to become the underlying Physical AI-OS for the physical world. It integrates environmental perception, emotional intelligence, long- and short-term memory, intent understanding, proactive awareness, and automated execution capabilities, building a multimodal AI Agent platform.

Based on LingOS, Ling Universe's native AI hardware product "Little Square" quickly became a market sensation upon launch. But Ling Universe's ambition extends beyond single-point products — it aims to build a future family intelligence ecosystem of "animating all things, symbiosis between humans and machines" through the closed loop of "AI hardware + AgentOS operating system." This is intended to fundamentally define the next-generation human-computer interaction paradigm, establishing lasting platform-level competitive advantages and expansive ecosystem value for the company.

This series of strategically visionary technology deployments stems from founder Jiawei Gu's long-term deep engagement and profound insights in AI and robotics. A serial entrepreneur, Gu previously led human-computer interaction at Baidu's Deep Learning Institute and served as a researcher at Microsoft Research Asia. In 2016, he was named to MIT Technology Review's MIT TR35 as one of the world's top innovators under 35. Decades of immersion in AI and robotics have built a solid foundation of technical expertise and strategic vision.

Meanwhile, his previous leadership of projects including BaiduEye smart glasses, DuBike smart bicycle, and HoloLens accumulated deep technical expertise and productization experience. In the past, some industry voices considered these projects "too forward-looking." However, with the technological inflection point represented by GPT, these once-questioned frontier explorations are gradually transforming into scalable, real-world applications — further validating the precision of his technical judgment and path selection.

On its commercialization path, Ling Universe has chosen to enter family scenarios first through consumer-grade AI hardware, prioritizing scaled deployment ahead of complex humanoid robots. This strategy not only enables rapid accumulation of real-world human-computer interaction data, but also continuously feeds back into its self-developed LingOS system and embodied intelligence brain, driving rapid system iteration and forming a "data flywheel" that others will struggle to match — building what the company calls a "southern slope path" analogous to Tesla's FSD. Previously, the team's picture book reading robot Luka, as a category creator, has achieved sales of nearly ten million units globally, laying a solid initial data foundation and continuous model optimization capability for the company.

Notably, internet giant DiDi is among this round's strategic investors. After entering the embodied intelligence space, DiDi's first move into AI + hardware was to choose Ling Universe — a decision based on deep recognition of its data closed-loop capabilities and long-term technology positioning.

For AI hardware, technical accumulation, scenario depth, supply chain refinement, and user reputation are insurmountable core logics. Ling Universe adheres to this industry essence, focusing on long-term user value creation — a philosophy that aligns closely with strategic investor DiDi. Both parties see user value as the cornerstone of sustainable enterprise growth. DiDi's mature experience in user operations, scaled growth, and scenario deployment will help Ling Universe build a healthier, more sustainable growth path. At the same time, DiDi recognizes the head value in AI hardware — in certain niche segments, only the leader can define standards and capture the core market.

Ling Universe's continued deep cultivation and clear path in AI niche segments is further validated by this round's capital structure. Beyond DiDi, strategic parties with deep industrial resources including Lakala and Runjian Co., Ltd., as well as "deep pocket" financial investors like Guotai Haitong and GF Xinde Investment Management, participated together — building a dual support system of "industrial synergy + capital backing" that lays a solid foundation for the company's next phase of leapfrog development.

It is precisely based on such technical accumulation and ecosystem positioning that Ling Universe has been able to build a more warm brand philosophy atop solid product strength.

Going forward, Ling Universe will continue exploring the boundaries of artificial intelligence, robotics, and human interaction, joining hands with users worldwide to advance toward an intelligent future where humans and AI coexist and progress together.

This AI + consumer hardware intelligence revolution that is leading the transformation of human-computer interaction is redefining the boundaries and possibilities of human-machine relationships.