A Surging Wave of Technology, an Explosion of Species in AI's Deep Waters | Unity Ventures Spring Chronicle

九合创投·April 2, 2025·3·4

Tend the soil with care, and wait for the flowers to bloom.

As 2025 gets underway, the rise of open-source models has rewritten the coordinates of AI technology, creating vast opportunities for innovation in China and globally.

DeepSeek's breakthrough is like a whale surfacing — in the deep ocean of technology, a new era of intelligence has only just revealed the tip of the iceberg, with more new species evolving quietly beneath the surface.

Here are the latest updates on funding and business developments from Unity Ventures portfolio companies.

01

Unity Ventures Funding Compass

"Independent Variable Robotics" Closes Hundreds of Millions of Yuan in Pre-A++ Round Within a Month, Marking a Key Inflection Point for Embodied AI

Embodied AI startup Independent Variable Robotics (X Square Robot) has completed a Pre-A++ round of hundreds of millions of yuan, led by Luminous Ventures and Legend Capital, with participation from Beijing Robotics Industry Fund and Shenqi Capital.

Founded in December 2023, Independent Variable Robotics is dedicated to developing a general-purpose embodied AI large model. From day one, it committed to a "unified end-to-end large model" approach integrating both "brain" and "cerebellum" functions. In November 2024, the company announced the completion of its hundred-million-yuan Pre-A and Pre-A+ rounds. (Learn more)

"Rongsutech" Closes Nearly 100 Million Yuan in Pre-A Series, Securing Three Rounds in One Year

Rongsutech announced the completion of its latest Pre-A++ round. Over the past year, the company has raised three consecutive rounds totaling nearly 100 million yuan, making it one of the fastest-growing companies in the metal additive manufacturing sector.

Rongsutech is a solution provider focused on metal wire-based additive manufacturing, with three core business segments: additive equipment, printing services, and additive software, empowering industrial hyper-automation. Its Laser One laser wire deposition manufacturing equipment has already entered mass production, filling a domestic market gap for multi-laser coaxial wire-feeding technology. (Learn more)

"Antwork" Partners with China Mobile Ecosystem to Build New Low-Altitude Logistics Framework

Antwork Technology recently announced the completion of a strategic funding round, with exclusive investment from Beijing China Mobile Digital New Economy Industry Fund, a fund under China Mobile. Following the investment, both parties will collaborate to advance innovative development in the low-altitude economy, injecting new momentum into smart city construction.

Antwork Technology is dedicated to building urban aerial transportation networks. Its self-designed and developed logistics drones, unmanned stations, and cloud-based UTM and dispatch systems operate in seamless coordination, providing cities with safe and rapid automated air cargo services. In October 2019, Antwork received the world's first approval for urban drone logistics trial operations, maintaining the world's longest urban commercial operation mileage while serving over 30 cities across China. (Learn more)

"Suyu Technology" Closes Nearly 100 Million Yuan in Pre-A Series, Building a Digital Foundation for Hydrogen Energy Applications

Suyu Technology recently completed its Pre-A series (Pre-A, Pre-A+, and Pre-A++) funding round. The round was jointly invested by Topband, Jiaqiao Capital, Jiangsu Jinqiao Fund, and Bozhon Precision, with continued follow-on investment from existing shareholder Wujiang Oriental State-owned Assets. The total amount raised was nearly 100 million yuan.

Based on its integrated electronic control platform, Suyu Technology is gradually building diverse ecological foundations for green low-altitude economy, shared green mobility, green energy storage and power generation, and hydrogen energy science and engineering education, continuously advancing diversified community-level hydrogen energy applications toward a zero-carbon society. (Learn more)

"Infinite Aerospace" Closes Tens of Millions of Yuan in Angel Round Led by Unity Ventures, Accelerating Commercialization of China's On-Orbit Services

Infinite Aerospace recently announced the completion of a tens-of-millions-yuan angel round, led by Unity Ventures with follow-on from Inno Angel Fund. The proceeds will be used for development of the company's space bus products, accelerating the commercialization of China's on-orbit services.

Infinite Aerospace is a leading domestic provider of commercial on-orbit space services. Its self-developed in-orbit vehicles enable rapid and precise multi-satellite deployment, with planned business areas including orbit extension, space transportation, and payload hosting. The company also provides technology R&D and product development services for attitude and orbit control propulsion systems and core components for rockets, satellites, spacecraft, and missile weapons, offering highly reliable, low-cost commercial customization. (Learn more)

02

Unity Ventures Major Events

DeepSeek Disrupts Industry Landscape, Unity Ventures Portfolio Companies Embrace the New AI Era

Unity Ventures' portfolio spans entertainment assistants, smart hardware, intelligent customer service, and other sectors. Its portfolio companies are exploring the most commercially valuable opportunities through real-world deployment. Here are selected examples of products and services upgraded with DeepSeek integration (Learn more):

HakkoAI leverages large model reasoning capabilities to better serve gamers across scenarios including game discovery, gameplay, and reviews, with plans to expand into learning, video companionship, and personal assistance for young people.
Yunxigu's smart alarm clocks, smart dictionary pens, and other flagship products have received comprehensive algorithm upgrades, achieving breakthrough progress in core functions such as problem scanning and analysis, and intelligent chat companionship, accelerating innovation in smart terminal products.
Airdoc Wan Yu's medical large model has been refreshed and upgraded, helping medical professionals rapidly access medical information, clinical guidelines, and research results to improve decision-making efficiency, while also providing patients with personalized health condition analysis and treatment recommendations.
Tanji's data intelligence platform for enterprise intelligent operations has integrated AI applications, building modules for intelligent analysis and intelligent Q&A, aiming to create an all-purpose AI assistant for enterprise intelligent business operations.
Xiaoduo has comprehensively upgraded its Bisheng robots, AI training ground, VOC, aggregated reception, and Keban products, with systems now more precisely identifying buyer emotions and evaluation points, achieving a qualitative leap in automated response capabilities.

Consecutive Backflips: Noetix Robotics Unveils Most Affordable Humanoid Robot N2

Noetix Robotics recently released its latest product video, showing its high-performance humanoid robot N2 executing consecutive backflips outdoors. The backflip represents a critical milestone on the path to robots "coming of age," demonstrating precise mastery of motion control, environmental perception, and hardware design. N2 also achieves an engineering breakthrough in pricing, with a starting price of 39,900 yuan, and is about to commence scaled mass production. (Learn more)

UltraDroid Exoskeleton Debuts at CES, Sparking Tech Experience Frenzy

CES is a bellwether for global technology innovation and the consumer electronics industry. UltraDroid, a frontier team in exoskeleton robot R&D, showcased its fifth-generation exoskeleton at the CES exhibition, including the FIT-HV waist exoskeleton robot, FIT-U upper limb exoskeleton robot, and PES-U energy-storing upper limb exoskeleton. These products significantly reduce the physical burden on workers, providing strong support and assurance for improved production efficiency. (Learn more)

CES attendees experiencing UltraDroid's FIT-HV powered waist exoskeleton

GreenVoltis Partners with Zhongdi Capital and KKI, 400MW Energy Storage Leading European VPP Innovation

Recently, GreenVoltis announced a strategic partnership with Zhongdi Capital and Konflux Kapital International. The three parties will jointly drive the expansion of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and virtual power plant infrastructure across Europe, fully supporting the European energy transition.

GreenVoltis is an AI-native virtual power plant aggregator focused on the European market. Through AI-native technology, it optimizes electricity spot trading and participates in grid ancillary services, providing intelligent and efficient flexibility trading and operations solutions for energy storage and new energy asset owners, industrial and commercial customers, and electricity sales agents. It also assists its deep infrastructure investment fund partners with European project development and asset investment. (Learn more)

"Nuvision" Micro-LED Micro-Display Chip Mass Production Line Begins Operation, Ushering in New Era for Micro-Display Technology

On March 19, Nuvision's Phase I Micro-LED micro-display chip mass production line officially entered production. This milestone moment marks Nuvision's major breakthrough in industrializing Micro-LED micro-display technology.

As production capacity ramps up, Nuvision will provide high-performance Micro-LED micro-display chips for AR/MR wearable devices, micro-projection systems, HUDs (head-up displays), and digital headlights, while offering customized micro-display solutions for downstream customers. (Learn more)

"YolTech Therapeutics" In Vivo Base Editing Drug YOLT-101 Shows Promise for Single-Dose Lifelong Cholesterol Reduction

On February 27, YolTech Therapeutics announced major progress in the "YOLT-101 for Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) Clinical Exploratory Study (NCT06458010)," a study initiated by Renji Hospital Affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine with YolTech Therapeutics as a collaborating institution. This marks the world's first in vivo base editing drug to yield positive clinical data.

Study data show that YolTech Therapeutics' self-developed innovative in vivo base editing drug YOLT-101 can safely and effectively reduce plasma LDL-C levels in FH patients with just a single dose. As the latest generation of gene editing therapeutics, YOLT-101 will move cholesterol-lowering medication from daily oral small-molecule drugs and small nucleic acid drugs injected every few months, into an era of "one dose, lifelong cholesterol reduction." (Learn more)