PHYMI has raised nearly $100M in seed funding, an unusually large first check for a company founded this year.
IDG Capital led the round, with Yunqi Capital, DiDi, Fosun RZ Capital, Glory Ventures and lidar maker Hesai Technology participating. The startup was founded by Liu Nianqiu, a former executive at autonomous driving company DeepRoute.ai.
PHYMI is building what it calls Physical Agents: systems meant to understand a goal, move through a space, manipulate objects and finish tasks in open, changing environments. That is a harder problem than the fixed-path automation common in factories, and it is where much of China’s embodied AI money has been flowing.
The company will spend the money on core research, real-world data collection, product engineering and hiring.
Large seed rounds for robotics have become routine in China, where hardware supply chains and manufacturing partners sit close together. PHYMI’s backer list mixes a venture mainstay, a ride-hailing platform and a sensor supplier, hinting that its robots are expected to find work in logistics and service settings rather than in demos.
