Geekplus pays RMB50m for 20% of its own founder's eight-month-old robot-brain start-up

Geekplus is putting company money into a start-up its own founder controls. Beijing Geekplus Technology, the warehouse-robot maker listed in Hong Kong under code 2590, said in an announcement on Oct 9 that its wholly owned subsidiary Beijing Geekplus agreed to subscribe for 20% of the enlarged registered capital of Beijing Shenyi for RMB 50m, paid in one lump sum from internal resources. Shenyi will be accounted for as an associate, not a subsidiary.

Because Liu Kai, a non-executive director and controlling shareholder of Geekplus, held 81.10% of Shenyi directly and through its employee platform before the deal, the investment is a connected transaction. It fell between the 0.1% and 5% size thresholds, so it needed an announcement but no shareholder vote, and Liu abstained at the board. After completion Liu holds 30.80% directly, the employee platform he controls 34.08%, co-founder Huang Kangyao 15.12% and Geekplus 20%.

A valuation built on a 2027 forecast

Shenyi was set up on Jan 26, 2026, had no revenue and a loss of RMB 0.31m for the period to March 31, and RMB 9.71m of total assets at that date, the filing shows. The valuer rejected asset and income approaches and used comparable A-share robot makers: Siasun (5.14x forward sales), Shanghai STEP (2.14x) and Efort (6.28x), an average of 4.52x. Applied to Shenyi's forecast 2027 revenue of RMB 61.95m and less a 28.25% discount for lack of marketability, that gives RMB 200m, which is the pre-money value; the RMB 50m for 20% implies RMB 250m post-money.

Shenyi says it is building a general-purpose embodied brain that lets robots keep learning in real environments. According to a 21st Century Business Herald interview published on Oct 16, its SE-1 model drives a mobile logistics robot called Sculptor and a two-armed assembly robot called Edge; those product details are from the interview, not the filing.