Unitree and HongShan launch Shanyu plan to back early embodied-AI startups
Unitree Robotics and HongShan (Sequoia China) announced on Oct 28 a joint early-stage program, the Shanyu Chuang plan, to find and invest in startups in embodied AI, robot applications, their upstream and downstream key technologies and other hard tech, IT Home and Sina Finance reported.
The plan pairs Unitree's engineering with HongShan's investing and targets young teams from the idea or prototype stage. No fund size, vehicle or first investments were disclosed, and MEKAWIRE could not open the companies' own announcement.
Unitree Robotics and HongShan, the investment firm known in Chinese as 红杉中国 (Sequoia China), announced on Oct 28 that they are setting up the "Shanyu Chuang" plan (杉宇创计划), a program to discover and invest in early-stage startups in embodied AI, robot applications and their key upstream and downstream technologies, as well as other frontier hard tech, according to reports by IT Home and Sina Finance that carry the same announcement text. The plan combines Unitree's engineering with HongShan's investing and says it will back young teams starting from "an idea, a piece of code or a prototype", with fast decisions and hands-off support.
Unitree founder and chief executive Wang Xingxing said in the announcement that Sequoia has been one of Unitree's earliest and most important backers since 2019. Neither side gave a fund size, legal structure or first portfolio companies; the companies' own post was not reachable for MEKAWIRE, so those details remain unconfirmed.
MEKAWIRE context: Unitree has been a STAR Market company since Aug 18, 2026 (see what is Unitree). Our funding database lists HongShan in X Square Robot's Series A++ (Jan 2026) and Sequoia Capital China in earlier rounds of Pudu Robotics, Hai Robotics, Mech-Mind and Agile Robots, but holds no verified private Unitree round, so Wang's 2019 date cannot yet be matched to a filed round.