Gasgoo Munich-Shanghai ViTai Technology Co., Ltd. (ViTai Robotics) has recently completed a Pre-A funding round. Redbird Navigation Fund led the round, with participation from Lingyi Investment, Yongxin Ark, Weihao Chuangxin, and Ningbo Jide. The Shanghai Angel Association also co-invested, while several existing shareholders increased their holdings.
The company plans to direct the new capital into three key areas:
First, the continued iteration of visuo-tactile perception technology. This involves refining sensor miniaturization, resolution, sampling frequency, and precision, while strengthening the capacity for mass production and large-scale deployment.
Second, bringing actuator products to market. This encompasses end-effectors such as grippers and dexterous hands, along with hand-eye coordination algorithms, force control strategies, and operational capabilities tailored for real-world scenarios.
Third, advancing the visuo-tactile data acquisition system and the model closed-loop. The goal is to enable robots to learn not just how to "see" through vast visual datasets. They must also learn how to handle physical contact—learning what to do the moment they touch something.
At the same time, ViTai Robotics is prioritizing the recruitment of technical talent across these three fields—perception, actuation, and data modeling—while bolstering its teams for manufacturing and volume delivery.
Image Source: ViTai Robotics
This marks the company's third funding round in the past year, bringing total proceeds to several hundred million yuan. The Angel round was led by Xiaomi Strategic Investment, with participation from Kuanqiao Hengsong, YaRui Capital, Plum Ventures, Glimmer Capital, and iCANX Fund. The Angel+ round was led by Vertex Ventures, a top-tier U.S. dollar fund, with backing from returning investors including YaRui Capital, Plum Ventures, Glimmer Capital, and iCANX Fund. Even earlier, during the Seed round, ViTai secured backing from several AI industry leaders.
Crucially, Xiaomi brings more than just capital. Its deep expertise in smart manufacturing, consumer electronics, supply chain management, and product engineering provides a proving ground. This allows ViTai Robotics to refine lab-grade capabilities against real-world industrial standards. The partnership deepened last year when Xiaomi added an investment through its Hanxing Venture Capital arm.
Notably, ViTai Robotics is the first embodied intelligence company backed by Xiaomi Strategic Investment in 2025.
ViTai Robotics traces its roots to the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Founder Li Rui has been researching robotics and computer vision since 2005. During his Ph.D. at MIT, he studied under Professor Edward Adelson. Adelson is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. Together, they pioneered and led the field of visuo-tactile research.
Since returning to China, Li has advanced visuo-tactile perception from basic research to industrialization, becoming the first to achieve mass production. ViTai Robotics has now built a complete technology stack spanning perception, actuation, and data-model closed-loops. The company has partnered with leading enterprises in sectors including consumer electronics, automotive, home appliances, and new energy. Applications range from precision placement and assembly to adaptive grasping of unstructured objects and the manipulation of flexible materials.
The year 2026 will be pivotal for ViTai Robotics as it transitions from product delivery to large-scale deployment.
Currently, ViTai Robotics serves three main customer groups. The first includes industrial clients, led by Xiaomi, requiring refined operations on production lines. The second includes embodied intelligence robotics companies purchasing two-finger and five-finger sensors for gripper R&D and dexterous hand integration. The third includes research institutions or model teams needing data acquisition equipment.
The industrial value of ViTai's sensors is rapidly being validated by top-tier clients. In consumer electronics manufacturing, Xiaomi Manufacturing has deployed these sensors on smartphone production lines for delicate, high-precision assembly tasks. This deployment stands as a landmark case for visuo-tactile technology entering large-scale industrial use.
In the realm of dexterous hands, a startup valued at over 10 billion yuan has adopted ViTai's fingertip visuo-tactile solution for its latest generation. The technology enables refined manipulation capabilities that exceed the range of motion of a human hand.
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