Hillhouse and Xiaomi have all voted
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Author|Cao Tingting Truman
Genius boy, got hot money again!
Recently, Shanghai Zhiyuan New Technology Co., Ltd., an affiliate of Zhiyuan Robot, underwent industrial and commercial changes, adding Sanya Baichuan Zhixin Private Equity Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) as shareholders, and the registered capital of the company increased from about 42.3636 million yuan to about 48.4702 million yuan.
The founder of Zhiyuan Robot is the "genius boy" who left Huawei last year - Zhihuijun.
Through equity penetration, the new shareholder is behind Baidu founder, chairman and CEO Robin Li.
In the case of a cold investment environment, it is not easy for entrepreneurial projects to get money, either the track is hot, or the founder has a great aura.
These two points are all accounted for by Zhiyuan robots, and what Zhiyuan robots do is to integrate AI and robots, and Zhihuijun is a golden signboard. And it's not just Li Yanhong who looks at Zhiyuan Robot.
01
Only three months after its establishment, Li Yanhong took a stake in the company
Zhihuijun's startup project was established for a short time, and the company was incorporated in February 2023, just two months after he left Huawei.
Tianyan inspection shows that Shanghai Zhiyuan Xinchuang Technology Co., Ltd. is an enterprise mainly engaged in the manufacture of computers, communications and other electronic equipment. The business scope includes the research and development of intelligent robots, artificial intelligence theory and algorithm software development, artificial intelligence hardware sales, electronic product sales, etc.
Zhiyuan's newly created legal person is Shu Yuanchun, and the core team disclosed by Tianyancha is only Zhihuijun (Peng Zhihui), the title is the founder, and the company's business currently shows only one, that is, Zhiyuan Robot in charge of Zhihuijun.
Source: Tianyan Cha
On May 29, Baidu's BV Baidu Ventures completed an angel + round of financing for Zhiyuan, but neither party announced the transaction amount.
BV Baidu Ventures is partner Qi Yujie, a founding team member and senior technical director of Baidu, and the director is Ma Dongmin, wife of Robin Li, who is also the head of Baidu's strategic investment department.
Source: Tianyan Cha
Why did Baidu take a fancy to Zhihuijun's robot?
According to public information, Agibot focuses on the development of general humanoid robots and embodied intelligence, and is committed to the deep integration of AI and robots, and long-term investment in creating competitive robot products and ecosystems.
This is also a major interest of Zhihuijun before starting an independent business, his other identity is the owner of the B site, and the homepage often submits some self-made hardcore product videos.
On April 1, Zhihuijun's B station was updated and uploaded a video of his latest homemade robot "neZHa".
This dynamic is also the first video he released after leaving Huawei, mainly about how to design robots and some of the innovations he made, and Zhihuijun predicted that it will be officially released in a few months.
Source: Station B - Zhihuijun
Since then, Zhihuijun has also recruited for the company at Station B, involving algorithm engineers, hardware engineers, software development engineers and other positions, hoping to jointly promote the realization of AGI robots.
Seeing this, it is not difficult to find out why Baidu invested in Zhiyuan Robot.
In recent years, Baidu has a layout in many fields such as technology, automotive, and AI, and when the wave of ChatGpt swept the world, Baidu was repeatedly pulled out for comparison.
Baidu's layout in the field of AI large models is not short, and it can even be the first batch of domestic actions, but after the release of Baidu Wenxin's words, the market's evaluation obviously doubled the pressure on Baidu and Robin Li.
Therefore, in addition to the field of automobiles and AI large models, Baidu needs a new "stimulation point", and perhaps investing in Zhiyuan robots is the next step for Robin Li and Baidu.
On May 26, Robin Li attended the 2023 Zhongguancun Forum held in Beijing and delivered a speech entitled "Big Model Changes the World".
Li Yanhong said that it is now at a new starting point, which is a new era of artificial intelligence with big models as the core, big models have changed artificial intelligence, and big models are about to change the world.
Robin Li believes that all applications in the future will be developed based on large models, and each industry should have its own large model. "The big model will be deeply integrated into the real economy, empowering thousands of industries and helping China's economy create the next golden 30 years."
02
It's not just Li Yanhong who looks at the genius boy
In June 2019, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei launched a "talented youth" recruitment program to attract top global talents, who are saddled with the important task of saving Huawei from fire and water.
Source: Huawei
In May 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce placed Huawei and 70 of its affiliates on a regulatory "entity list" on national security grounds, prohibiting U.S. companies from selling relevant technologies and products to Huawei.
The following month, Ren Zhengfei announced the recruitment plan, saying that "20-30 talented teenagers will be recruited from all over the world, and another 200-300 will be recruited next year, and these talented teenagers will be like loaches, drilling into our organization and activating our team."
It is understood that the salary of talented teenagers is divided into three levels, of which the highest annual salary can reach 2.01 million yuan, and the annual salary of Zhihuijun can reach 2 million.
In November 2020, Zhihuijun joined Huawei under the name of a genius teenager and was responsible for the full-stack R&D of Huawei's Ascend computing product line.
At the same time, he is also the owner of the B station million fans UP, with 2.427 million fans on the B station, and it can be seen in the video he submitted that the name of the genius boy is not just a gimmick.
Source: Zhihuijun B station
Homemade robot, homemade Iron Man robotic arm, homemade crab rover, 3-month homemade smallest TV, as well as super mini voice assistant, mini wireless smart camera...
As Zhihuijun himself said, he is keen on all kinds of interesting robot production, most notably, one of his explosive self-driving bicycles can complete difficult actions, and even equipped with lidar that Tesla does not have.
The talented teenager stayed at Huawei for two years and left on December 27, 2022, as he said on his personal social platform, leaving is for a better start, and the next outlet he chose is robot entrepreneurship, which is also his passion.
Zhihuijun, whose real name is Peng Zhihui, graduated from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering, and he has been teaching himself computer knowledge because of his hobby, and chose to major in information and communication systems at the graduate level.
Source: Zhihuijun B station
Before joining Huawei, he worked in the AI laboratory of OPPO Research Institute, but geniuses will not always "screw" in the enterprise, even high salaries can not retain ambitious teenagers.
Zhiyuan Robot, which Zhihuijun participated in, has undergone two rounds of financing, and there are 14 shareholders of the company.
In the early days of the company's establishment, it attracted Hillhouse Capital to enter the market.
There are also Nanjing Gaorong Phase 5 No. 1 Equity Investment Partnership co-founded by Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd., and Jingwei (Hangzhou) Venture Capital Partnership, a subsidiary of Zuo Lingye, a founding member of Matrix Partners China.
Source: Tianyan Cha
This entrepreneurial project has also attracted a number of local state-owned assets to invest in it, including Shanghai Huanxin Phase I Private Equity Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Shanghai Sinanyuanke Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd.
and Shanghai Huanxin Phase I Private Equity Investment Fund Partnership, Shanghai Sinanyuanke Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd., etc., which are local state-owned assets in Shanghai.
In addition to these well-known institutions, there are also Internet giants involved. Its shareholder, Beijing Qiji Chuangtan Phase II Venture Capital Center (Limited Partnership), includes local state-owned assets in Beijing and Douyin Co., Ltd.
It turns out that genius entrepreneurship is supported by all sides.
Finally, I wish you all the best~