Linkerbot, a Beijing-based robotics startup that dominates the global market for dexterous robotic hands, will seek a $6 billion valuation in its next financing round, double the $3 billion implied by a series B+ funding completed last week, the company told Reuters.
The two-year-old firm claims more than 80% of the worldwide market for high-degree-of-freedom robotic hands, components that enable the fine manipulation tasks that remain one of the hardest unsolved problems in humanoid robotics.
"We aren't just making hands. Our goal is to replicate the entire library of human dexterous skills within our hardware," chief executive Alex Zhou told Reuters, referring to the company's LinkerSkillNet platform, which he described as the world's largest real-world dexterous manipulation dataset containing more than 500 skills.
Linkerbot plans to scale production to 10,000 units a month from roughly 5,000 currently, and is developing intelligent production lines where robotic hands manufacture other robotic hands.
"The hand is the most complex part of the whole humanoid robot," said Georg Stieler, head of robotics and automation at technology consultancy Stieler.
"Elon Musk described on several occasions that the part was taking more than half of their whole engineering effort for Tesla's Optimus."
Prominent early backers include Alibaba's Ant Group and Sequoia spin-off HongShan Group, while the latest round featured state-backed Zhongguancun Science Park Fund, Bank of China Asset Management and Fosun Capital.
Linkerbot did not say whether its $6 billion target would be pursued through a private round or an initial public offering.
The company's flagship O6 model weighs 370 grams yet can carry a 50-kilogram load, a strength-to-weight ratio Zhou said was critical for industrial applications where miniaturisation matters.
Linkerbot manufactures key components, including joint modules, motors and reducers in-house and uses specialised self-lubricating, corrosion-resistant polymers.
Inspired by Doraemon, the Japanese cartoon robotic cat, Zhou envisions his robots eventually playing the piano, giving massages and performing dentistry, skills he described as "a value-add that is at least triple that of basic labour."
The hands can already rapidly turn screws, grasp deformable soft objects, thread a needle and perform high-precision manufacturing tasks.
Crucially, many customers do not buy full humanoid robots.
"Chinese factory owners are extremely pragmatic. They've realised that for most factory work, two arms and a pair of dexterous hands are enough," Zhou said.
"Currently, many of our customers simply mount our hands onto existing robotic arms rather than buying a full humanoid."
That pragmatism distinguishes Linkerbot from competitors such as X Square Robot, which trains hands for household chores, and from full humanoid manufacturers, where unit costs of $100,000 to $150,000 remain a major obstacle to widespread factory deployment.
Investor interest in China's humanoid robotics sector has surged this year after Unitree's televised demonstration during the Spring Festival Gala and the Beijing humanoid robot half-marathon in March.
Unitree filed for a Shanghai IPO the same month, seeking a valuation of up to $7 billion.
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Linkerbot has more than 400 employees across five factories in Beijing and Shenzhen and supplies leading Chinese humanoid makers alongside unnamed foreign industrial groups under non-disclosure agreements.
The company also provides hands to research institutions and leading global universities.
The recap
- Linkerbot will seek a $6 billion valuation next financing round
- Holds over 80% global market share in high-DoF hands
- Plans to scale production to 10,000 units per month soon
