Li Xingxing, the son of Li Shufu, founder of Geely Holding Group, initiated the establishment of the embodiment intelligent enterprise OneStar Robot earlier this year. In less than half a year since its founding in May, the company has already entered the dissolution phase. Despite receiving multiple rounds of financing and boasting a luxury research and development team, the company suddenly started to unravel despite seemingly bright prospects.
According to reports from the “Daily Economic News” and “First Financial” newspapers, OneStar Robot, a startup company in the embodiment intelligence field founded with much fanfare in May and quietly dissolved in October. On October 16th, rumors about the company’s dissolution began to surface, with multiple sources confirming the company’s actual dissolution. Executives with ties to Geely have largely withdrawn from the company.
OneStar Robot, initiated by Li Xingxing, a shareholder of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and son of the Geely founder, in May this year, positioned itself in the field of “embodiment intelligence.” Tianyancha data shows that Li Xingxing holds 65.66% of the company’s shares, and Pan Yunbin, the legal representative, formerly served as the president of Geely’s satellite sector. The company was seen by the public as a key layout for Geely in the field of robotics.
From the beginning, OneStar Robot assembled a strong research and development team. In June, Ding Yan, a researcher from the Shanghai AI Lab and a computer science Ph.D. from the State University of New York, joined the company as the chief technology officer and co-founder. Subsequently, the company collaborated with teams of professors from Fudan University and Tsinghua University, as well as the internationally renowned FastUMI data collection team, to jointly build a research and development system based on “model + data + ontology.” In September, the company signed an agreement with Fudan University to jointly establish the “Intelligent Robot School-enterprise Joint Laboratory” and released the “Xinglun 1” wheeled dual-arm robot.
Within four months of its establishment, OneStar Robot completed two rounds of financing. In August, the company announced the completion of the “friends and family round” of financing, with participation from investors related to Geely such as Caocao Travel and Jingneng Microelectronics. In September, the company announced the completion of a seed round of financing amounting to hundreds of millions of yuan, with investors including Baidu Venture Capital, TCV, market-oriented investors, as well as industry investors such as Galaxy General and Landi Technology.
However, despite the completion of financing and the seemingly positive situation of the new office still under renovation, OneStar Robot suddenly found itself embroiled in a dissolution crisis. On October 17th, reporters from mainland China visited the office and found unopened large items piled up at the entrance, with the office’s name and signage removed, leaving only some members of the technical team remaining. The new office address is currently in a state of suspended construction.
The company’s WeChat public account “OneStar Robot” has been cleared of all content. The profile of the co-founder and CTO Ding Yan on Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) shows that his work experience with OneStar Robot was until October of this year. Employees stated that they are currently “waiting for notification” and are unable to disclose specific details.
Industry insiders have various speculations on the reasons for the company’s dissolution, including internal disagreements among the founding team and overlaps in business direction with Geely’s subsidiary, Qianli Technology. Insiders close to OneStar Robot suggested that it may be due to a lack of appropriate leadership at the management level, leading to internal and external team divergences, ultimately resulting in a dispersed business plan.
As of now, OneStar Robot has not provided an official response regarding the reasons for its dissolution.