After the Yizhuang humanoid robot marathon gained widespread popularity, Noetix Robotics’ N2 robot product has received over 2,000 orders, making delivery and mass production top priorities for the company.
On the last working day before the Dragon Boat Festival, Noetix Robotics moved from Haidian District to Building 4 of the Future Star Energy Valley Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park in Changping District. The second floor houses the production and assembly facilities for robots, while the third floor is the office area. The space is twice as large as before, with over 30 new employees hired. Jiang Zheyuan told reporters from the Beijing News Shell Finance that the move occurred much earlier than planned, primarily to expand production capacity and enhance delivery capabilities. Jiang Zheyuan visits the factory two or three times a day to personally check the progress of robot assembly and delivery.
Industry practitioners engaged in the robot rental business revealed to reporters from Shell Finance that many customers now want to try different types of robot products, but the challenge lies in the long delivery periods of most manufacturers, resulting in limited options for different robot brands available for rent.
This is also the core reason why Jiang Zheyuan is eager to enhance production capacity. "I hope one day our products will be everywhere in the market," Jiang Zheyuan said. In his plan, he aims to deliver at least several hundred robots each month by August this year. In the robot factory on the second floor, automated production tools and workers are working in an orderly fashion, all striving for successful deliveries.
Although Noetix Robotics has been established for nearly two years, its visibility was not high before the Humanoid Robot Marathon. "The marathon has helped us solve the issue of 'even fine wine fears the deep alley,'" said Jiang Zheyuan. Previously, this entrepreneur, who started in 1998, faced several rounds of challenges including "fundraising," building a team and managing the company.
Jiang Zheyuán grew up from kindergarten to university in Tsinghua Garden and he was admitted to the Department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University with the 28th score in the Beijing college entrance examination. During his PhD, he focused on reinforcement learning and was deeply shocked when he first encountered the Yu Shu robotic dog in the lab, which planted the seed of his dream for robotics.
In order to focus more on the research and development and manufacturing of humanoid robots, Jiang Zheyuán gave up his PhD at Tsinghua University and founded Noetix Robotics at the age of just 25.
However, for investors, the academic background of a dropout PhD from Tsinghua is not particularly impressive, especially since there were many entrepreneurs with prestigious university backgrounds, overseas education and experience as executives in large companies starting their businesses at the same time. With a grassroots team and products still in the R&D phase, Jiang Zheyuán faced numerous obstacles in securing funding. It wasn't until the end of 2023, when he created a prototype robot, that he finally obtained seed funding, marking the company’s first major hurdle.
From that moment on, Jiang Zheyuán was no longer just a simple robotics enthusiast; he became a leader needing to manage dozens of employees. He not only had to consider product development but also needed to enable the company to quickly achieve self-sufficiency, a challenge faced by all robotics entrepreneurs.
Today, Noetix Robotics has just completed its sixth round of financing and Jiang Zheyuán plans to achieve positive cash flow next year and make a profit the year after. Compared to a technical talent, he prefers to define himself as a product manager who understands technology, emphasizing that product design must be demand-driven. To better understand product logic, he even attended a sharing session by Wang Ning, the founder of Pop Mart, at the end of last year.
Although the company is gradually expanding, there is still a whiteboard in Jiang Zheyuán's office where any issues during project progress can be directly discussed with him at any time. On the day of the interview, an algorithm engineer encountered a problem with robot motion design, which was resolved after a brief discussion.
In Jiang Zheyuán's evaluation system for talent, academic qualifications are not the focus; passion comes first. His father is a professor at Tsinghua University and in his memory, his father spent most of his time in the lab, a passion that deeply influenced him. “It's a great happiness to be able to engage in the profession I love for a lifetime.”
“This year, the key competition among manufacturers is mass production.”
Beijing News Shell Finance: When did Noetix Robotics move to the new company? What was the reason?
Jiang Zheyuan: The Dragon Boat Festival holiday has just ended and we have just moved in. We are indeed facing a very serious capacity issue, which is the core reason for the move. Now, the area has doubled and we have our own dedicated factory.
To be honest, I didn't expect our product to be this popular. Since moving to the new company, we have already delivered dozens of robots. Our core task in recent months has been to increase production capacity, aiming to reach a scale of 300 to 500 units per month.
Beijing News Shell Finance: What is the current scale of the company? Are there educational requirements? Do you personally interview all the employees?
Jiang Zheyuan: Since moving to the new company, we have recruited over 30 new employees and our scale is now around 80 people, mostly post-95s and post-00s. Next month, I plan to conduct a large-scale recruitment drive and the number may increase by about 60%. In terms of recruitment, I don't have too many requirements regarding educational background; what I value most is whether candidates truly have a passion for robotics. I will personally interview those for core positions that lean toward technology and R&D.
Beijing News Shell Finance: Is Noetix Robotics focused on making the hardware itself? Will you create customized products?
Jiang Zheyuan: Yes, our current position is still that of a hardware company. The next task is to improve the stability and various capabilities of our products. Currently, we do not provide customization services for end consumers, but we can address some common needs, such as voice interaction capabilities.
Beijing News Shell Finance: For a company focused on hardware, what will be the key competitive point this year?
Jiang Zheyuan: From the perspective of hardware, the technical routes have already converged. This year, the focus is on large-scale mass production and delivery.
Beijing News Shell Finance: Are you planning to conduct research and development in the field of embodied cognition?
Jiang Zheyuan: From a long-term perspective, we will inevitably intersect with companies focused on embodied intelligence at some point in the future. Our approach is to first master the hardware and then develop an embodied brain.
For embodied brains, what the entire industry lacks now is not technology, not algorithms, but data. Personally, I feel that the entire industry hasn't fully figured out how to collect data and what scale is appropriate. Recently, I've been reading a book by Duan Yongping and I think the phrase “dare to be the last” is quite good. Sometimes the first person to 'eat the crab' is not necessarily the best.
Therefore, in the direction of embodied intelligence, our current approach is not to invest a large amount of money in large-scale R&D; we prefer to observe first, plan carefully and then take action. This is my way of thinking.
Beijing News Beike Finance: Do you think that simply making hardware has any barriers?
Jiang Zheyuan: All barriers represent an insurmountable system. When our mass production, sales and delivery processes are running smoothly, a complete positive cycle will be formed. Currently, Yushu has occupied a significant market share and breaking through this will require some investment. The marathon is a good tool for us and next, we must resolve the issue of mass production.
Beijing News Beike Finance: Are you referring to the ecosystem as channel agents? How many agents does Noetix Robotics currently have?
Jiang Zheyuan: That is part of it. We currently have dozens of agents and we just held our own ecosystem conference recently. The regions where the agents are concentrated are Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, the Greater Bay Area and Henan. This year, our goal is to expand to at least over a hundred agents.
"A new generation of robotic products will be launched by the end of the year."
Beijing News Beike Finance: Have you had a strong interest in robots since you were a child?
Jiang Zheyuan: Actually, I liked cars the most when I was young. During my doctorate, my research focused on reinforcement learning and robots are the best application area for reinforcement learning. Around the end of 2021, when I had just joined the doctoral research group at Tsinghua University, I was completely shocked when I saw Yushu's robotic dog in the lab, which sparked my interest in robots. Later, we began building humanoid robots and found that the more we built, the more interested we became.
Beijing News Beike Finance: Have you ever considered making a robotic dog as well?
Jiang Zheyuan: No, because I think Yushu has done very well in the quadruped area and I don’t see the need to create another company that makes robotic dogs unless we can think of other scenarios.
Beijing News Beike Finance: Did you initially plan to create small humanoid robot products? Why?
Jiang Zheyuan: Actually, based on market feedback, you’ll find that our predictions are quite accurate; currently, the best-selling products on the market are all small-sized robot products.
When I was designing the robot, my first thought was about user needs. If we made the robot larger, what additional value could it provide to users? After thinking and researching, we concluded that there wasn't really much added value. If the goal is to sell robot products to research institutions, a large-sized robot could present problems that might also introduce uncertainties to the surrounding environment, which could be quite dangerous.
Large-sized robots do increase in cost quite a bit, but from the perspective of user value, there isn’t a significant improvement, so we feel that small-sized robots are currently a better choice.
Beijing News Beike Finance: Now, various robotics companies are pursuing real-world applications; do you think industrial scenarios are genuine needs?
Jiang Zheyuan: We plan to launch a large-sized humanoid robot about 1.7 meters in height by the end of the year, targeted at a specific type of customer for development. Before we develop each product, we conduct thorough research to determine suitable deployment scenarios and how much user value it provides, which is very important.
The reason we are working on this large-sized humanoid robot product is also because this year, a customer approached us wanting to develop a large-sized robot for a special scenario. They themselves will place an order for a certain quantity and after conducting other research, the conclusion was that it could be done, so we proceeded with it.
Beijing News Beike Finance: So, does that mean you also conducted research when developing small-sized robots? What scenarios are the robots you’re designing currently aimed at?
Jiang Zheyuan: In fact, this small robot was originally made for myself. When I was doing research in school, I initially started with the motion control algorithms for quadruped robotic dogs and later researched bipedal control algorithms. At that time, I needed a robot that was slightly smaller, had better performance and supported secondary development functionalities. I was a user myself, so I knew that whether domestically or internationally, any user engaged in research would require a product like this, so extensive research wasn’t really necessary.
Beijing News Shell Finance: Is it more difficult to produce larger-sized robotic products?
Jiang Zheyuan: In fact, there is no difference in difficulty between large and small robots; all the architectures are the same and even the circuit boards can be reused. Of course, there will be certain optimizations later on and the algorithms have become simpler, with no significant challenges.
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"I prefer to define myself as a product manager who understands technology."
The Beijing News Shell Finance: Compared to other robot companies, what are Noetix Robotics' advantages? Is it in motion control?
Jiang Zheyuan: I don’t think our advantage lies in hardware technology; our strength is in the product. We care a lot about user experience and product definition, designing unique usage experiences. This includes the gait and appearance of our robots, which are quite different from other companies' products in the industry; we are more like a consumer electronics product.
For the robot products sent to clients, we always include some cards, stickers with our robot logo and product manuals. Even the boxes we use for shipping are specially designed, which has brought us quite close to the form of consumer electronics, already reminiscent of Apple’s design.
The Beijing News Shell Finance: So do you see yourself as a technical expert, a businessman, or some other role?
Jiang Zheyuan: I actually prefer to define myself as a product manager who understands technology, because all products ultimately aim for the consumer market and understanding user needs is very important. At the end of last year, I specially attended a class by Wang Ning, the founder of Pop Mart. I believe that many experiences in the consumer sector can be applied to the robotics industry we are in.
The Beijing News Shell Finance: So when you are building your team, do you focus on recruiting people with product thinking?
Jiang Zheyuan: When the company was first established, I didn’t have much experience in managing a team. At that time, we filled in the gaps as needed, which was quite immature. But now, we have formed a versatile team and established different departments, with everyone fulfilling their roles.
Many founders focus on existing resources that team members possess, but I actually value individual commercialization capabilities more, specifically whether they have the ability to generate revenue consistently, because resources can be exhausted, which is the difference between "fish" and "fishing." Our team’s sales leader is also quite outstanding; within two months of joining Noetix Robotics, they have already received orders for 2,000 units and, if we include interested orders, it should exceed 2,500 units.
The Beijing News - Shell Finance: Is it after the marathon?
Jiang Zheyuan: The marathon solved the problem of “good wine fears no alley”. Our technology is strong, but very few people know about us because we never promote ourselves; the marathon has helped everyone recognize us. However, the marathon brought us hundreds of orders and the remaining orders were all expanded by the team themselves.
The Beijing News - Shell Finance: The selling price of the N2 robot is 39,900 yuan. Why is the price set so low? Is it to increase visibility or to compete with Yushu Robotics?
Jiang Zheyuan: Actually, it’s both. On one hand, it’s to capture the low-price market and on the other hand, it’s to make the market aware of us. But our pricing system is quite complex; the current guidance price has also changed. In the early stages, we sacrificed some gross profit to ultimately achieve self-sustainability, aiming for scale first before achieving positive cash flow.
"Striving to achieve positive cash flow for the company next year."
The Beijing News - Shell Finance: So, is the company currently profitable? What are the future plans for commercialization?
Jiang Zheyuan: This year, we will definitely be at a loss, but we aim to achieve positive cash flow next year. However, I estimate that net profit will still be a loss because we plan to issue some stock options next year. I expect profits to improve significantly the year after next.
The Beijing News - Shell Finance: Do you believe the humanoid robot market has entered a price-cutting stage?
Jiang Zheyuan: I think it hasn't completely entered a price-cutting stage yet; we still need to work together to make the pie bigger. However, if prices remain excessively high, it might face elimination.
Beijing News Shell Finance: During the entrepreneurial process, besides the initial difficulties in securing funds, have there been other low points?
Jiang Zheyuan: In fact, I have always been in a low period, coexisting with pressure, continuously leveling up and defeating challenges. In 2023, every time I finished a round of financing, I felt it would be the last round, which was quite alarming.
It was probably in early 2024, during a critical time for the company when R&D was stalled, the team grew quickly and the most dangerous part was that the money on the company’s books was running out. The biggest problem lay with me, being young and inexperienced. Around October 2023, there was still about 30 million yuan in cash on the company's books. I had never seen so much money; when the amount of discretionary funds increases, people can become reckless. Before starting my own business, the most money I had was my monthly living expense of 2,000 yuan.
At that time, I was crazily hiring, expanding the team and spending without restraint. Even our shareholders sent me messages saying that we should save money in entrepreneurship, which was a wake-up call from reality.
It wasn’t until March 31, 2024, when our bionic facial robot product impressed the Beijing Robotics Industry Investment Fund and they invested some money, followed by a lot of old shareholders making additional investments, that the company started to recover.
Beijing News Beike Finance: Previously, Zhu Xiaohu, the managing partner at Jinxin Capital, withdrew his investment in Noetix Robotics. Did this have a big impact on you? How is the financing progress now?
Jiang Zheyuan: Actually, it didn’t have much impact. My main focus now is on product R&D and delivery. We have hired a specialized financial advisor to help us with investment consulting; I usually only participate in the final rounds. The sixth round has already been completed and the new round has entered a later stage.
Beijing News Beike Finance Reporter Zhang Han, Editor Chen Li, Proofreader Zhao Lin