Suzhou Zhijian raises tens of millions of yuan in Pre-A led by Shenzhen Capital Group
What's the deal? Zhijian Zhiqing (指尖智擎), a Suzhou-based micro motor startup, has closed a pre-A round worth tens of millions of yuan. Shenzhen Capital Group (深创投) led the round, with Tianqi CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Joyo Asia following. The funds will go toward ramping up production of its miniature axial flux motors, building coreless motor production lines, and securing supply chain delivery for global clients.
Founded in August 2024, the company makes miniature axial flux joint modules and coreless motors for robot dexterous hands, consumer robots, lightweight robotic arms, and medical devices. Founder Zhang Yang brings 12 years of motor industry experience from stints at MideaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Weifu Hi-Tech, and Hesai Technology.
Why now? The humanoid robotics industry faces a stubborn trilemma: miniaturisation, high performance, and low cost remain nearly impossible to achieve simultaneously. Dexterous hands — a critical component for humanoid robots — suffer from shortcomings in precision, degrees of freedom, and torque density.
Zhijian Zhiqing's approach combines a proprietary axial flux motor with PCB windings and a cycloidal reducer. Its products range from 16mm to 30mm in outer diameter, far smaller than competitors. The company says no other manufacturer has integrated all three technologies at this scale.
"We entered the market late, so we had to differentiate through miniaturisation with a forward-looking technical roadmap," Zhang said.
What could go wrong? Reliability remains the industry's Achilles heel. Zhang acknowledged that dexterous hand lifespans — often marketed in millions of cycles — translate to just a few hundred hours of continuous use, falling short of even consumer electronics standards. Under load, that figure drops to a tenth. The company is working to improve durability across materials, structure, and manufacturing processes.
The startup is also less than a year old. Scaling from its current capacity of 100,000 joint modules per year to a planned 200,000 by Q3 will test both its supply chain and its 100-person team.
The signal: Shenzhen Capital Group, one of China's largest state-backed venture funds, leading a pre-A round for a company less than a year old underscores how seriously Chinese institutional capital is treating the embodied intelligence component supply chain. With co-investors Tianqi Capital and Joyo Asia echoing the thesis that micro actuators represent a "core bottleneck" in robotics, the round suggests that investor appetite is shifting from flashy humanoid robot integrators toward the unsexy but critical miniaturised hardware underneath — a space where, as the founder notes, no competitor has yet combined all three key technologies at this scale.
Read more: 36kr.com
