Humanoid robotics company Zeroth Robotics on Thursday, July 2, raised nearly 500 million yuan ($73.58 million) in a pre-Series A financing round, bringing its total funding to 1 billion yuan.

The round was led by Ant Group, with participation from Geely Capital, 37 Interactive Entertainment, Hua Capital, and existing investor Monolith, who also increased their stake.

The Suzhou, China-headquartered startup plans to use the funds to drive six core technology developments, including structural innovation, world models, VLA models, actuator modules, in-house robotic arms, and biomimetic cognitive models. It will also deploy the capital for talent acquisition and global market expansion.

Besides the funding, Zeroth also announced two full-size embodied AI products: the Jupiter humanoid robot, designed to be a long-term home companion with general intelligent capabilities; and the N1 collaborative robot, featuring a world-first heterogeneous robotic arm solution that aims to enter family scenarios.

The startup claimed it has received orders for over 30,000 units, and that operating revenue in the first half of the year surged 600% from a year ago.

Founded in 2024, Zeroth Robotics—known in China as Suzhou JoyIn Intelligent Technology—plans to introduce a Physical AI ecosystem for humanoid robots later this year.

According to a CNBC report, this is the 12th company in the sector that the Alibaba-affiliated group has invested in since the beginning of 2025. Ant’s investment also ranges from humanoid robotics companies Galaxea and Unitree to parts and software startups such as Linkerbot, Hypershell, and Genrobot AI.

After Chinese regulators halted Ant’s IPO plans in 2020, the company behind Alipay launched a healthcare services app and released its own artificial intelligence models, the report added.

In late 2024, it also established a humanoid robot subsidiary, RobbyAnt, which subsequently developed its own robot.

The report said that Ant has released an AI- and robotics-friendly version of its Alipay mobile payments service—an area Zeroth said it would like to collaborate on.