FAIRINO Targets Industrial Embodied AI With New Funding

SUZHOU, China -- Collaborative robot manufacturer FAIRINO has raised nearly 1 billion yuan ($140 million) across two financing rounds led by Meituan and its investment arm, as the Chinese company expands production of industrial robot components and develops hardware and software for embodied AI.

The Series C+ and Series D rounds were led by Meituan Longzhu (Meituan's investment arm) and Meituan. Other investors included Yongxin Capital, Suzhou-based investment funds and existing shareholders. The company chose not to reveal the amounts raised per round or its current valuation, according to Chinese financial reports published in mid-October.

FAIRINO intends to utilize the funds to expand manufacturing capacity for core robot components, including controllers, encoders, servo drives, motors and harmonic reducers. It designs and produces these components itself.

Founded in 2019, the Suzhou-based company operates under the FAIRINO brand and is known in China as Faao Robotics. It produces collaborative robotic arms used for machine-loading tasks such as palletizing, welding, grinding, assembly and inspection. Its FR series covers payload capacities from 3 to 35 kilograms.

The new investment will also support the company's expansion into industrial embodied AI, including its ART series of force-controlled robotic arms designed for humanoid-style manipulation and its AIRLab, a development and testing platform.

ART focuses on manipulation hardware that can respond to physical contact and applied forces, while AIRLab provides simulation, programming and AI-assisted tools for industrial robot applications, including welding.

The company projects global robot order volume of approximately 18,000 units in 2026, up 68% from a year earlier. It also expects overseas sales to grow 87%, according to the latest Chinese reporting.

Those figures are company forecasts, not confirmed annual deliveries. FAIRINO says it has established more than 50 overseas sales outlets and three international service centers.

The company has also reported strategic agreements covering a combined 4,000 industrial humanoid-style robotic arms with two Chinese partners, although the agreements do not establish completed deliveries.
Meituan's participation in both financing rounds gives FAIRINO financial backing from one of China's largest technology groups. No robot purchase agreement or operational deployment involving Meituan was disclosed.

FAIRINO has not specified how much of the new capital will go toward embodied AI development, when its expanded component capacity will become operational or how many ART robotic arms have reached paying customers.