On 9 September, at the Inclusion Bund Summit, Hangzhou Laimeng Technology said it had closed a tens-of-millions-yuan angel round for its AI robot, with Fashion Media Group and Hongyi Asset Management co-leading.
Fashion Media Group, founded in 1993 with brands across apparel and jewellery, is making its first bet in AI robotics. On 25 September its bibo will appear at the 2026 Harper’s Bazaar night as the ‘happy planet navigator’, with follow-on designer, limited product and content work. Hongyi Asset Management backs embodied intelligence, dexterous hands, multimodal models and quantum computing, with stakes in StepFun, the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre, Lingxin Qiaoshou and TuringQ.
Laimeng, founded in January 2025 with about 30 staff from Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance, is led by founder Martin (Wang Shouchang), a 15-year Alibaba veteran behind Aliwangwang, Alipay and Banma. His earlier tech toys sold over 1.5 million units, giving him brand, e-commerce and creator reach.
A companion that fits in one hand
The core product bibo launched in June 2026 at 1,499 yuan. It is a toy-form, non-verbal emotional robot, 15.5 cm tall and 330 g, about the size of a held fist. It carries five sensor types and a high-mobility camera in a multimodal array, with a self-built emotion brain and feedback loop that learns from what the user sees and feels and reacts in the moment.
Unlike most AI toys that bolt a model onto plush, bibo uses an embodied architecture. On a tennis court it can hang on a bag as decor and record the user’s best moments, even shifting photo tone with mood: warmer when happy, cooler when down. It debuted at CES 2026 and has reached 16 countries and regions.
After launch the first batch sold out fast, with over 60 daily interactions per user and more than 120 minutes of average companion time a day. Laimeng also outlined three next steps: global channels, bibo accessories and supply stocking, and IP and derivative work, with a first offline store in Hangzhou and plans for Japan, Southeast Asia and the US.
The companion-robot market is heating up. A 2026 industry report puts China’s companion-robot market at about 79.6 billion yuan in 2024, possibly 110 billion to 140 billion yuan by end-2026, with over 30 AI-companion firms at CES 2026, at least 20 of them Chinese. Next year may bring an unprecedented breakout.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original 36Kr report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience.
Translated and adapted from 36Kr (https://36kr.com/p/3975777320284422).