Reviving the ACR listing
After first filing with the Hong Kong exchange in February 2026, warehouse-automation leader Hai Robotics updated its prospectus on 13 September and restarted its IPO, which could make it the first “ACR” listing in Hong Kong. Before the listing the company completed fifteen funding rounds totalling about 4.13 billion yuan, with a Pre-IPO-plus round in January 2026.
Its backers form a heavyweight roster. The XBOT PARK fund of D.J.I mentor Li Ze-xiang, Gao Bingqiang and Gan Jie seeded it early, later joined by Best Express, Legend Star, Source Code Capital, Sequoia China, DG Capital, Walden and General Atlantic. Post-Series-E value reached 10.9 billion yuan, squarely in unicorn territory.
Hai Robotics remains in the exchange’s inquiry and hearing stage. The prospectus directs proceeds to four areas. It upgrades ACR solutions, software, algorithms and the next-generation stack, expands global manufacturing and supply-chain resilience, widens global commercial reach, and funds working capital.
What ACR actually does
Co-founded in 2016 by Chen Yuqi with Hong Kong PolyU and ETH Zurich classmates Fang Bing and Xu Shengdong, with Li Ze-xiang as chief adviser, Hai Robotics targets the most labour-heavy piece of warehousing: broken-case picking. ACR means carton-carrying robots that climb high racks, pull single bins with precision and complete put-away, picking and transport without moving whole racks, raising density and efficiency without restructuring the building.
From the first HaiPick System 1 in 2017 to the HaiPick Climb supporting up to 15 metres in 2025, the world’s first mass-commercialised single-sided climbing ACR, the company now self-develops the robot body, positioning algorithms, controls, cluster scheduling and warehouse management. It spent 1.03 billion yuan on R&D from 2023 to 2025 and another 249 million in the first half of 2026, with 2,495 patent applications filed.
The revenue mix is shifting
Hai Robotics now runs an ACR plus AMR dual matrix. Early HaiPick System 1 was 92.8 per cent of 2023 revenue at 748 million yuan. By the first half of 2026 it had fallen to 29.7 per cent at 332 million. The newer HaiPick System 3 reached 607 million yuan and 54.3 per cent, the top revenue source, while HaiPick Climb contributed 149 million yuan and 13.3 per cent.
By 2025 revenue it served seven of the top ten global apparel brands and seven of the top ten logistics providers, including Anta, Li-Ning, L’Oreal, Kohler, Philips, Maersk and Panasonic Logistics. It has signed over 2,000 projects and delivered over 1,600.
New orders hit 2.35 billion yuan in the first half, up 48.8 per cent year on year and close to 80 per cent of all of 2025, with backlog above 4.1 billion yuan.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original OFweek report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience. The full original (in Chinese) is at https://robot.ofweek.com/2026-09/ART-8321202-8120-30703100.html.