A second run at the Hong Kong listing
After first submitting a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in February 2026, Hai Robotics, a leader in warehouse automation, refreshed its listing application on 13 September and restarted the Hong Kong IPO process, in a bid to become the exchange’s first ACR-listed company. Before the listing it had completed 15 intensive equity rounds, raising about RMB 4.13 billion, with capital recognition maxed out. In January 2026 it closed a Pre-IPO-plus round.
Behind the company sits a line-up of top-tier domestic institutions. The XBOT PARK fund founded by Li Zexiang, the so-called godfather of DJI, alongside Gao Bingqiang and Gan Jie, provided the early seed backing. Later entrants included Best Express, Legend Star, Source Code Capital, Sequoia China, DG Capital, Walden International and General Atlantic. After the E round, Hai Robotics reached a post-money valuation of RMB 10.9 billion, firmly among the warehouse-robotics unicorns.
The ACR bet, and why it won
Hai Robotics is also the dark-horse that ran out of Li Zexiang’s robotics map. In 2016, Chen Yuqi founded Hai Robotics with alumni Fang Bing and Xu Shengdong, whom he met at Hong Kong Polytechnic and ETH Zurich, with Li as chief adviser. As e-commerce, new retail and smart manufacturing accelerated, warehouse orders fragmented, labour costs rose, and traditional manual warehousing proved inefficient and error-prone, making automation a necessity.
Competitors took different paths. The category leader Geek+ is an all-scene warehouse AMR provider covering shelf-to-person, bin-to-person and pallet-to-person across the whole warehouse flow. Hai Robotics instead focused precisely on the most time-consuming, labour-heavy piece-picking scene and was the first to create the ACR solution.
In plain terms, ACR is a bin-handling robot that climbs high racks, precisely retrieves individual totes and automates the full put-away, picking and transport flow without moving whole racking, lifting storage density and efficiency without restructuring the building.
From one product to a portfolio
From its first ACR solution, HaiPick System 1, in 2017, to HaiPick Climb in 2025, the world’s first mass-commercialised single-side climbing ACR reaching 15 metres, to the 2026 upgrade, Hai Robotics achieved self-development of the robot body, localisation algorithm, control system, fleet scheduling and warehouse-management software. It filed 2,495 patents worldwide by 30 June 2026, the most complete patent set among ACR providers.
The technology translated into product and revenue mix. Early core HaiPick System 1 was the absolute revenue pillar, RMB 748 million in 2023 at 92.8 per cent of revenue, but its share fell to 29.7 per cent, RMB 332 million, in the first half of 2026. The newer HaiPick System 3 surged to RMB 607 million, 54.3 per cent of revenue. The 2025-launched HaiPick Climb contributed RMB 149 million, 13.3 per cent, in the half.
The operating engine
By revenue counted in 2025, Hai Robotics served seven of the world’s top ten fashion companies and seven of the top ten 3PLs, with Anta, Li-Ning, L’Oreal, Kohler, Philips, Maersk and Panasonic Logistics on the client list. By 30 June 2026 it had signed more than 2,000 projects and delivered more than 1,600, building a mature loop of small pilot, efficiency proof and large repeat expansion.
In the first half of 2026 new orders reached RMB 2.353 billion, up 48.8 per cent, nearly 80 per cent of full-year 2025. Open orders exceeded RMB 4.1 billion at the end of June. Revenue climbed from RMB 807 million in 2023 to RMB 1.36 billion in 2024 and RMB 2.017 billion in 2025, up 68.5 per cent then 48.3 per cent, and the first half of 2026 reached RMB 1.118 billion, up 70.2 per cent.
Still in the red, but narrowing
Like most hardware-robotics names, Hai Robotics remains loss-making. Net loss widened from RMB 1.009 billion in 2023 to RMB 1.256 billion in 2024, then narrowed to RMB 828 million in 2025, a 34.1 per cent cut. Adjusted net loss fell to RMB 468 million. In the first half of 2026 revenue was RMB 1.118 billion, up 70.2 per cent, with a net loss of RMB 431 million and an adjusted net loss of only RMB 208 million. Having lost RMB 3.524 billion across three and a half years, the ACR candidate may yet find balance between growth and profit as bin-handling robots penetrate the piece-picking scene.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original OFweek Robotics report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience.