Shenzhen Maibu Robot Technology has closed a new strategic financing round worth nearly 100 million yuan, led by the state-owned CITIC Construction Investment. The deal accelerates product iteration and the rollout of frontier work such as brain-computer interfaces, while extending the company’s reach across the last mile of care, from hospital and community to home.
The round is the latest sign of deep capital confidence. Maibu had already drawn a roster of top backers, among them Lenovo Capital, which invested across four consecutive rounds, alongside Taiyou Fund, Sihuan Pharmaceutical, Xingchen Fund, Dening Industrial and Shangshan Capital.
Founded in 2016 by a team of returned overseas PhDs, Maibu builds medical and elderly-care exoskeleton products and solutions. Its new chief executive, Chen Kangning, spent years inside multinationals such as Johnson and Johnson and brings end-to-end experience in product registration, channel building and commercial scale-up.
The company has built a broad matrix around flexible-actuator human-machine interaction: the H, A and C series for children’s lower-limb rehabilitation, the 3,000-Step wellness line, and the MAX daily walking-assist range, covering in-hospital rehab, home care and everyday mobility. The 3,000-Step line, with its light, portable and human-centred design, fits hospitals, communities, parks and homes, nudging users toward a daily 3,000-step fast-walk habit.
Maibu holds more than 200 patents, and its core products have won China’s Class II medical-device certification from the NMPA and entered the market at volume. In 2025 its revenue grew by close to 200 per cent, with overseas sales contributing more than a third.
Why exoskeletons are suddenly a consumer category
The sector is widely seen as having broken out in 2025. According to IDC, China’s exoskeleton market exceeded 1.6 billion yuan in 2025 with about 26,000 units shipped. Medical rehabilitation still dominates market value, but the consumer-assist segment drove more than 70 per cent of shipments and became the core source of incremental volume.
Momentum carried into 2026. Ministry of Commerce data shows domestic smart-exoskeleton device demand rose 458.4 per cent year on year in the first half, and JD Retail’s figures put product sales up by more than 15,000 per cent over the same window as consumer demand lit up.
Policy is reinforcing the trend. The National Healthcare Security Administration’s 15th Five-Year plan for universal medical insurance explicitly promotes smart exoskeletons and similar intelligent devices in long-term care. With policy, market and consumer demand stacked together, exoskeletons are moving from niche deep tech to a care necessity.
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/2026-08/ART-8321203-8120-30700672.html.