Lenovo’s venture arm just backed a Shenzhen exoskeleton maker for the fourth time
Lenovo’s venture arm has now backed a Shenzhen exoskeleton maker four times, and the bet is on ageing, not athletics. MetoRobot, founded in 2016 by a team of returnee PhDs, has closed a roughly RMB 100 million strategic round from CSC, a state-linked investor. Lenovo Capital, which had already joined four earlier rounds, is among the holders who kept returning.
The firm supplies medical and elder-care exoskeleton products and solutions built on flexible-actuator human-machine interaction. Its range spans hospital rehab, home care and daily walking aids, including the 3000-Step wellness line meant to fit hospital, community, park and home use. A new chief executive, Chen Kangning, came out of multinationals such as Johnson and Johnson and brings experience in product registration and channel building.
The numbers behind this quiet category are loud. China’s exoskeleton market passed RMB 1.6 billion in 2025 on about 26,000 units, and in the first half of 2026 smart-exoskeleton demand rose 458.4 per cent year on year while JD.com sales jumped more than 15,000 per cent. MetoRobot’s 2025 revenue grew nearly 200 per cent, with overseas contributing over a third, and its core products hold a Class II NMPA certificate.
Policy is pushing the same way. The 15th Five-Year Plan for healthcare names smart exoskeletons for long-term care. With more than 200 patents and volume production underway, MetoRobot sits in a category moving from niche hardware to elder-care staple, exactly the kind of dull, demanded market that rewards patient backers.
The exoskeleton left the lab as a curiosity for clinics and sci-fi fairs. It is returning as a device a family buys so a parent keeps walking, and Shenzhen’s dense rehab-supply chain is where that shift is being built first.
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.
Translated and adapted from OFweek (link).