2026-11-13 16:00

Introduction: The commercialization of robotics is shifting from selling hardware to delivering task-based outcomes, with Worken pioneering the pricing of productivity. According to AI Insight, today (November 13), Qingtian Lease announced the closing of a strategic funding round worth hundreds of millions of yuan, jointly participated by HeDa Investment, Mango Industry Investment (Houwei Capital), Zhonglian Jisong, and other industrial and cultural forces.

AI Insight reports that this marks the 7th disclosed funding round for Qingtian Lease within 2026.

Founded in December 2025, Qingtian Lease was jointly initiated by Yuan Robotics and Feikuo Technology, becoming one of the first entrants into the robotics leasing market. With this latest round of financing, Qingtian Lease unveiled a business model upgrade—transitioning from “robot leasing” to “robotic productivity services,” evolving from renting equipment to delivering completed tasks.

Seven Rounds in One Year – A Fierce Race

Looking across this round, it appears each investor brings more than just capital.

Houwei Capital, a market-oriented private equity management arm under the Mango Media Group, will bridge content and embodied intelligence—transforming robots from mere performance props into physical carriers of IP content and core nodes of immersive experiences. Together, they are pioneering a new entertainment paradigm of “IP content + robotic performances + offline interaction,” bringing embodied intelligence into mainstream consumer scenarios.

HeDa Investment will support Qingtian Lease’s regional industrial expansion and facilitate the aggregation of technological, talent, and service resources, jointly advancing the rollout of the Worken training system. By validating robot capabilities and enabling scalable replication through real-world industrial scenarios, they aim to establish regional benchmarks for the commercialization of embodied intelligence.

Zhonglian Jisong Network Technology Co., Ltd., specializing in on-demand delivery, will open up authentic logistics scenarios such as last-mile delivery and campus services post-investment. In collaboration with Qingtian Lease, they will refine robot swarm operation strategies and validate multi-robot collaborative scheduling capabilities within actual business workflows, driving the evolution of robot services from commercial performances toward industrial necessities and unlocking large-scale application potential for clustered services.

The funds raised will be fully dedicated to building core capabilities in robotic productivity services, with key investments focused on application service R&D, Worken training system deployment, full-industry ecosystem development, and nationwide fulfillment network upgrades.

Despite being less than a year old, Qingtian Lease has experienced rapid fundraising momentum.

In January 2026, the company closed its seed round led by Hillhouse Venture Capital, with participation from Fosun Innovation Capital, Muhua Science & Technology, Dafeng Industry, and an embodied intelligence firm under Zhangjiang Group. Notably, pure financial investors rarely appear on the shareholder roster—investors must bring industrial resources or have clear business extension potential.

Shortly after, in March, Qingtian Lease completed both its angel and angel+ rounds, raising over 100 million yuan cumulatively. Lead investors included listed company Da Yang Electric Motor, Muhua Science & Technology, and Minzhuo Mechanical & Electrical, with follow-on investors including Yule Entertainment, Fuzhuo Investment, Mingjia Capital, Ruizhi Venture Capital, Tianji Investment, Jiaxing Nantou, and Zhixing Investment. Existing shareholder Dafeng Industry oversubscribed. Reports indicate over 40 investment institutions expressed interest, with Mingjia Capital—managed by actor Huang Xiaoming—making a decision within less than 24 hours after initial discussions.

Soon thereafter, Qingtian Lease announced a pre-A round worth hundreds of millions of yuan, with participation not only from industrial players like CP Group’s CP Robotics and Changxin Holdings but also multiple listed companies such as Meige Intelligent and Blue Sky Technology, alongside continued follow-on investments from existing shareholders.

We saw in May that Qingtian Lease further announced the completion of Series A and A+ rounds, raising several hundred million yuan.

Within months, this company—which neither manufactures robots nor develops their “brains”—has emerged as a unicorn in the field of embodied intelligence.

The Commercialization Testbed

Qingtian Lease is breaking away from the perception of “leasing robots”.

Once robots enter real-world environments, clients often require more than just a single device—they demand reliable task execution, continuous operation, and ongoing service assurance. From coordinating multiple robots for a single performance to enabling collaborative operations in science museums, commercial spaces, and industrial settings, application demands are expanding beyond single-machine use to encompass multi-model, multi-role cluster services.

In response, Qingtian Lease has launched a strategic upgrade: moving from equipment supply-demand matching to task orchestration, swarm scheduling, and continuous service delivery—evolving from leasing robots to delivering productivity.

On the equipment supply side, besides Yuan Robotics, Qingtian Lease has integrated nearly 20 native robot brands, including Gaoqing, Yingzhi XBOT, Shouxing, YouWorld, and Zhongqing. Simultaneously, it continues to build global asset network dispatching capabilities, a robot swarm operating system, and operational expertise. Through a comprehensive orchestration system, it links devices, skills, and work tasks, transforming equipment availability into deliverable productivity.

Deng Feng, Qingtian Lease’s newly appointed CEO, previously stated that AI should not remain confined to screens and chat interfaces—it must manifest through embodied intelligent agents like robots to solve real-world problems in production and service. The value creation of robots should extend beyond single-unit operations toward large-scale cluster deployment and collaborative workflows. Productivity and commercial value must be measured by robot count, duration of continuous operation, and actual work efficiency.

Thus, when robots operate in swarms, Qingtian Lease uses Worken as the core metric to assess effective autonomous output. Through Worken, Qingtian Lease aims to gradually establish a measurable, comparable, and settleable service accounting framework, providing foundational support for pricing robot capabilities, delivering services, and enabling continuous optimization across diverse scenarios.

At the same time, the upgrade of the robotic productivity service network—clustered services require not only devices and technology but also local service organizations capable of taking on projects and sustaining operations.

Currently, Qingtian Lease has 20 national operations centers officially operational, covering cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou. As regional hubs for embodied intelligence operations, these centers manage market expansion, project delivery, ongoing service provision, and ecosystem collaboration. In the first phase, Qingtian Lease will complete the deployment of 54 city-level service nodes.

The true test lies in the shift from commercial performances to industrial necessities.

Stepping back, Qingtian Lease’s transformation sits at a pivotal juncture for the entire embodied intelligence industry. In 2026, capital and acclaim were predominantly directed toward hardware bodies and models—but on the client side, the pressing challenge has shifted to tangible, real-world implementation details. Consequently, the industrial chain is beginning to transition from “selling equipment” to “paying for task outcomes.”

Thus, leasing—a seemingly lightest business model—may actually be the heaviest layer of infrastructure. Ultimately, it returns to a fundamental commercial truth: robots without customer adoption will inevitably fade into obscurity.

Source: AI Insight