Inside Unitree's long road to IPO: Sequoia's 8-point memo and a robot dog on a sleeper train
elsewhere别处发生 · wechat · 2026-08-19
As Unitree goes public, 'elsewhere' collected artifacts from early investors—WeChat logs, investment memos, old photos—to reconstruct Wang Xingxing's journey from a 2M RMB angel check in 2018 to a market-consensus company by 2024.
Key moments: in 2019, Sequoia China analyst Li Yannan found Wang via a QQ email on the company site; because the robot dog's battery exceeded flight limits, Wang carried an A1 in a 20-inch suitcase on a 10+ hour sleeper train from Hangzhou to Beijing for the pitch. Sequoia partner Cao Xi scored the deal 8—meaning 'must invest.' Chuxin Capital's 2020 memo showed an 18-person company with 11.83M RMB revenue and 26.5% net margin in 2019, with clients including Google, Nvidia, Apple and Andy Rubin. Jinqiu Fund, after five years of watching, cited Unitree's #1 market share (80% of related papers built on its hardware) and RL-based motion control as decisive factors.
Related event: Unitree IPO Spurs Retrospective on Sequoia's Early Bet(2 posts)→
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