Unitree's First Angel Investor Now Chairs Galaxy General as Hong Kong Professors Join Embodied-AI Wave

Yin initially bought a 15% stake in Unitree. In 2018, he realized 1.31 million yuan by selling part of his holding, reducing his stake to 11.4%. In 2020, he transferred all his registered capital in Unitree to a partnership called Tianjin Junwan Hongyi for a nominal 14,300 yuan, while retaining a 16.6% interest in the partnership as an indirect shareholder. When Junwan Hongyi sold part of its Unitree shares in May 2025, Yin received about 9.64 million yuan from the deal. Quantum Bit calculated that if he had kept all his shares, the 2-million-yuan investment would have been worth about 1.848 billion yuan at the offer price, nearly 1.6 billion yuan more than his actual gains.

Yin's path to angel investing was shaped by his own entrepreneurial setbacks. In 2014, he co-founded ROOBO, an AI robotics company that raised $100 million in Series A funding in 2016, breaking domestic records at the time. But ROOBO later struggled to find a market for its educational robots and pet robot dogs, and by 2018 it had contracted its business. In October 2020, Yin published a statement saying he no longer served as ROOBO's legal representative or manager and disclaimed responsibility for its debts. The company's failure, the report notes, illustrates the difficulty of robotics entrepreneurship.

After leaving ROOBO, Yin expanded his investments into energy and aerospace. He put 1.5 million yuan into Beijing Yujian Dongli, a company applying aerospace technology to oil, gas and geothermal development, in 2021, and indirectly invested in solid-state battery maker Chongqing Tailan New Energy through a partnership. In 2025, he invested in Shenzhen Xiandeng Aerospace, a launch company for small satellites, which announced nearly 100 million yuan in cumulative financing in March 2026.

Yin's latest role at Galaxy General, a leader in embodied AI founded in May 2023, puts him at the helm of a firm that has raised more than 6.96 billion yuan and is valued above 20 billion yuan. The management reshuffle at Galaxy General, which saw 10 executives leave and 9 new ones join, was disclosed at the same time. Industry observers believe the company is preparing its next phase of capital operations, according to the report.

Beyond Yin's bets, Hong Kong's universities have become a striking source of embodied-AI founders. Quantum Bit's investigation found at least 16 professors from Hong Kong institutions co-founding or leading startups in the field. These academics are not only publishing papers; they are building companies valued in the billions. Their ventures cover the entire embodied-AI stack: world models for robot brains, tactile sensors for dexterous hands, training data, surgical robots, autonomous forklifts, and drones.

One of the most influential figures is Li Zexiang, a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who mentored DJI founder Wang Tao and backed the drone giant in its early days. Li later built XbotPark, an incubation base and fund in Dongguan, which has spawned companies such as Yunji Intelligent, EcoFlow and HAI Robotics. His model of turning research into industry has inspired a generation.

Zhang Fu, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong, founded Saiyu Technology in February 2026 to industrialize drone-brain technology from his lab. He said Li influenced him to "get your hands dirty" — to leave the ivory tower and work with factories, suppliers and users. The pain of entrepreneurship, he said, comes from being treated differently as a founder rather than a professor.

This "professor-student" startup model is common in the region. Wang Yu, a HKUST professor and co-founder of Daimeng Robotics, which makes tactile sensors, told Quantum Bit that the trust built from years of academic cooperation allows teams to work back-to-back without lengthy alignment. His partner, Duang Jianghua, a former PhD student, is the CEO. Similarly, Future Robotics, founded by CUHK professor Liu Yunhui, is run by his former doctoral students.

Yin Fangming, who once said he was always looking for "what is the next," declined an interview when reached by Quantum Bit. He left a short message: "Please support outstanding embodied-intelligence entrepreneurs like Wang Xingxing."