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Issue #005 · Monday, 9 March 2026

#5: CATL leads this week's China funding (2 Mar–9 Mar)

China Funding Weekly — Issue #005

Issue #005  ·  2 Mar–9 Mar 2026

China Funding Weekly

🇨🇳

20

Rounds tracked

$8.6B

Total disclosed

ai

Top sector

This week's signal

ai · 13 rounds

Top sector

26%

Late-stage capital

Hong Kong

Top city · 1 rounds

The robotics cluster — Robot Era, Pasini Perception, and Galaxea AI all closing $144–145M rounds simultaneously — suggests coordinated capital deployment into embodied AI infrastructure, not organic market discovery; someone is building a supply chain, not just backing bets. European investors still treating humanoid robotics as a 5-year horizon should note that China is apparently funding it like it's an 18-month race.

Deep Dive

airobotics

PaXini's $150M Series B: China's Force Sensor Race Hits Escape Velocity

Shenzhen-based PaXini Tech has closed a $150M Series B, following a $139M Series A just months prior — a $289M raise in under a year for a company that makes tactile force sensors for robotic systems. The speed and scale signal that embodied perception hardware is now a standalone category, not a robotics subsystem. European founders building in humanoid robotics and industrial automation should read this as a market-timing alert.

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roboticsai

Pasini Perception's $145M Series B: Tactile AI in China's Robot Arms Race

Shenzhen-based Pasini Perception Technology has closed a $145M Series B at a ¥10B+ valuation, betting that tactile sensing is the missing layer in embodied AI. While European robotics investment doubled to €1.45B in 2025, no European player has yet matched the data flywheel Pasini is building around multi-modal tactile intelligence — a gap that deserves attention.

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ai

Galaxea AI's $144M Series B: China's Enterprise AI Reaches Escape Velocity

Galaxea AI has closed a $144M Series B at a reported $10B valuation — a number that demands scrutiny for European operators. With Ant Group and Meituan among its backers, this Beijing-based company signals how fast China's enterprise AI application layer is concentrating capital and strategic ownership. European founders building in the same stack should read the investor list carefully.

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Top Rounds This Week

CATL 宁德时代

$5.8B

Strategic evenergy

China's dominant battery maker attracting $5.8B in strategic capital signals that the global EV supply chain is consolidating around a handful of vertically integrated giants, leaving little room for newcomers without deep manufacturing scale. European battery startups like Northvolt have already felt this pressure, and investors backing European energy storage plays should stress-test their portfolio companies against CATL's ability to undercut on cost while continuing to outspend on R&D.

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Linkerbot

$217M

Series B

The sheer scale of a $217M Series B in an undisclosed sector points to Chinese investors doubling down on a company with clear traction, likely in AI, robotics, or industrial automation — the verticals currently attracting outsized late-stage bets in China. European founders should watch for what Linkerbot reveals about its core product, as Chinese B2B platforms at this funding level often signal category-defining plays that will eventually pressure Western incumbents or spawn copycat opportunities.

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PaXini Tech 帕西尼感知科技

$150M

Series B airobotics

A $150M Series B in embodied perception signals that Chinese capital is doubling down on the sensory and cognitive layer of robotics — the hard hardware-software integration problem that determines whether autonomous systems actually work in unstructured real-world environments. European deep-tech founders building in industrial automation, human-robot interaction, or edge AI should watch this space closely, as Chinese firms are moving fast to own the full stack from perception to action, raising the competitive bar for anyone targeting global manufacturing and logistics markets.

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Robot Era

$145M

Strategic roboticsai

The involvement of Samsung and Singtel as lead investors signals that Asian industrial giants are placing early, large bets on embodied AI as the next hardware platform shift — prioritizing Chinese university-linked research pipelines over building in-house. European founders in robotics or physical AI should note that Tsinghua's equity stake reflects a structural advantage in China's innovation model that accelerates commercialization timelines in ways that EU academic-industry partnerships rarely match.

Investors: Samsung, Singtel

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Pasini Perception Technology 帕西尼感知科技

$145M

Series B roboticsai 📍 Shenzhen

China's robotics sector is consolidating around "embodied AI" as a distinct investment category, with billion-yuan Series B rounds signaling that domestic capital views hardware-integrated intelligence as the next infrastructure layer—not a niche bet. European founders building at the intersection of physical robotics and AI should watch Shenzhen closely, as the manufacturing ecosystem enabling these companies creates both a competitive benchmark and a potential supply-chain partnership opportunity.

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All Rounds This Week

Company Stage Sector Amount
Pasini Perception Technology Shenzhen Series B robotics $145M
Pacini Series B $145M
Extreme Vision Pre-B ai $145M
Pasini Series B ai $145M
Galaxea AI Series B ai $144M
Kaleido Series B ai $100M
Karl Power Series B $100M
XREAL Strategic ai $60M
Jimeiruisheng Series C biotech $51M
VAST Series A ai $50M
VAST Series A ai $50M
LightSail Tech Seed ai $43M
Huafeng Integrated Circuits Beijing Series A ai $43M
LightSail Technology Seed $43M
Rona Therapeutics Series A biotech $33M

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