The Embodied AI sector is welcoming a major player. TARS, a rising star in the field, recently announced the completion of a US$120 million angel funding round, marking the largest angel round in China’s embodied AI sector. The round was jointly led by Lanchi Ventures and Qiming Venture Partners, followed by Linear Capital, Hengxu Capital, Hongtai Fund, Lenovo Capital, Xianghe Capital, and GL Ventures. Earmarked to further accelerate product R&D, model training optimization, and multi-scenario expansion, the funds will help propel TARS to pioneer new frontiers in embodied AI.

“Lanchi Ventures has made a long-term, systematic investment in the embodied AI sector, and has been the first institutional investor for several category-defining unicorns,” Lanchi Ventures emphasized. “Our conviction stems from China’s evolving comparative advantages. As primary growth drivers shift, the country’s unparalleled strengths in industrial supply chains, technical talent, and application scenarios will empower its innovators to deliver world-class tech products and services.”

Lanchi Ventures also highlighted TARS’ extensive tech capabilities: “The TARS team stands out with their full-stack AI expertise, including world-leading proficiency in building world models, proven expertise in engineering large-scale complex systems, and technical foundation in robot design and motion control algorithms that enable hardware-software integration,” Lanchi Ventures observed. “Most importantly, their profound insights into industrial pain points enables them to identify high-value application scenaros and deliver full solutions. TARS is not just a “robotics company” but a “scenario-based industry solutions company”. We are backing them to catalyze industrial transformation.”

In late 2024, TARS first approached Lanchi Ventures for potential funding shortly after conceiving its entrepreneurial concepts. “We conducted research, scenario simulations, and cross-validation, and the TARS team impressed us deeply,” stated Lanchi Ventures. “We have identified two critical challenges for embodied AI companies: first, whether they can identify clear, high-value commercial scenarios driven by embodied intelligence to establish competitive barriers; and second, whether their technical solutions can evolve continuously to align with industry advancements while integrating past achievements. Addressing these challenges requires dual competencies: architecting hypercomplex systems and precisely evaluating the potential of emerging technologies.”

TARS represents a rare convergence of these competencies. Core members bring experience in autonomous driving, a field that has achieved full-cycle commercialization from technology to market, granting them deeper insights into these challenges. While academic and industrial explorations in embodied intelligence are advancing in synergy, teams with diverse strengths are pursuing distinct technical and commercial strategies to unlock scenario-specific value. However, one immutable principle remains: fostering intelligent growth by addressing real-world needs — monetization, data acquisition, and knowledge iteration— is the only path to reaching true product-market fit.

“TARS aims to build a trustworthy, super-embodied intelligence systems based on physical-world AI and general-purpose robotics, enabling scalable integration of high-performance AI into global industries and daily life. Embodied AI will reshape industries over the next decade,” said Dr. Chen Yilun, Founder and CEO of TARS. “Our goal is to break boundaries in physical-world AI and unlock the full potential of embodied intelligence.”

Officially founded on February 5, 2025, TARS’ unique value proposition lies in its integrated competencies in embodied AI large models, hardware, and integrated mass production. On the technical front, TARS pioneered the industry’s first Human-Centric embodied data engine, achieving quantum leaps in real-world embodied data acquisition. It has also developed an integrated spatial perception and decision-making large model. By developing data-driven, generalizable intelligent physical systems, TARS aims to advancing the arrival of the “GPT moment” for embodied AI.

TARS’ founding team have been hailed as an “all-star team” with exceptional full-stack AI capabilities. The CEO, Dr. Chen Yilun, is a pioneer in China’s embodied AI and autonomous driving industries and previously served as Chief Robotics Scientist at Tsinghua University’s Institute for AI Industry Research, CTO of Huawei’s Autonomous Driving Unit, and Lead Engineer at DJI’s Machine Vision Division. The Chief Scientist of the team, Dr. Ding Wenchao, is a former Huawei “Genius Youth” recruit who spearheaded the development of Huawei’s end-to-end autonomous decision-making network and created Fudan University’s first humanoid robot. Dr. Chen Tongqing is the team’s Chief Architect. Completing his Ph.D. at Tsinghua University, he is a National Major Project Lead Scientist, as well as the Former Head of Huawei’s ADS Intelligent Navigation Department and spatial perception expert, who has driven breakthroughs across industrial manufacturing, AI, robotics, and autonomous systems, successfully bringing multiple products to market. Chief Strategy Officer Vincent, a multimodal learning expert, is a seasoned entrepreneur who has led multiple startups to achieve leapfrog growth. He has previously held technical leadership roles at Huawei and Baidu, combining a strategic vision with a proven track record in commercialization. The Chairman Li Zhenyu, former President of Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group, is a pioneering force in China’s autonomous driving sector. He led the development of Baidu’s open-source autonomous driving platform Apollo Open Platform and “Luobo Kuaipao”, the world’s largest robotaxi service platform.

Drawing on the founding team’s extensive experience of developing flagship AI products and technologies, TARS aims to create groundbreaking embodied AI innovations to inject new vitality into the industry.

Li Zhenyu, Founder and Chairman of TARS, stated: “China’s embodied AI sector is booming, helped by the country’s mature smart hardware ecosystem, continuously evolving AI capabilities, far-reaching application scenarios and world-leading talent. TARS is committed to partnering with global embodied AI innovators to accelerate breakthroughs in mission-critical technologies, driving sustainable and scalable growth across the industry.”

Currently, TARS has solidified its core team, with employees now operational at its Shanghai headquarters. The company is actively scaling R&D recruitment to welcome driven professionals who demonstrate technical expertise, product-centric innovation, and long-term potential.

About TARS
TARS, an AI-native embodied intelligence technology company, was officially founded on February 5, 2025. With a mission to build trusted advanced embodied AI systems centered on physical-world AI and general-purpose robotics, the company is committed to integrating high-performance AI at scale into global industries and daily life. TARS’ vision is to become the global leader in the embodied AI innovation.

About Lanchi Ventures
Lanchi Ventures (LCV), a leading early-stage venture capital firm with offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Beijing, focuses on investing in entrepreneurs who leverage technological innovations to create a sustainable impact. With its heritage in Silicon Valley since 1998, Lanchi Ventures (LCV) manages over $2 billion in capital through multiple funds and has invested across AI, robotics, consumer, bio + healthcare. To date, Lanchi Ventures has backed over 200 portfolio companies, providing long-term, full-cycle support from the early stages.

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