On August 19, Unitree Robotics listed on Shanghai’s Star Market with a market capitalization of about RMB 61 billion (USD 9 billion) at its offer price, becoming the latest of Hangzhou’s “six little dragons” to reach the public markets.
By the morning close, Unitree’s shares had risen 486.12% from its IPO offer price, pushing its market capitalization as high as RMB 357.5 billion (USD 53 billion). The surge reinforced investor interest in embodied intelligence and raised the valuation benchmark for Chinese hard technology companies.
The rest of Hangzhou’s closely watched startup cohort is also moving toward the public markets. Manycore Tech has already listed in Hong Kong, while Deep Robotics has disclosed its response to a first round of Star Market listing inquiries. Market reports have also said BrainCo filed a confidential application for a Hong Kong listing in January.
Demand for Unitree’s IPO illustrated the scarcity premium investors have attached to the sector. Public data showed an average offline allocation rate of about 0.0334% before the IPO, while the online lottery allocation rate was just 0.0181%, making shares in the offering difficult to secure.
That has sharpened the question of which Chinese hard technology company could next reach a valuation of RMB 100 billion (USD 14.8 billion) or more.
