Startup profile · funding coverage
Sharpa funding, valuation and investors
Full-stack Physical AI: 22-DoF dexterous hands, wheeled humanoids, and CraftNet manipulation models.
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Funding, valuation & investors
Answer-first snapshotLatest funding
Growth (first public disclosure)
~$670M / >¥4.5B · August 2026
Latest known valuation
Not publicly disclosed
Total disclosed equity funding
Not publicly disclosed
Excludes debt, grants, acquisitions, secondaries, and IPO proceeds.
Current status
private
growth · Shanghai, China
Investors in latest funding
Other: Alibaba Group , Tencent , Meituan , JD.com , HongShan
Overview
Sharpa is a Shanghai AI robotics company founded in late 2024 by Hesai Technology co-founders David Li Yifan, Xiang Shaoqing, and Sun Kai. Products include the Sharpa Wave (22-DoF tactile dexterous hand, mass production since October 2025), North wheeled humanoid robots, and CraftNet for dexterous manipulation. On August 28, 2026 secondary English coverage reported more than ¥4.5 billion (~$670 million) in financing at a reported ¥22 billion post-money, with Alibaba, Meituan, Tencent, JD.com, Transsion, HongShan, Qiming, Meituan DragonBall, and Luminous named. Company and press describe a fully automated Dairy Queen restaurant deployment and prior supply of dexterous hands into Nvidia Isaac GR00T reference humanoids (Unitree body). No Venture Capital Tracker /fund/ pages for named investors.
Why Sharpa is interesting
August 28, 2026: first public financing >¥4.5B (~$670M) at a reported ¥22B post, backed by Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, JD, and HongShan. Hesai founders. Wave hands in mass production; Dairy Queen robot restaurant demo Aug 29 path.
Product & use cases
Dexterous manipulation stack: tactile hands, wheeled humanoids, and hierarchical VTLA models aimed at completing multi-step physical work without store retrofits.
- Dexterous hands for humanoid OEMs and reference platforms
- Retail / QSR automation without environmental modification
- Industrial fine-manipulation tasks requiring contact-rich control
Key facts
- Aug 28, 2026: >¥4.5B (~$670M) first public financing; ~¥22B post (reported)
- Strategics: Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, JD, Transsion
- Wave 22-DoF hand in mass production since Oct 2025
- DQ robot restaurant deployment reported Aug 29, 2026
Funding history (newest first)
Growth (first public disclosure)
2026-08 ~$670M / >¥4.5B- Alibaba Group (participant)
- Tencent (participant)
- Meituan (participant)
- JD.com (participant)
- HongShan (participant)
Source: https://yangtzeer.com/news/deals/sharpa-dexterous-robot-hands/
Competitive landscape
Edge: Founders’ Hesai public-company track record plus China platform strategic capital and live commercial restaurant demos — still early vs LinkerBot-class hand specialists on share.
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LinkerBot direct
Independent high-DoF dexterous-hand specialist; Yangtzeer cites large global share claims.
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Unitree adjacent
Robot OEM that has partnered on GR00T reference builds; also builds own hands.
Industries
Market / IPO context
Editorial / static context — not a live quote.
Related funding articles
Venture Capital Tracker pieces that cover Sharpa's financing or category context.
FAQs about Sharpa
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