The round was led by IDG Capital, with participation from Yunqi Capital, DiDi, Fosun RZ Capital, Glory Ventures and LiDAR manufacturer Hesai Technology. PHYMI announced the financing on September 9.
Founded in 2026, PHYMI is developing what it calls Physical Agents, systems intended to interpret human goals and then navigate, manipulate objects and complete tasks in open, changing environments.
The company has not yet disclosed a specific robot platform, model architecture, parameter count or commercial deployment. Its stated focus is on the intelligence layer rather than a single humanoid form factor.
PHYMI plans to use the financing for core technology development, real-world data infrastructure, product engineering, deployment work and team expansion.
Founder and CEO Liu Nianqiu previously spent more than seven years at autonomous driving company DeepRoute.ai, where he served as vice president and partner and worked through the company’s transition toward end-to-end and Vision-Language-Action systems. Before DeepRoute, Liu also worked as an engineer at Intel.
The investor mix is notable. Alongside venture firms, the round includes strategic participation from DiDi and Hesai, bringing autonomous driving, mobility and perception expertise into the company’s shareholder base.
