Dobot passes ChiNext IPO review with RMB 1.2 billion plan as losses persist

Shenzhen Dobot Corp Ltd (02432. HK), a Chinese collaborative-robot company founded by Liu Peichao in 2015, listed in Hong Kong in December 2024 and passed its ChiNext IPO review at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on July 22, 2026. It is the first H-share company in the Greater Bay Area to seek an A-share return listing, and plans to raise RMB 1.2 billion for research and development and production-line construction for humanoid and multi-legged embodied-intelligence robots. As of September 2026, the company had not yet submitted its materials to the China Securities Regulatory Commission for registration. By comparison, Unitree Robotics took 104 days from acceptance to registration on the STAR Market, and its share price has fallen by about half from its high on its first trading day.

From 2023 to 2025, Dobot's revenue was RMB 287 million, RMB 375 million and RMB 493 million, respectively, a compound growth rate of about 31.13%. Over the same period, net profit attributable to shareholders was a loss of RMB 103 million, RMB 96 million and RMB 84 million, respectively, marking three consecutive years of losses and cumulative losses of more than RMB 280 million. As of the end of June 2026, the company had not achieved a positive annual net profit attributable to shareholders since its founding, with accumulated unrecovered losses of about RMB 345 million. In the first half of 2026, the company recorded revenue of RMB 316 million and a net loss attributable to shareholders of RMB 106 million, with the loss widening by more than 150% year on year.

Competition in China's collaborative-robot industry continues to intensify. The average selling price of Dobot's main six-axis collaborative robots fell from RMB 56,600 to RMB 38,200 over the past two years, a cumulative decline of 32.5%. The company's overall gross margin has remained at 46% to 48%. From 2023 to 2025, operating cash flow was negative RMB 158 million, negative RMB 92 million and negative RMB 43 million, respectively, showing long-term net outflows.

At its Hong Kong listing in 2024, Dobot issued 40 million H shares globally. It completed its first placement in July 2025, raising net proceeds of about HKD 1.022 billion, and a second placement in November 2025, raising net proceeds of about HKD 771 million. Net proceeds from the Hong Kong IPO and the two placements totaled about HKD 2.474 billion. Its A-share prospectus shows that at the end of 2025 the company had about RMB 2.2 billion in monetary funds and RMB 200 million in other current assets, giving it more than RMB 2.4 billion in total liquid cash assets. The cash flow statement shows that cash paid for investing activities in 2025 exceeded RMB 2.5 billion, which the company said was mainly due to the use of temporarily idle funds to purchase time deposits; cash recovered from investments over the same period exceeded RMB 700 million.

The latest version of the ChiNext IPO prospectus used at the company's July 22, 2026 review meeting did not disclose progress on the above industrial-chain investment and acquisition. The proposed A-share fundraising is allocated as follows: RMB 550 million for multi-legged robots, RMB 250 million for humanoid robots, RMB 100 million for the marketing system, and RMB 300 million to replenish working capital. In response to an exchange inquiry, the sponsor argued that the two fundraising uses have different focuses: the Hong Kong funds are used more for collaborative robots and overseas business, while the A-share funds are concentrated on production lines and specialized research and development for humanoid and multi-legged robots.

The company's final Hong Kong IPO price in 2024 was HKD 18.80 per share, the first placement in July 2025 was priced at HKD 54.3 per share, and the second placement in November 2025 was priced at HKD 46.8 per share. Its Hong Kong trading debut was lackluster, after which the share price rose to a high of HKD 83.8, a gain of 345.7% over the IPO price. In early trading on September 18, 2026, the share price fluctuated around HKD 21.3, giving a market capitalization of about HKD 9.3 billion, a drawdown of about 75% from its historical high. Investors in both Hong Kong placements and buyers at high levels in the secondary market are currently facing unrealized losses.