Striding AI
Category: Robotics / Embodied AI
Beijing physical-AI startup building world action models, RL post-training, and humanoid and wheeled dual-arm robots for 24/7 retail and industrial operations. Striding AI was founded in 2026. The company is led by Yao Song (姚颂). Based in Beijing, China. Total funding raised: $100M. Latest round: Angel. Key investors include Charoen Pokphand Group, Huaqin Technology, Jiuan Medical.
- Founded
- 2026
- Headquarters
- Beijing, China
- Total funding
- $100M
Value proposition
A full-stack 'embodied brain' plus robot bodies and a fleet management platform. Together they handle restocking, inspection, inventory and transport in convenience stores. Deployment requires no changes to store shelves or layouts ('zero-retrofit'). Customers can buy directly or subscribe via RaaS.
Products and solutions
H1: bipedal humanoid service robot (1.4m, 26 DoF, 20+ languages, open ROS/SDK). C1: wheeled dual-arm restocking/transport robot (7-DoF arms, 100–1750mm reach, <600mm aisle width, 800+ SKUs adapted). Planned: A1 precision-manipulation robot for checkout/bagging, plus a heavy-duty version. M1: robot management platform for multi-robot fleets. Embodied brain: SLM-0.5 latent-space world action model (2.3B params, 98.6% on LIBERO, >24x faster inference), STEAM RL post-training system built on RLinf, and the Rpent embodied agent framework.
Unique value
Task-specialized robot forms (humanoid for interaction, wheeled dual-arm for restocking, precision arm for checkout) coordinated by one embodied brain and fleet platform. The system is trained in a closed execute–feedback–learn–redeploy loop on real store data from strategic partner Charoen Pokphand Group.
Target customer
Convenience-store and supermarket chains, especially 24/7 retailers. Later targets are warehouses, factories and industrial manufacturers.
Industries served
Retail (convenience stores, supermarkets), industrial manufacturing, logistics/warehousing
Technology advantage
Its world action model predicts in visual latent space rather than pixel space, which keeps it small and fast enough to run on-device. Co-founder Yu Chao brings RL post-training expertise from the open-source RLinf framework (3,800+ GitHub stars) and MAPPO. CP Group and Huaqin give it real retail and production scenarios for data collection. The company is building a million-hour-scale real-world data program.
How they differentiate
Galbot runs robot-operated mini stores, and AgiBot deploys general humanoids as sales assistants. Striding AI instead targets human-robot collaboration inside existing open-front-of-store convenience environments with no retrofit. It splits tasks across specialized robot forms. Its embodied brain is built around a lightweight latent world action model and RL post-training on real retail tasks. Simbe focuses on shelf-scanning only.
Main competitors
Galbot (银河通用), AgiBot (智元机器人), Simbe Robotics
Key partnerships
Charoen Pokphand Group (co-founder, investor, retail scenario partner), Huaqin Technology (investor, industrial partner), Black Sesame Technologies (strategic partnership, July 2026), Tsinghua University and Infinigence AI (无问芯穹) (co-initiators of the Rpent agent framework), RLinf open-source framework
Major milestones
Early 2026: founded in Beijing. 2026-06: announced nearly $100M angel round series. 2026-07: strategic partnership with Black Sesame. 2026-09: co-founder Yang Yuxin appointed President for global expansion. 2026-10: launched H1 and C1 robots, the M1 platform and the SLM-0.5 world action model at APRCE 2026, with joint testing planned with global retail chains. 2027: planned commercial launch (purchase + RaaS).
Growth metrics
Founded early 2026. Raised a nearly $100M angel round series within about 6 months. C1 reportedly adapted to 800+ high-turnover SKUs with a 99% autonomous sorting success rate (company claim). Commercial service planned for 2027.
Market positioning
Early-stage, heavily capitalized Chinese embodied-AI entrant led by a serial founder (DeePhi exit to Xilinx). It positions retail as its first commercial wedge toward general physical AI and aims to become a global trusted robot service provider.
Geographic focus
China first, with explicit overseas ambitions through CP Group's international retail footprint (e.g. Southeast Asia) and a global business unit led by its President.
About Yao Song (姚颂)
Co-founder & CEO of DeePhi Technology (AI chips, acquired by Xilinx 2018); Senior Director of AI Business at Xilinx; Co-founder & Co-CEO of Orienspace (东方空间, commercial space launch); Founding Partner of SEE Fund; Venture Partner at Matrix Partners China; Visiting Partner at MiraclePlus; Tsinghua University, Electronic Engineering. MIT Technology Review TR35 China (2017).
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Official website: https://www.striding.ai