Shanghai-based ViTai Robotics has raised nearly 100 million yuan (US$13.8 million) across its angel and angel+ funding rounds to develop visual-tactile sensing systems for humanoid robots.

Xiaomi’s strategic investment unit led the angel round, joined by Kuanqiao Hengsong, YR Capital, iCANX Fund, Plum Ventures, Welight Capital, and existing backers.

The follow-on angel+ round brought in new investor Vertex Ventures China, with continued support from YR Capital, iCANX Fund, Plum Ventures, and Welight Capitals. WanJia Capital served as the financial advisor for these rounds.

Founded in 2023, ViTai is building general-purpose tactile perception modules and hand-eye coordination algorithms for robotic end-effectors. The company’s tech combines vision and tactile feedback to mimic human-level dexterity in automated tasks.

The fresh funds will go toward product R&D and commercialization, with ViTai aiming to create complete perception systems and scenario-specific solutions for industrial, household, and service robots.

The company also plans to accelerate its international expansion to meet growing demand for humanoid robotics globally.

🔗 Source: 36Kr

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Tactile robotics attracts increasing investment amid growing competitive landscape

VitaTech’s $14 million funding comes amid a broader surge in robotics investments that began accelerating nearly a decade ago, when funding for private robotics companies nearly doubled to $1.4 billion across 83 deals in a single year 1.

The tactile sensing space specifically has grown increasingly competitive, with established players like XELA Robotics (founded 2018 in Japan), SynTouch (founded 2008 in USA), and Touchlab (founded 2018 in UK) already developing specialized tactile sensors for robotic applications 2.

Even tech giant Meta has entered the tactile sensing arena, developing the DIGIT sensor (projected at $15 per unit) and ReSkin technology, both aimed at giving robots human-like touch capabilities, indicating the strategic importance major technology companies place on this field 3.

VitaTech faces the challenge of differentiating its visual-tactile approach in this crowded market, though its backing from Xiaomi suggests potential integration pathways into consumer electronics ecosystems that pure robotics startups might lack.

2️⃣ Fusing tactile and visual sensing creates powerful new capabilities

Recent research demonstrates that combining tactile and visual sensing, VitaTech’s core approach, enables dramatic performance improvements in robotic manipulation tasks.

Systems integrating both modalities have achieved 96.5% accuracy in object recognition, significantly outperforming either visual-only or tactile-only methods in autonomous object manipulation scenarios 4.

Recent robotics developments