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… hurdle. Outdoor environments are complex and place high demands on sensing and navigation systems. Core components like motors, batteries, positioning systems, and sensors make up the majority of production costs. Navigation, in particular, involves difficult tradeoffs between cost and precision.
For newcomers, a combination of capital, technical know-how, and a strong team is essential. As Suntop founder Hu Yue once noted, reaching scale in this business could require at least RMB 100 million (USD 14 million).
Performance remains mixed. Overseas tech media reviews continue to flag issues around cost-effectiveness, intelligence, and adaptability. At the same time, a price war has already begun. Some boundary-free models are now priced on par with traditional mowers. The technology isn’t mature yet, and the space is already becoming crowded.
<h3>Mass production is just the start, survival comes next</h3>
Even after mass production begins, lawn mowing robots face ongoing challenges in sales channels and after-sales support.
Outdoor equipment has traditionally been sold offline at big-box retailers or local shops, where shelf space, brand reputation, and service support matter. Established yard tool brands have spent years cultivating these relationships, raising the bar for new entrants. Online sales require different investments: steady ad spending, brand-building, and logistics capabilities, all of which stretch company resources. Turning an innovative product into a lasting business also means setting up robust return and repair systems in key markets.
While the long-term opportunity remains substantial, the sector is clearly entering a period of consolidation. Leading firms are growing shipments, while smaller players lacking resources, technology, or manufacturing expertise are under pressure.
This summer could be a turning point. Like the grass itself, demand for mowing robots is seasonal. Sales peak from March to July, with Amazon Prime Day in July offering a potential lift. After September, demand drops off.
For companies facing both short-term survival and long-term sustainability, the way forward lies in striking a balance between innovation, branding, service quality, supply chain efficiency, and localized operations abroad. Only those who manage that mix will have a real chance of staying in the game—let alone winning it.
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This <a href="https://36kr.com/p/3338969886109952">article</a> was written by Shi Yi for 36Kr.

Boom, bust, and breakout: China’s lawn robot race hits a tipping point

Deep Tech

… bestsellers.
Beyond Amazon, Govee built a presence on eBay, Walmart, BestBuy, <a href="/company/tiktok">TikTok</a>, and a D2C site, which now functions as a co-creation community. According to Similarweb, the site averages 1.6 million monthly visits.
Govee has also invested in branded collaborations. In late 2023, it partnered with the producers of Dune: Part Two to launch a co-branded smart TV backlight. The product sold over 33,000 units by May 2024, generating USD 3.58 million in revenue and entering Amazon’s top ten for LED strips.
Govee may very well be one of the most successful cross-border brands in recent years. Its path is hard to replicate, but it also shows how much unmet niche demand remains overseas. Even if most companies won’t become the next Govee, there may still be treasure buried in the margins.
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This <a href="https://36kr.com/p/3324313016461576">article</a> was written by Ou Xue for 36Kr.

From Anker to IPO: How Govee’s founder turned light strips into a global brand

Hardware

<blockquote>China Recap is a weekly roundup tracking Chinese companies expanding abroad, covering market entries, funding rounds, product launches, and global partnerships.</blockquote>
China’s corporate globalization strategy is evolving fast. Industry giants are rewriting the global playbook, while a new generation of companies charts fresh paths overseas.
China Recap tracks both—focusing on strategic expansion, brand building, and localized operations—to help readers make sense of shifting trends and understand how Chinese firms are reshaping their global approach.
Here’s what made headlines last week:
<h3>China pushes into new AI frontiers</h3>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Chinese <a href="/industry/ai">artificial intelligence</a> startup <a href="/company/minimax">MiniMax</a> is weighing a Hong Kong IPO, sources said, marking a potential first for the country’s AI sector. Backed by <a href="/company/alibaba">Alibaba</a> and <a href="/company/tencent">Tencent</a>, the firm raised USD 600 million in 2023 and recently launched new reasoning and agentic tools as it races to compete with global peers. —<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-18/alibaba-backed-ai-dragon-minimax-is-said-to-plan-hong-kong-ipo">Bloomberg</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="/company/baidu">Baidu</a> hosted a six-hour live stream using digital avatars generated with the aid of AI, including a virtual version of live streamer Yonghao Luo, drawing over 13 million views and RMB 55 million (USD 7.7 million) in sales. Powered by Ernie models, the event is part of Baidu’s broader push to commercialize digital humans in <a href="/industry/e-commerce">e-commerce</a>.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="/company/byd">BYD</a> has partnered with <a href="/company/bytedance">ByteDance's</a> Seed and Volcano Engine teams to co-develop lithium batteries using AI, launching a joint lab to accelerate breakthroughs in fast-charging, lifespan, and safety. The tie-up builds on BYD’s use of ByteDance’s BAMBOO framework, which helped optimize electrolytes for its new megawatt fast-charging battery by cutting trial-and-error cycles and speeding development.</li>
<li aria-level="1">MiniMax has launched M1, an open-weight hybrid attention model built for long-context reasoning and complex tasks. With 456 billion parameters and support for one million-token inputs, M1 reportedly outperforms DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen 3 in software and tool use benchmarks while using 75% less compute.</li>
<li aria-level="1">HongShan (formerly Sequoia China) open-sourced two datasets from its xBench benchmark to help developers test reasoning and search skills in real-world AI tasks. The ScienceQA and DeepSearch sets feature high-difficulty, regularly updated challenges for large language models and AI agents.</li>
</ul>
<h3>China advances brain-computer tech trial</h3>
China began its first clinical trial of wireless brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, with a paralyzed patient reportedly controlling games by thought weeks after surgery. The implant, said to be more flexible than Neuralink’s, makes China the second country to reach this stage. Market approval could come by 2028. —<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-16/china-joins-us-in-brain-implant-race-with-clinical-trial">Bloomberg</a>
<h3>Taobao sees surge in pet product sales</h3>
Taobao’s 618 campaign saw a surge in cross-border pet product sales, with more than 1,000 merchants doubling their year-on-year revenue. Chinese brands led in pet food and smart care devices, while small pet supplies gained global traction. Top markets included Hong Kong, Taiwan, and countries across Southeast Asia. —<a href="https://tech.caijing.com.cn/20250617/5096237.shtml">Caijing</a>
<h3>Trip.com expands global hiring, partnerships</h3>
Trip.com Group is accelerating its global expansion, opening over 1,100 positions across 75 cities in 23 countries and launching a RMB 1 billion (USD 140 million) tourism innovation fund. With Q1 2025 international bookings up 60% YoY, CEO Jane Sun said the firm aims to double its overseas revenue share within 3–5 years. The company has also signed hotel partnerships in Thailand and Malaysia. —<a href="https://36kr.com/p/3335951038687748">36Kr</a>
<h3>Leapmotor opens first store in Hong Kong</h3>
<a href="/company/leapmotor">Leapmotor</a> opened its first Hong Kong store on June 11, also its 1,500th globally, as it pushes into a market where <a href="/industry/ev">electric vehicles</a> reportedly make up over 75% of new car sales. CEO Zhu Jiangming said the city is vital for global investor visibility. The move expands Leapmotor’s presence amid growing international competition from Chinese EV peers. —<a href="https://www.jiemian.com/article/12888369.html">Jiemian News</a>
That wraps up this edition of China Recap. If your company is expanding internationally, we’d love to hear about your latest milestones. <a href="mailto:changweiqian@global.36kr.com">Get in touch</a> to share your story.

China Recap | AI here, AI there, AI everywhere

… Asian audiences who are familiar with it, but may create a cultural barrier for Western audiences," HKUST's Du said.
Overall, less than 2% of Ne Zha 2 ticket sales have come from outside mainland China. Still, that marks an improvement over other recent Chinese blockbusters, some of which brought in less than 0.1% of their box office abroad. By comparison, Avatar, still the world's all-time box office champion, generated 73.1% of its USD 2.92 billion in ticket sales outside its US home market.
Notably, while Ne Zha 2 is now four places behind Avatar in total take, Jiaozi's feature ranks a mere ninth in ticket sales outside China for a Chinese-language movie, according to Chinese film ticketing platform Maoyan. So far, the animated feature's non-China box office amounts to barely a quarter of that of the 2000 Hollywood co-production Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Even so, the big payoff is already inspiring Chinese companies and officials to plan for more animated productions.
Enlight Media, one of the feature's main backers, is investing RMB 1.2 billion (USD 168 million) in a new Beijing animation center. Its net profits for the January-March quarter rose nearly fivefold from a year earlier to RMB 2 billion (USD 280 million) thanks to Ne Zha 2. Enlight is developing six more animated titles, with plans for at least ten more in the works.
This kind of outcome shows how the success of Ne Zha 2, alongside that of Black Myth: Wukong, "are achievements of China's private sector," in the view of Ngeow Chow Bing, director of the Institute of China Studies at the University of Malaya.
"They are successful independent of any state-directed soft power initiatives," he said. "It shows the amount of enormous creativity within the private (sector)."
Yet as with Black Myth: Wukong and the artificial intelligence platform DeepSeek, the Chinese state began to throw considerable weight behind boosting Ne Zha 2 at home and abroad once the movie showed its market potential. Schools, companies and community organizations were encouraged to turn out for group viewings. Officials repeatedly extended the domestic run of Ne Zha 2 even as turnout trailed off and total Chinese box office receipts began plunging in March.
Still, the film's box office success dovetails with a goal set by Beijing to establish the nation as a "leading global film power" by 2035. Under a plan adopted four years ago, the country is to enhance its capacity to produce a "steady stream of outstanding works that embody the Chinese spirit, values, strength, and aesthetics"—exactly the traits which state media have praised Ne Zha 2 for.
The welcome reception the film has gotten suggests that animation might indeed offer China, as with Japan before it, a shortcut to influence viewing habits abroad.
"Ne Zha 2 could represent a blueprint for Chinese producers on how to find a global audience," said Rob Mitchell, director of theatrical insights at Gower Street Analytics, a London-based film industry research company.
"Ne Zha 2 may represent a beginning, but it is too early to identify a trend," he added. "To be more than an anomaly, there needs to be a steadier pipeline of appealing hits coming through."
This article first appeared on <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Big-in-Asia/Ne-Zha-2-China-makes-a-2bn-blockbuster-all-of-its-own">Nikkei Asia</a>. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with <a href="https://www.kr-asia.com/nikkei-teams-up-with-36kr-in-asia-tech-news-coverage/">Nikkei</a>.

Ne Zha 2: China makes a USD 2 billion blockbuster all of its own

Entertainment

Video

Creative

Content

… was originally published by 36Kr. This <a href="https://36kr.com/p/3343414827630981">article</a> was written by Lan Jie for 36Kr.

Too big to ban? TikTok keeps expanding as Trump grants third ban reprieve

TikTok

TikTok Shop

Short Video

Live Streaming

… aria-level="1"><a href="http://haawking.com/">Haawking</a>, a digital signal processor (DSP) maker, has completed a pre-Series B+ funding round with backing from Huajin Capital and Megmeet. The company said it will use the capital to support product promotion and client acquisition. —<a href="https://36kr.com/p/3339903734036233">36Kr</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://kr-asia.com/most-surface-grinding-is-still-done-by-hand-and-tosso-wants-to-change-that">Tosso</a>, an industrial automation startup based in Shanghai, has raised an eight-figure RMB sum in a Series A funding round led by Seas Capital, with Mount Capital advising. The funds will be used for R&amp;D, hiring, and operational scaling. —<a href="https://36kr.com/p/3338703019946505">36Kr</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Light Element Technology, a company developing inkjet printing equipment for tandem solar cells, has secured an eight-figure RMB sum in an angel round of financing led by Vision Knight Capital. Zhongsu Capital and the Suzhou High-tech Zone Science and Technology Angel Fund also joined. The capital will go toward tech upgrades and development. —<a href="https://36kr.com/p/3339250496190213">36Kr</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://kr-asia.com/can-ai-handle-your-next-sales-call-whobot-says-yes">Whobot</a>, a voice AI agent developer, has raised an eight-figure RMB sum in a Series A funding round led by GSR Ventures. Xiangyang Capital Management acted as the financial advisor. The funds will be deployed for tech development and go-to-market efforts. —<a href="https://36kr.com/p/3324470532188680">36Kr</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">NeuralFin, a Hong Kong-based financial services platform, has completed a Series A funding round worth an eight-figure HKD sum. GPTX, C Capital, and Shuren Education participated. —<a href="https://36kr.com/p/3332309911021833">36Kr</a></li>
</ul>
whereRelatedArticle
<h3>Atome, Coco Robotics, Allay Therapeutics, and more made recent headlines:</h3>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Atome, a buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform under Advance Intelligence Group, secured a USD 75 million asset-backed financing facility from Lending Ark.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Coco Robotics, an autonomous vehicle company focused on last-mile logistics, raised USD 80 million from a slate of investors including returning backers Sam and Max Altman, Pelion, Outlander, and SNR, along with new participants Offline, DeepWater, and Ryan Graves.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Allay Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech company, raised USD 57.5 million in a Series D funding round co-led by Lightstone Ventures and ClavystBio, with support from NEA, Vertex Growth, EDBI, SGInnovate, Maruishi Pharmaceutical, and other investors. HSBC Innovation Banking provided venture debt.</li>
</ul>
If there are any news or updates you'd like us to feature, get in touch with us at: <a href="mailto:hello@kr-asia.com">hello@kr-asia.com</a>.
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Deals in brief: Salmon raises USD 88 million, InstaPay closes Series A2 round, ten China deals, and more

Venture Capital

Private Equity

Investment

Merger &amp; Acquisition

… FlowState stabilization, and <a href="/industry/ai">artificial intelligence-driven</a> image processing.
According to Huaan Securities, Insta360 is positioning AI at the core of its next phase of technology development. Its proprietary features include keyframe tagging, deep tracking, motion lapse, and “bullet time.” The company has also begun investing in high-performance chips and AI infrastructure.
Many of these features serve one goal: helping users generate cinematic, shareable content more easily. That has been key to moving panoramic cameras from niche to mainstream.
Compared to standard action cameras, panoramic lenses are harder to use. But Insta360 recognized that most users don’t just want a camera. They want great content, and fast.
One standout feature is the invisible selfie stick, which takes advantage of 360-degree video to erase the stick from the final image, making the footage look like it was captured by a drone or another person. The same applies to visual effects like bullet time or “tiny planet perspective.”
<figure id="attachment_154789" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-154789" style="width: 1920px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-154789" src="https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Insta360-One-X-Skateboarder.jpg" alt="Photo of a skateboarder using a selfie stick-mounted One X." width="1920" height="1080" srcset="https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Insta360-One-X-Skateboarder.jpg 1920w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Insta360-One-X-Skateboarder-720x405.jpg 720w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Insta360-One-X-Skateboarder-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Insta360-One-X-Skateboarder-768x432.jpg 768w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Insta360-One-X-Skateboarder-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Insta360-One-X-Skateboarder-480x270.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-154789" class="wp-caption-text">Photo of a skateboarder using a selfie stick-mounted One X. Photo and header image source: Insta360.</figcaption></figure>
Insta360’s innovation lay in turning a new viewing angle into new creative possibilities. This helped flatten the learning curve for users, and broaden the market.
But in recent years, product innovation at the feature level began to stall.
Liu explained why: “For a long time, we focused on creative features. But we realized many users were getting stuck on basic functionality even before they could explore the cool stuff. So for the past two years, we invested in solving foundational pain points in specific usage scenarios.”
These included better sound capture at high speeds and underwater reliability. “Now that those issues are mostly resolved, we’re shifting resources back to creative features, and hiring more designers,” Liu told 36Kr.
In the past, Insta360 avoided direct confrontation with DJI and GoPro by leaning into panoramic tech. It then leapfrogged them by building AI-powered tools like FlashCut to make video editing easier.
That head start and technical foresight have kept it ahead—until now.
With DJI and newcomers like Dreame entering the space, competition is heating up, and users now have more options. The field is no longer dominated by a single brand.
Liu sees GoPro’s early success as proof that demand for action cameras is real and lasting. But looking ahead, he believes the toughest competition won’t come from overseas rivals, but from domestic challengers.
The real test? Competing in a category as nuanced and creative as imaging, without resorting to price wars.
“I think that’s what makes this worth doing,” Liu said. “It’s a challenge that matters.”
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This <a href="https://36kr.com/p/3337899315456262">article</a> was written by Leslie Zhang for 36Kr.

Insta360’s IPO pop signals confidence, but the real challenge lies ahead

Tosso, an industrial automation startup based in Shanghai, has closed a Series A funding round, raising an eight-figure RMB sum. Seas Capital led the round, with Mount Capital advising the deal. The company said it will use the funds to support R&amp;D, grow its team, and scale operations. It previously received angel backing from SenseTime.
Founded in 2016, Tosso focuses on automating one of the more persistent manual processes in industrial manufacturing: grinding. The company designs and builds robotic systems for grinding and provides end-to-end automation solutions. Its core technologies include a flexible force-control grinder, a multi-head adaptive grinding tool, an automated abrasive replacement system, an artificial intelligence-powered grinding module, and an optical inspection platform. These components form the foundation of Tosso’s robots, which are deployed across industries such as rail transit, aerospace, wind power, and automotive.
“Grinding is a core step in manufacturing, and it’s needed across a wide range of downstream sectors,” founder Ge Xugang told 36Kr. The company estimates that market demand for grinding robots across rail, automotive, aviation, and wind energy sectors exceeds RMB 35 billion (USD 4.9 billion), with further growth expected.
While automation in areas like welding has advanced significantly, surface grinding remains mostly manual. Fewer than 10% of processes are automated. Human-led grinding is still common, despite being inefficient, inconsistent, and risky in terms of worker safety. Traditional grinding robots, meanwhile, often struggle with programming complexity, force precision, and real-time responsiveness.
Tosso addresses these issues with a full-stack solution that combines proprietary hardware and software. It currently offers two core products: a compound grinding robot mounted on an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) base for handling large, contoured surfaces like aircraft fuselages and wind turbine blades; and a stationary workstation for components such as railcar bodies and aerospace composites.
Technically, Tosso has built capabilities in AI-driven defect detection, real-time path planning, and adaptive force control. It also maintains a broad library of grinding protocols tailored to different sectors. These features enable its systems to handle various materials, including metal, composites, and painted surfaces.
Its flexible force-control grinder adjusts grinding pressure automatically using a single input value. The multi-head adaptive tool responds to curved surfaces ranging from 0 to 5 degrees and supports one, two, or three grinding heads. The abrasive replacement system automates sandpaper alignment and includes built-in inspection, positioning, and data tracking.
“Our optical module is a major differentiator,” Ge said. “It excels in detecting flaws on high-gloss or reflective surfaces.” The system can detect surface flaws like pinholes, paint clumps, shrinkage, and fibers, even on reflective materials with over 98% accuracy, less than 2% false positives, and precision up to 0.15 millimeters. Coupled with optical data, the robots generate optimized grinding paths for complex, curved surfaces.
To illustrate the robot’s impact, Ge cited the example of stripping paint from a small aircraft. Normally, this task requires 14 workers over two full days. With four Tosso grinding robots working in tandem, the job can be completed within the same timeframe.
<figure id="attachment_154793" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-154793" style="width: 480px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-154793" src="https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Tosso-Grinding-Robot.jpg" alt="Photo of a Tosso-developed grinding robot." width="480" height="480" srcset="https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Tosso-Grinding-Robot.jpg 1920w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Tosso-Grinding-Robot-720x720.jpg 720w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Tosso-Grinding-Robot-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Tosso-Grinding-Robot-360x360.jpg 360w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Tosso-Grinding-Robot-768x768.jpg 768w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Tosso-Grinding-Robot-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Tosso-Grinding-Robot-600x600.jpg 600w, https://console.kr-asia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Tosso-Grinding-Robot-300x300.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-154793" class="wp-caption-text">Photo of a Tosso-developed grinding robot. Photo and header photo source: Tosso via 36Kr.</figcaption></figure>
“AI and embodied intelligence are increasingly integrated in this space,” Ge said. “Our goal is to keep advancing our systems so they can operate with greater environmental awareness and make autonomous decisions. That’s what enables stable, repeatable results.”
Tosso’s clients include CRRC, Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC), Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), and China National Building Material Group (CNBM). It is also working with automakers, shipbuilders, and metal fabricators. The company is aiming to secure RMB 100 million (USD 14 million) in orders for 2025.
Tosso employs over 30 people, more than 70% of whom are in R&amp;D roles. The team originates from a former unit of German toolmaker Festool and brings long-standing expertise in grinding technologies. Its core technical staff includes alumni from Technische Universitat Berlin, Beijing Jiaotong University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, and Tsinghua University, with specialties spanning robotics, AI, and computer vision.
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This <a href="https://36kr.com/p/3338703019946505">article</a> was written by Zhang Zhuoqian for 36Kr.

Most surface grinding is still done by hand, and Tosso wants to change that

Artificial Intelligence