The humanoid race has its showmen and its salesmen. Chen Jianyu (陈建宇) is neither — he's an academic, and a young one. A Tsinghua University professor who did his PhD under one of control theory's most respected figures, he is building one of China's most technically ambitious robot companies on a simple premise: own the whole stack, from the joints to the AI model that drives them.
His company is Robotera (星动纪元), and it carries an unusual badge — it is widely described as the only humanoid-robotics startup in which Tsinghua University itself holds an equity stake.
- Who: Chen Jianyu (陈建宇, Chén Jiànyǔ; publishes as "Jianyu Chen") — founder and CEO of Robotera.
- Day job: assistant professor and PhD supervisor at Tsinghua University's Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences (IIIS).
- Education: bachelor's from Tsinghua (2015); PhD from UC Berkeley (2020), advised by control-theory pioneer Masayoshi Tomizuka.
- Company: Robotera (星动纪元 / 北京星动纪元科技有限公司), Beijing, founded August 2023, incubated by Tsinghua IIIS.
- Known for: the L7 and STAR1 humanoids, XHAND dexterous hands, and the ERA-42 embodied AI model.
First, the short answer: who is Chen Jianyu?
Chen Jianyu is the founder and CEO of Robotera, a Beijing humanoid company he launched out of his lab at Tsinghua. He is an assistant professor — not a full professor — at Tsinghua's elite IIIS, and his academic specialism, the control of fast-moving machines, is exactly the discipline a walking, manipulating robot lives or dies on.
Tsinghua, Berkeley, and back to Tsinghua
Chen earned his bachelor's at Tsinghua in 2015, then a PhD at UC Berkeley in 2020 under Masayoshi Tomizuka, a mechatronic- and model-predictive-control pioneer and member of the US National Academy of Engineering. He returned to join Tsinghua's IIIS — the interdisciplinary institute founded by Turing Award laureate Andrew Yao (姚期智) — as an assistant professor in 2020. He was named to the Forbes China 30 Under 30 list in 2021. (Chinese sources disagree on his exact birth year, so we'll just say he is one of the youngest founders in the humanoid field.)
In August 2023 (the company was registered on 4 August 2023), he founded Robotera, incubated by IIIS and based in Beijing.
Chen Jianyu's bet is full-stack: don't just build a robot body and license someone else's brain, and don't just train a model and buy someone else's body. Build both — the humanoid and the AI that runs it — under one roof.
Full-stack: the robot and the brain
Robotera develops a complete embodied-AI stack: general-purpose humanoid robots, five-fingered dexterous hands, and an end-to-end vision-language-action foundation model called ERA-42 that drives them — the same own-the-whole-thing approach that makes a handful of Chinese startups the so-called "Chinese Figures."
The product line includes the STAR1 (星动STAR1), unveiled in 2024 as its first product-grade full-size humanoid and used as an outdoor-running demonstration platform; the L7 (星动L7), a full-size bipedal humanoid unveiled on 22 July 2025, driven by ERA-42 and fitted with XHAND1 dexterous hands; the Q5 wheeled service robot (June 2025); and the XHAND1 and XHAND1 Lite hands. Robotera quotes various speed and jump figures for these robots, but the eye-catching "records" are company demonstrations, not independently adjudicated results — so admire the videos and wait for the shipping product.
The money, and the Tsinghua connection
Robotera has raised steadily and from blue-chip backers. It took an angel round of over RMB 100 million led by Lenovo Capital (January 2024); a Pre-A of nearly RMB 300 million co-led by Tsing Capital, Yuanjing Capital and Alibaba (October 2024); a Series A of nearly RMB 500 million co-led by CDH VGC and Haier Capital (July 2025); a Series A+ of nearly RMB 1 billion (about US$135–141 million) led by Geely Capital with BAIC (November 2025); and a round of over US$200 million led by SF Group, HSG and IDG Capital announced in April 2026 (which also referenced a RMB 1 billion strategic round completed in March 2026).
The detail investors keep repeating is the Tsinghua equity stake — Robotera is described, on its own framing and echoed widely, as the only humanoid startup in which the university itself holds shares. It's a genuine signal of pedigree; it's also, like every private valuation in this market, a bet on a company that is years from proving the thesis.
What he gets right — and the risks
- Serious technical pedigree. A Berkeley control PhD under Tomizuka, running a lab at Tsinghua IIIS, is about as credible a foundation as a robot company can have.
- The full-stack bet is coherent. Owning the hands, the body and the ERA-42 model avoids the trap of a great body with a borrowed brain.
- The records are demos. Speed and jump claims, and several "world-first" lines, are company-sourced; they belong in a caveat, not a spec sheet.
- Young company, huge expectations. Founded in 2023 and already valued in the billions of yuan, Robotera has to convert academic strength into shipped, working robots.
- Robotera announced a round of over US$200 million led by SF Group, HSG and IDG Capital in April 2026, following a RMB 1 billion strategic round in March 2026.
- The L7 full-size bipedal humanoid (driven by the ERA-42 model, with XHAND1 hands) was unveiled on 22 July 2025.
- Robotera is still privately VC-funded, with no IPO identified — and the headline valuations are a moving snapshot.
The quick facts on Chen Jianyu
| Full name | Chen Jianyu (陈建宇); publishes as "Jianyu Chen" |
| Role | Founder & CEO of Robotera (星动纪元) |
| Day job | Assistant professor & PhD supervisor, Tsinghua University IIIS |
| Education | BSc Tsinghua (2015); PhD UC Berkeley (2020), advised by Masayoshi Tomizuka |
| Founded Robotera | August 2023, Beijing (incubated by Tsinghua IIIS) |
| Known for | STAR1 and L7 humanoids; XHAND dexterous hands; the ERA-42 AI model |
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Chen Jianyu?
Chen Jianyu (陈建宇, Chén Jiànyǔ; publishes academically as "Jianyu Chen") is the founder and CEO of Robotera (星动纪元), a Beijing humanoid-robotics company. He is an assistant professor and PhD supervisor at Tsinghua University's Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences (IIIS), and he holds a 2015 bachelor's from Tsinghua and a 2020 PhD from UC Berkeley, advised by control-theory pioneer Masayoshi Tomizuka.
What is Robotera?
Robotera (星动纪元 / 北京星动纪元科技有限公司, Beijing Robotera Technology Co., Ltd.) is a Beijing humanoid-robotics company founded in August 2023 and incubated by Tsinghua University's IIIS. It develops a full-stack embodied-AI system: general-purpose humanoids (STAR1, L7), five-fingered XHAND dexterous hands, and an end-to-end vision-language-action model called ERA-42.
What is ERA-42?
ERA-42 is Robotera's end-to-end vision-language-action (VLA) embodied foundation model — the AI that drives its humanoid robots and dexterous hands. Building this model in-house is central to Robotera's full-stack strategy of owning both the robot body and the brain that controls it.
How much has Robotera raised?
Robotera raised an angel round of over RMB 100 million led by Lenovo Capital (January 2024), a nearly RMB 300 million Pre-A co-led by Tsing Capital, Yuanjing Capital and Alibaba (October 2024), a nearly RMB 500 million Series A co-led by CDH VGC and Haier Capital (July 2025), a nearly RMB 1 billion (about US$135–141 million) Series A+ led by Geely Capital with BAIC (November 2025), and a round of over US$200 million led by SF Group, HSG and IDG Capital announced in April 2026.
What robots does Robotera make?
Robotera makes the STAR1 full-size humanoid (unveiled 2024), the L7 full-size bipedal humanoid (unveiled 22 July 2025, driven by ERA-42 with XHAND1 hands), the Q5 wheeled service robot (June 2025), and the XHAND1 and XHAND1 Lite five-fingered dexterous hands.