Sharpa
Component
Singapore robotics company selling tactile dexterous hands, a wheeled humanoid and manipulation foundation models.
Sharpa builds anthropomorphic hands, a wheeled humanoid and the embodied AI that runs them. Products include the W01/W02 tactile dexterous hands (21-22 degrees of freedom, full-hand tactile sensing, IP54 on W02), the D01 robot combining a Wave hand, 7-DoF arms, whole-body tactile e-skin and native teleoperation, and the AE01 exoskeleton data glove for egocentric data capture. CraftNet, its VTLA (vision-touch-language-action) model, is pitched as the manipulation stack, split into reasoning, ~10Hz motion and ~100Hz interaction layers. Sharpa sells to robotics researchers, robot/humanoid manufacturers and enterprises, is an NVIDIA Isaac GR00T ecosystem partner, and was founded at the end of 2024 by three Hesai Technology founders.
Research mapping
Physical AI / Actuation & Motion Control (L8) / Component
Evidence boundary
Original analysis and independent corroboration remain under development. Commercial scale and durable technical advantage remain under review.
What makes it defensible
Tactile-first manipulation stack: a full-hand tactile hand plus a vision-touch-language-action model and the sensor glove that generates its training data - the data engine is the moat, not the hand alone.
Position in the stack: Component and platform supplier one layer below humanoid OEMs: it sells hands into other makers' robots while fielding its own; defensibility comes from tactile sensor hardware plus a proprietary manipulation data/model loop.
Who buys it
Named customers: Dairy Queen (DQ) Shanghai autonomous store
Founding team
Li Yifan (David Li) — Co-founder — CEO/co-founder of Nasdaq-listed lidar maker Hesai Technology; co-founded Sharpa at the end of 2024.
Xiang Shaoqing — Co-founder — CTO of Hesai Technology; co-founded Sharpa at the end of 2024.
Sun Kai — Co-founder — Chief scientist of Hesai Technology; co-founded Sharpa at the end of 2024.
SourceFinancing detail
- Last round
- Undisclosed (first disclosed round)
Investors: Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com, Meituan, Transsion, HSG (Sequoia China), Qiming Venture Partners, DragonBall Capital
Mapped funds and investors
Direct relationships supported by published evidence.
Reported holdings as-of
No sourced relationships mapped yet.
Disclosed investment history
No sourced relationships mapped yet.
Showing up to four relationships in each group. ETF weights describe the fund’s portfolio, not ownership of this company. Private investment history does not establish current ownership.
Evidence & media
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Sharpa bags $670m, unveils fully automated robot restaurant
What this source supports: DealStreetAsia reports Sharpa raised about $670M and unveiled a fully automated robot restaurant.
What it does not establish: Does not show unit economics, margins, or contract terms.
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Sharpa raises over RMB 4.5 billion as it puts robots to work at Dairy Queen
What this source supports: KrASIA reports Sharpa raised over RMB 4.5B and deploys robots in Dairy Queen's Shanghai store.
What it does not establish: No verified per-store economics or fleet size.
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Alibaba, Tencent Back Dexterous Robotics Startup Sharpa in Debut Funding Round
What this source supports: The Insight reports Alibaba and Tencent backed Sharpa's debut round.
What it does not establish: No terms or valuation details beyond reports.
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Three Days After $670M Funding, Sharpa Releases DQ Robot's Debut Data
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NVIDIA Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot ships with dual Sharpa Wave tactile five-finger hands (22 DoF per hand, 75 DoF total)
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Sharpa signs MOU with Singapore's JTC to deploy a North robot fleet and open an Innovation Lab in Punggol Digital District
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Sharpa co-founder sets a 30,000-robot commercial target across restaurants, retail and hotels (disclosed 2026-10-12 at CIIF Shanghai)
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Timeline
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Deployment
Sharpa co-founder sets a 30,000-robot commercial target across restaurants, retail and hotels (disclosed 2026-10-12 at CIIF Shanghai)
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partnership
Sharpa signs MOU with Singapore's JTC to deploy a North robot fleet and open an Innovation Lab in Punggol Digital District
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partnership
NVIDIA Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot ships with dual Sharpa Wave tactile five-finger hands (22 DoF per hand, 75 DoF total)
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Deployment
Sharpa North (DQ Shanghai) logs 36 cumulative hours of live service across Aug 29-Sep 1 - full 55-step Blizzard workflow, zero kitchen modification
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Financing
Undisclosed (first disclosed round) — $668,000,000 total disclosed
Source