Attending a seminar on AI & Robotics in the early 2000s, I recall asking a researcher why progress in the field seemed so slow. His answer has stayed with me: We have come nowhere close to understanding, let alone replicating, the extraordinary dexterity of the human hands—the deft machines that can thread a tiny needle, button a shirt, fold clothes, strum a guitar, use chopsticks, peel an onion, or type on a keyboard.
Given that early lesson still etched in my memory, I could be forgiven for believing Unitree’s splash on the Shanghai STAR market this week warrants a healthy amount of scepticism.
Sure, Unitree’s humanoid robots have shown they can dance in sync, perform kung fu and also run up obstacles, which are no small feats. But these are controlled settings, and not the general-purpose technology that is useful for real-world deployment—folding a shirt, or crossing a busy street. In this respect, current embodied-intelligence models differ from large language models, and robotics is still some time away from its ChatGPT moment.
Unitree Robotics’ founder Wang Xingxing himself conceded that mass-market adoption is at least a decade away.
Yet, patience is not among the virtues of retail investors. Shares of Unitree soared 630% on listing day, following a $900 million IPO. The retail portion of the initial share sale was subscribed 8000x.
Chinese AI labs continue to receive “love letters” from global funds vying for an allocation, Sean Xiang, founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital, told my colleague Eudora Wang. Yet, he warned that the music may stop soon. “One of my tasks is to gauge when the music will stop. But honestly, we don’t know… However, we are undeniably in the second half of a bull market. We must be very careful of how to maintain our positions,” said Xiang.
As more humanoid robot companies in China seek funding at higher valuations, investors will screen them for their potential for real-world deployment rather than their ability to dance or perform martial arts.
For our weekly PE newsletter, Beyond the Buyout, Eudora also pointed to how China’s USD fundraising engine is restarting thanks to the renewed interest in the country’s tech sector. But it carries hidden pitfalls—global LPs are sidestepping blind-pool funds where capital can be locked up for 8-12 years. They prefer direct IPO participation and quick exits, suggesting LPs see the current IPO boom not as a multi-year bull market but a rare opportunity to be capitalised on before it closes.
Moving on to other top news of the week.
Danantara’s long-term plans
In his annual budget speech to parliament on August 14, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto laid out plans for a new investment vehicle under the sovereign wealth fund Danantara, to develop and finance long-term strategic projects. A national car, an electric motorcycle, and a giant sea wall are among its initial priorities.
We also analysed the rationale behind Danantara’s $2.5 billion investment in Brazilian meat packer JBS’s Australia and New Zealand operations. The move can help build up the country’s protein industry, rather than simply provide exposure to an overseas meat business. “If ten years from now Indonesia simply owns a stake in a profitable Australian meat company, then we have made an overseas investment, not transformed an Indonesian industry,” Ricky Ho, partner at investment firm Four Capital.
Climate
This week we released our monthly climate newsletter, GreenStreet, which looked at the tension between public and private capital in deploying into climate assets, and the challenge investors have in translating climate data into investment decisions.
Deep-pocketed public capital—including development finance institutions, multilateral development banks, and government-backed special investment vehicles—has been a key player in climate finance. But there is some concern that these public institutions have so dominated the investment landscape through their participation in large-scale projects and more mature segments that they are instead running the risk of crowding out the very commercial capital that they have been seeking to catalyse.
More analyses
We took a deep dive into the evolving business models of Southeast Asia’s listed tech firms. These companies began life as ride-hailing, e-commerce, and digital marketplaces, but today, they are being reshaped by businesses that barely figured in their original investment theses. Case in point: GoTo. While Tokopedia is no longer controlled by the group, its Q2 earnings showed the financial services arm generated $27 million in adjusted EBITDA, overtaking the $26 million produced by on-demand services. Ditto for Sea Ltd. Monee generated $288 million in adjusted EBITDA in Q2, ahead of Shopee’s $255 million. And while Grab still earns most of its positive segment EBITDA from mobility and deliveries, its gross loan portfolio nearly tripled year on year and has three digital banks in its arsenal now.
In a sign of the broader shift in how investors are looking at deep tech in India, at least three Indian VCs have raised capital from LPs over the past month to tap into the deep tech sector, which has moved from the fringes of the startup ecosystem to a more prominent spot on investors’ radars. While Bluehill.VC raised $42 million for its maiden deep tech fund, AUM Ventures made the first close of its India Innovation Fund II at about $23.6 million. Meanwhile, Inflexor Ventures secured commitments totalling $40 million for its $135 million Fund III late last month. As technologies move from research labs towards commercial applications, the sector is beginning to look like a bigger long-term opportunity rather than a niche bet.
Interviews
Temasek’s head of Private Equity Capital Solutions and Real Estate, Alpin Mehta, spoke to us about the state investor expanding its secondary capabilities amid surging demand and strong capital inflows. Temasek is building a roster of global general partners focused on single-asset continuation vehicles (SACV), and using its wider platform to participate in transactions, said Mehta.
We also spoke to Maurizio Arrigo, Global Co-Head of Private Equity at Pictet Alternative Advisors. The Swiss wealth and asset management group recently closed Monte Rosa Co-Investment VI with $1.53 billion in committed capital, exceeding its initial target of $1 billion. It is the largest fund raised in the series to date, and is more than 50% larger than the predecessor vehicle. “We would like to do more in Asia,” Arrigo said. “One thing [investors in Asia are] looking for, through us, is to diversify their exposure to private companies on a more global scale, [particularly] if they are entrepreneurs or family-owned businesses.”
Other startup and corporate news
Tata Capital Healthcare Fund, the private equity arm of Tata Capital, alongside Swiss global impact investor Blue Earth Capital, has invested approximately $30 million in Tenet Medcorp, which operates under the brand Tenet Diagnostics, for an undisclosed equity stake. DealStreetAsia had first reported on the talks in March this year.
We also got wind this week that PE giant EQT is nearing an investment in a premium Bangkok-based school, in what could be one of the largest transactions in Thailand’s private education sector. The details are in the report.
Singapore-listed Medi Lifestyle has agreed to acquire a 60% stake in E2AI, the dental AI platform of private dental healthcare provider Q & M Dental Group. EM2AI is a Singapore-based medical technology company that uses AI to support dental diagnostics and treatment planning.
Singapore-based healthcare investor NSQ Capital has invested in Vietnam’s Anh Sang International Eye Group, backing the ophthalmology provider’s expansion into a nationwide platform.
Navi Limited, the fintech company led by Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal, is close to raising $100 million from Dutch technology investor Prosus in its first institutional funding round.
Early-stage investor Inflexor Ventures has led a pre-Series B funding round in Butterfly Learnings, a platform that helps families find care and support for neurodivergent children. While the funding amount is not huge in typical VC parlance, it reflects how investor interest in specialised healthcare businesses is growing.
KKR has agreed to acquire a minority stake in Indian ticketing and live entertainment platform BookMyShow, backing the company’s expansion as demand for concerts and other out-of-home entertainment grows in the country.
Indian IT czar Azim Premji’s investment firm, Premji Invest, is in talks to back Geri Care Health Services, a Chennai-based healthcare company focused on specialised care for India’s elderly, DealStreetAsia has learnt.
LP-GP updates
Partners Group has closed a new $1-billion Asia private credit mandate with a major institutional investor in Asia, in an open-ended evergreen structure. Partners Group has a 15-year track record investing in private credit in the region. In total, the firm manages over $40 billion in private credit assets.
Blue Pool Capital, a Hong Kong-based multi-strategy investment firm managing wealth for investors including Alibaba co-founder Joseph Tsai, has raised about $1.4 billion for its debut PE fund. The fund, called Riverside, successfully blew past its initial target of $750 million in just a few months and reached a $1-billion fundraising milestone in March this year.
Singapore-based private equity and venture capital firm KCP has reportedly raised $725 million in the first close of its debut fund. The firm has so far invested in Moonshot AI Inc, Sarvam AI, Carro, and Stockbit Pte.
HSG, the China-focused investment firm previously known as Sequoia China, has begun preliminary talks with investors to raise multiple funds, including its first US dollar fund since separating from its US counterpart, Bloomberg reported.
Global private markets investment firm Siguler Guff announced the final close of its Global Emerging Markets Growth Opportunities Fund II, alongside co-investment vehicles and separately managed accounts, with combined capital commitments of $500 million.
We’ll be back next week. Surely, the robots won’t take over just yet.
