Kepler Robotics
Kepler Robotics develops general-purpose humanoid robots for industrial, commercial and research use. Its Forerunner series combines bipedal mobility, dexterous hands, actuators and AI software for manufacturing, logistics and risky-operation scenarios.
Market context
Represents a new class of industrial humanoid builders in China targeting real-world deployment, with emphasis on endurance, manipulation, and cost-efficient production. Forerunner K2
Facts
- Website: https://www.gotokepler.com
- HQ: Shanghai, China
- Founded: 2019
- Segment: humanoid robotics
- Known funding rounds: 2
Investors
- Jiangyin Xia Chuang No. 1 Artificial Intelligence Investment Partnership - Lead - Corporate / Cvc - 1 funding event - strategic/corporate - first seen 2026-05-14
- Hangzhou Kelin Electric - Lead - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2026-02-06
Supply chain
Internal actuation: K1 proprietary actuator stack.
- Layer: oem_builders
- Profile confidence: high
Humanoid robots for labour-constrained industrial and service work
Kepler Robotics develops general-purpose humanoid robots for labor-constrained tasks, combining bionic structure, smart hands, and self-developed actuator components for industrial and service use cases.
- Target environment: Industrial sites, service environments, research demonstrations, factory workflows and human-scale operating contexts.
- Deployment model: Humanoid platform model built around robot hardware, actuator design, product demonstrations and staged commercialization.
- Customer context: Industrial customers, service-sector operators, robotics researchers, early adopters and partners evaluating humanoid robots.
- Workflow context: Humanoid locomotion, dexterous hands, actuator development, factory tasks, service tasks and human-scale embodied AI.
- Commercial maturity: Kepler has humanoid product visibility and component-level hardware detail. Scaling depends on production scale, reliable task performance, safety, customer validation and differentiation among Chin…
- Market position: Chinese humanoid robotics company positioned around general-purpose humanoid hardware and self-developed actuator systems.
- Adoption constraints: Adoption depends on production scale, reliability, useful task performance, safety, customer validation, component quality, and differentiation from larger Chinese humanoid builders.
- Adjacent context: Humanoid robotics, bipedal locomotion, dexterous manipulation, robot actuators, embodied AI and Chinese robotics.
- Source confidence: medium
Events
- 2026-06-17 - Product Launch - Kepler Robotics debuts Mechanical Qilin heavy-duty quadruped platform - The platform is about 300 kg and has maximum load approaching one ton. The robot is designed for heavy-duty material-transfer and emergency-resupply tasks. The quadruped architecture uses actuation technology related to Kepler’s K2 Bumblebee humanoid platform.
- 2026-05-14 - Funding - Kepler Robot secures strategic funding from Jiangyin-backed AI investment vehicle - Kepler Robot completed a new strategic financing round worth tens of millions of yuan. The investor is Jiangyin Xia Chuang No. 1 Artificial Intelligence Investment Partnership, a vehicle initiated by Jiangyin Xiakewan Equity Investment Fund and Jiangyin High-…
- 2026-02-06 - Funding - Kepler Robot secures over RMB100 million strategic financing - Strategic financing: more than CNY 100,000,000. Hangzhou Kelin Electric led or co-led the financing. Shanghai Kepler Robot secured more than RMB100 million in strategic financing led by Hangzhou Kelin Electric to advance humanoid-robot development and industr…
- 2025-12-06 - Deployment - Kepler K2 begins factory-floor trial at Veichi - The K2 trial covered production-workflow tasks including assembly, packaging, sealing and warehousing. The deployed K2 platform has 52 degrees of freedom and was shown using existing factory tools such as a handheld barcode scanner. Kepler described the place…
- 2025-09-26 - Production Milestone - Kepler Robotics begins mass production of K2 'Bumblebee' humanoid robot - • Kepler Robotics commenced mass production of its K2 'Bumblebee' humanoid robot on September 26, 2025. • The company has signed framework agreements covering several thousand units, with a total contract value in the hundreds of millions of y... • The K2 'Bu…
- 2025-08-01 - Demonstration - Kepler's K2 "Bumblebee" completes 8-hour livestream at WAIC 2025 - Kepler said its Forerunner K2 "Bumblebee" completed an 8-hour livestream at WAIC 2025. The company framed the event as a signal toward real-world industrial deployment readiness for embodied AI systems. The source describes a public endurance-style demonstrat…
- 2025-06-24 - Deployment - Kepler Forerunner K2 enters SAIC-GM factory testing - The named site context makes this a deployment/testing event rather than a generic demo. Reported tasks included quality checks and assembly support on an automotive factory floor. The deployment places Kepler Forerunner K2's technology into industrial automa…
- 2025-06-11 - Partnership - Veichi, Kedali, Yinlun and Kepler agree dexterous-hand joint venture - The planned Suzhou Yizhi Dexterous Drive Technology venture has CNY50 million of registered capital and focuses on dexterous-hand research and production. Veichi committed CNY20 million for 40%, Kedali CNY15 million for 30%, Yinlun CNY10 million for 20%, Kepl…
- 2025-06-03 - Demonstration - Kepler showcases K2 "Bumblebee" humanoid robot at ICRA 2025 - Kepler presented its K2 "Bumblebee" humanoid robot at ICRA 2025. The company said the robot demonstrated autonomous mobility, natural gestures, and interaction with other robotic systems at the event. The showing highlighted the K2 in a live conference settin…
- 2024-10-14 - Product Launch - Kepler debuts Forerunner K2 humanoid at GITEX 2024 - Kepler launched Forerunner K2 at GITEX GLOBAL 2024, which opened on October 14, 2024. The fifth-generation platform adds software and hardware upgrades for perception, task planning, whole-body coordination, autonomous learning and motion control. Development…
- 2024-01-09 - Demonstration - Kepler showcases humanoid robot series at CES 2024 - Kepler unveiled its Forerunner series of humanoid robots at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. The appearance marked one of the company's first major international exhibition moments for its humanoid platform. The source supports a conference showcase rather than product…
Team
- Debo Hu - Co-founder and Vice President - Founder-level leader connected to Kepler's humanoid robot launch and international product positioning.
- Yang Hua - Founder - Adds founder context for Kepler's industrial humanoid strategy and hardware supply-chain positioning.
Relationships
- Yinlun Co. - Partner - Yinlun Co. signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Kepler Robotics on thermal management for humanoid robots.
- Veichi Electric - Dexterous Hand Joint Venture Partner - Veichi and Kepler joined a five-party venture focused on dexterous-hand research and production.
- Veichi Electric - K2 Factory Trial - Kepler placed a K2 humanoid into a factory-floor trial at Veichi digital factory.
Context tags
- Humanoid robot OEM - Stack Layer
- General-purpose humanoid builder - Peer Group
- Humanoid general task execution - Workflow
Customers and deployments
- Production And Customer Shipments - mass production and customer shipments started - 2025-09-26 - Kepler Robotics announced that K2 Bumblebee had started mass production and begun shipping to customers, but the release…
- Factory Testing Status - 1 SAIC-GM factory testing site - 2025-06-24 - SAIC-GM - automotive factory testing - Kepler Forerunner K2 operated at an SAIC-GM plant for quality checks and assembly support in a live automotiv…
Articles
- Kepler moves K2 Bumblebee into mass production - 2025-09-26 - Kepler’s K2 Bumblebee moved from gait demonstrations and industrial testing into batch production, giving the Shanghai company a commercial humanoid built around hybrid linear and rotary actuation.
Kepler Robotics canonical Korthos profile
