The AI consumer hardware sector is experiencing intensified homogenized competition, while emotionally valuable products are emerging as a new growth driver. Within this context, the AI emotional companion robot and machine pet segment is attracting significant attention from both capital and the market.
On April 9th, Beijing Mengyou Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., a domestic developer of AI emotional companion robots, announced the completion of its Series A funding round. The total amount raised in this round exceeded ten million US dollars, with Index Capital serving as the exclusive financial advisor.
The funding was finalized in two tranches. The first transaction was completed in September 2025, led by the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund with participation from FreeS Fund. A subsequent round was swiftly closed in November of the same year, led by FreeS Fund with additional investment from Angel Pond Ventures and Guotai Haitong.
Mengyou Intelligence stated that the raised capital will be primarily allocated to the iteration of core products and the development of its "Pet Brain" large model. This investment aims to continuously enhance the company's technological capabilities and core data advantages in the field of AI emotional companionship.
Concurrently with the announcement, the company disclosed key operational data for its flagship product, the ropet intelligent machine pet. Since commencing global deliveries in September 2025, the product has achieved a cumulative shipment volume of nearly 20,000 units, with 70% of sales originating from overseas markets. Notably, in an industry where AI consumer hardware often struggles with high return rates, ropet's global return rate has consistently remained below 4%. Regarding user engagement, core ropet users average over 20 hours of daily active usage, with more than 2 hours of deep interaction per day, and a 90-day user retention rate between 80% and 90%.
In March of this year, Mengyou Intelligence partnered with the popular IP "How to Train Your Dragon," owned by Universal Studios, to launch customized AI companion robots based on the animated characters "Toothless" and the Light Fury. The pre-sales for this co-branded product exceeded 1,000 units within five days of its release.
Previously, He Jiabin, CEO of Mengyou Intelligence, summarized the company's positioning in an interview by stating, "We are a 'future pet company,' focused on creating machine pets that are adorable, capable of long-term companionship, and become more understanding of you over time."
Discussing the IP collaborations, he indicated that deep customization partnerships are expected to yield two core positive outcomes. Firstly, IP owners tend to favor and place greater importance on partners capable of deeply recreating the lifelike essence of the IP and amplifying its value, often granting such companies access to more premium resources. Secondly, these collaborations allow for exploring the commercial potential of leveraging major traditional IPs within the high-margin smart hardware category.
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