Valuation of 3 Billion Yuan! Huang Xiaoming and Le Hua Entertainment Join Investment as Qingtian Leasing Secures 100 Million Yuan Financing: Is Robot Leasing the Next Wind?

Everyday Economic News Reporter | Wang Yubiao Everyday Economic News Editor | Yu Tingting

Valued at 3 billion yuan, the entertainment industry is also crossing over into “robotics.”

On March 18, the robot leasing platform “Qingtian Rental” announced the completion of its angel round and angel+ rounds of financing, with a total funding amount reaching the hundreds of millions of yuan. After these two rounds, Qingtian Rental’s valuation reached 3 billion yuan. The Daily Economic News (hereinafter referred to as “Everyday News”) reporter noticed that among the investors in the latest rounds, there are Mingjia Capital founded by actor Huang Xiaoming and Lehua Entertainment, a well-known entertainment company that manages artists like Wang Yibo.

Li Yiyan, CEO of Qingtian Rental, told Everyday News, “Entertainment + technology” is a very important path, and in the future, we should see more scenario collaborations from the company. Regarding future financing progress, Li Yiyan revealed, “Pre-A round financing is also underway, and we are more than halfway through the process.”

2025 is expected to be the first year that embodied intelligence moves out of laboratories and into real-world applications, from appearing on the Spring Festival Gala stage to competing in sports arenas. Robots are beginning to appear more frequently in daily life. “Deployment state, simply put, means robots completing real tasks in specific scenarios. This year is a very important milestone, and all robot companies are heading in this direction,” Li Yiyan told Everyday News.

The concept of embodied intelligence is experiencing feverish enthusiasm, with a clear trend of “volume increase, price decline.” Pressure is gradually being transmitted, and leasing platforms have already felt this. Against this backdrop, large-scale application, mass production and delivery, profit models, and even genuine demand are ultimately tied to the overall market outlook, which is a question the entire robotics industry needs to answer by 2026.

The two recent rounds of financing for Qingtian Rental were led by Ocean Motor, Muhua Tech Innovation, and Minzhu Electromechanical. Everyday News learned that several investors are partners along the relevant industry chain and will bring subsequent business ecosystem collaborations. Regarding future Pre-A rounds, Li Yiyan revealed that most leading platforms and large manufacturers are currently in negotiations.

Image source: Qingtian Rental official website

Among the investors in the latest rounds, Mingjia Capital controlled by Huang Xiaoming and Lehua Entertainment are undoubtedly the most talked about. Li Yiyan told Everyday News, “Although the entertainment industry belongs to the cultural sector, it also pays close attention to technological development.”

Everyday News also learned that, besides Mingjia Capital and Lehua Entertainment, several other entertainment industry players have expressed strong investment intentions during the fundraising process. “Mainly because our fundraising pace is very fast, some investors (internally confirmed) have longer approval processes and haven’t caught up yet,” Li Yiyan explained.

For the current robot market, “entertainment + technology” is indeed a viable business path. “Besides directions like ‘technology + cultural tourism,’ ‘technology + folk customs,’ and ‘technology + offline spaces,’ we will also continue to explore scenarios like ‘technology + retail’ and ‘technology + entertainment,’” Li Yiyan added. “In the future, everyone should see more collaborations with entertainment companies, celebrities, variety shows, short content, and stage events.”

Just before this financing announcement, Qingtian Rental completed a key management restructuring. Li Liheng, known as Alibaba’s “Central Supply Iron Army” first principal, and Wang Mingfeng, head of Alibaba’s “Three Axes,” officially joined as Co-Presidents, respectively. At the same time, Jiang Qingsong, partner at Zhiyuan, was appointed Chairman, and former Ele.me Vice President Chen Yanxia became COO.

Behind this management strengthening, the focus is likely on another core task of Qingtian Rental—“City Partner Strategy.” Everyday News learned that this year, the number of city partners is expected to reach 1,400, creating a “2-hour service circle” that covers most cities nationwide.

Wang Mingfeng, CSO of Qingtian Rental, told reporters that unlike traditional franchise models, the “City Partner Strategy” does not charge franchise fees. The platform provides assets, dispatching, settlement, and service standards, while partners are responsible for local fulfillment. Official sources say they initially planned to recruit about 2,000 partners, but now over 20,000 have signed up.

Regarding the strategic significance, Wang Mingfeng explained that it is modeled after the development logic of the automotive industry. Just as installment plans significantly lowered car purchase barriers, Qingtian Rental aims to reduce the entry barriers for robots across various industries, allowing more users to start using them first.

What truly enables users to adopt robots is closely related to advances in application and deployment capabilities. “Deployment state is the most important industry milestone this year,” Li Yiyan emphasized. “Many robots have been in ‘R&D mode,’ relying on code programming or manual operation, essentially to verify capabilities. The next ‘deployment state’ means robots will be used in convenience stores for checkout, in cinemas for popcorn, and in milk tea shops for ice cream.”

Once deployment capabilities mature, the value of robot leasing as an application platform could become more apparent. The platform’s role is to rapidly and broadly deploy these robots’ capabilities across different cities and scenarios, making them not just “showcases” but truly “deployable, operable, and scalable.”

Besides Qingtian Rental, competitors like JD.com’s self-operated robot leasing are also entering the scene. Additionally, as robots entered a new mass production phase over the past year, a large influx of robotic devices has led to a decline in leasing prices.

Li Yiyan also mentioned that from March to May 2025, the daily rental price for robots was around 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, but now it can be rented for about 3,000 yuan per unit.

“The ‘volume increase, price decline’ in rent is a healthy market adjustment after the early-stage information asymmetry is eliminated,” Wang Mingfeng explained. He broke down the platform’s profit formula as “user volume × order volume × price per order,” estimating that the current daily rental price per robot is about 5,000 yuan. Compared to similar asset operation industries, this price isn’t low, and the revenue potential per device remains quite attractive.

Furthermore, as market education progresses, the mindset of “rent robots” is replacing “buy robots,” with user numbers growing exponentially. During the Spring Festival, Qingtian Rental’s order volume increased by 70% month-over-month.

Li Yiyan observed that the key to the long-term viability of robot leasing isn’t holiday orders but regular, ongoing rentals. After the holiday, a noticeable shift occurred: short-term rental clients began converting to long-term rentals. Some catering businesses found that using robots for customer engagement and interaction can become a routine setup, similar to Haidilao’s previous use of dolls for emotional value. Now, robots are taking on these functions.

Everyday News notes that Qingtian Rental will focus on several areas moving forward: first, asset expansion aiming for over 10,000 units; second, order volume with a target of over 80,000 units annually; third, renewal rates, which are already showing a trend of short-term clients transitioning to long-term rentals, with renewal rates closely tied to order volume; and fourth, service quality.

In this year when embodied intelligence is shifting from “hot topic” to “tool,” leasing platforms are trying to use a “shared” logic to reduce the “friction costs” of technology deployment. As Li Yiyan said, when robots can truly handle tasks like picking up goods in convenience stores or packing in milk tea shops, the business of leasing will have truly completed its closed loop.