Recently, the underwater robot sector has become a hot investment destination in the capital market, with intensive financing transactions completed and the industry stepping into a fast-track development phase. Shenzhen enterprises have performed particularly outstandingly. Siooto Technology successfully completed its Series B financing at the end of 2025 with joint investment from many well-known institutions. Qianteng Innovation has continued to gain capital favor with its model of "hardware sales + scenario-based solutions", advancing the large-scale expansion of the consumer market. A sound pattern featuring active corporate financing and targeted institutional support has taken shape among Shenzhen underwater robot enterprises.
Nationwide, Shihang Intelligent secured its Series A financing led by Vertex Investment under Temasek Holdings, with existing shareholder Jinshajiang Capital making four consecutive follow-on investments, making it a rising star in financing within the sector. Globally, more than 20 financing deals were closed by autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) startups in 2025, with capital continuously flowing into core technology fields including navigation control, AI software and new composite materials.
On March 5, Hu Zhenyu, Vice President of Qianhai Branch of China Development Institute (Shenzhen) and Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and Marine Economy, said in an interview with reporters from Shenzhen Business Daily · Chuangchuang Client: "The triple resonance of global resource demand upgrading, technological breakthroughs and policy dividends has ushered the underwater robot industry into a high-growth era. Leveraging advantages in scientific and technological innovation, supply chains and openness, Shenzhen is becoming a core participant and leader in this industrial transformation."
# Three Major Drivers Fuel Rapid Industrial Development
The global capital boom in the underwater robot sector stems from a fundamental shift in industrial development logic. The combined force of rigid global resource demand, breakthroughs in key technologies and comprehensive policy empowerment has driven the industry to evolve from "deep-sea exploration tools" to "core industrial equipment", opening up a trillion-yuan blue ocean market.
Hu Zhenyu analyzed that the rigid demand for global deep-sea resource development is the fundamental driver of rapid industrial growth. As terrestrial rare metal supplies tighten, the importance of strategic deep-sea mineral resources is growing increasingly prominent. The Pacific Ocean is rich in polymetallic nodules, with nickel and cobalt reserves 3 times and 5 times those on land respectively, and rare earth reserves equivalent to 800 to 1,000 times terrestrial reserves. The booming development of new energy vehicles, energy storage and other industries has drastically boosted demand for relevant metal resources. This has accelerated the commercialization of deep-sea mining and directly driven demand for high-end equipment such as industrial remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). On the other hand, 70% of major global oil and gas discoveries are located in the deep sea. The continuous operation of China's Deep Sea No.1 project and other initiatives has also generated stable procurement demand for underwater maintenance equipment in the industry.
Breakthroughs in key technological bottlenecks have removed obstacles to large-scale industrial applications. China has successfully mastered a number of core technologies including high-pressure sealing, acoustic navigation and lightweight materials. In materials, domestication of titanium alloy pressure-resistant shells has been realized. In navigation and communication, ultra-short baseline (USBL) positioning accuracy reaches 0.1 meter and acoustic communication rate rises to 10 Mbps, effectively solving deep-sea communication challenges. In energy, improved lithium battery energy density has significantly extended equipment endurance. These advances have greatly enhanced the reliability and cost-effectiveness of industrial equipment, laying a solid foundation for its large-scale deployment.
A multi-level policy system has injected strong impetus into industrial development. At the national level, deep-sea science and technology has been clearly defined as a strategic emerging industry, supported by special budgets and tax incentives. Coastal provinces and municipalities have also made active layouts. Through its "20+8" industrial cluster policy, Shenzhen provides special support such as R&D subsidies and testing site resources for enterprises to reduce their innovation costs. In addition, Shenzhen plans to set up a 1.5 billion-yuan marine guidance fund. Shenzhen Port Group (via its listed subsidiary Yantian Port Co., Ltd.) and Guoxin Hongsheng and other institutions have jointly launched the 520 million-yuan Shenzhen Port Hongsheng Marine Technology Investment Fund. The three-dimensional policy support system integrating top-level design, special support and local supporting measures has greatly boosted confidence in the capital market.
# Shenzhen Builds a Core Hub for Industrial Innovation and Development
Amid the industrial upsurge, Shenzhen, with its unique advantages in scientific and technological innovation, complete industrial ecosystem and rich application scenarios, has become a source of core technologies, an agglomeration area for private enterprise innovation and a testing ground for scenario applications in the underwater robot industrial chain. It has formed a differentiated development path from Shanghai, Qingdao and other cities, and established its position as the national core hub for industrial development.
Hu Zhenyu stated that Shenzhen's advantages are concentrated in midstream complete machine manufacturing and downstream scenario applications, while rapidly extending to upstream core components. Upstream, relying on its strong ICT industrial foundation, Shenzhen promotes independent R&D of core components and improves local supply chain levels. Midstream, a coordinated development pattern featuring state-owned enterprise leaders and powerful private enterprises has taken shape. For instance, China Merchants Industry Holdings has achieved major breakthroughs in deep-sea mining equipment, while private enterprises including Qianteng Innovation and Finray Technology excel in the consumer and light industrial markets. Downstream, Shenzhen's developed marine engineering, port shipping, marine tourism and other industries provide abundant testing grounds for technological iteration and commercialization.
Local Shenzhen enterprises demonstrate distinct differentiated competitive advantages. Taking Qianteng Innovation in the consumer underwater robot sector as an example, the company has independently developed core components including mechanical arms and water quality samplers, breaking reliance on imports and bringing product prices into the mass consumer range. Meanwhile, its innovative business model of "hardware sales + scenario-based solutions" has successfully developed value-added service markets such as marine scientific research and environmental monitoring. In addition, enterprises including Zhongke Tanhai and Weidu Intelligent hold leading market positions in their respective segmented sectors.
Zhou Changgen, General Manager of Qianteng Innovation, told reporters: "Shenzhen's scientific and technological innovation atmosphere, industrial chain supporting facilities and policy support enable enterprises to rapidly realize technological iteration and product launch. Shenzhen provides sound development conditions for us from core component R&D to market expansion, which is a key reason for our rapid breakthrough in the consumer market."
The vigorous development of Shenzhen's underwater robot industry benefits from its superior industrial and policy environment. First, empowered by an innovation ecosystem gathering universities and research institutes, Shenzhen undertakes multiple major national science and technology projects, with corporate patents ranking among the top nationwide. Second, targeted policy support provides financing assistance and testing convenience for enterprises, greatly lowering R&D thresholds. Third, highly coordinated industrial chains allow complete local electronic information and new material industries to deliver rapid supporting services. Fourth, investment promotion has attracted numerous upstream and downstream enterprises to settle here, forming a prominent industrial cluster effect.
# Government-Enterprise Collaboration Addresses Core Industrial Pain Points
Despite broad prospects, China's underwater robot industry still faces challenges in technology, costs and industrial ecology. Technologically, core components such as high-end sensors and underwater motors remain highly dependent on imports, and the reliability of full-ocean-depth equipment needs further improvement. In terms of costs, customized demands hinder large-scale production, single deep-sea mining R&D costs are extremely high, and marine testing cycles are lengthy. Ecologically, unified industrial standards are absent, professional deep-sea testing grounds are insufficient, and international competition is intensifying.
Hu Zhenyu believes that addressing the core bottlenecks of insufficient technological maturity and low commercialization efficiency requires joint efforts from the government and enterprises. For technological breakthroughs, industry-university-research-application collaboration should be adhered to, focusing on overcoming bottleneck core components and improving equipment reliability. Enterprises may follow Shenzhen's model of small-batch trial production → scenario verification → mass promotion to optimize products through iterative testing. At the policy level, special research funds should be established, and support should be given to building a public service platform for marine intelligent equipment to provide testing, certification and other public services and reduce innovation costs for small and medium-sized enterprises.
For cost control, standardized design and business model innovation should be advanced simultaneously. Enterprises shall promote product standardization and modularization to reduce customized costs and realize large-scale production. Meanwhile, transformation from equipment sales to service provision can be explored, with models such as robot leasing + data services launched to lower customers' initial investment thresholds. Policy-wise, subsidies for the first (set of) equipment and industrial fund establishment can ease corporate capital pressure and support commercial applications.
# Three Major Sectors Become Core Investment Directions
The underwater robot industry is undergoing profound changes, with technologies evolving toward intelligence, extremization and lightweighting, and business models shifting from equipment sales to value-added services. Against this trend, three most promising investment directions have emerged: core industrial-grade sectors, consumer segmented markets and international service markets.
Hu Zhenyu pointed out that deep-sea mining equipment represents the sector with the highest technical barriers and most stable growth. Accelerating global commercialization of deep-sea mining will directly drive surging demand for mining vehicles, lifting pumps, monitoring robots and other equipment, in which Shenzhen enterprises hold a first-mover advantage. Consumer underwater intelligent equipment is a fast-growing potential market. With the popularization of water sports and consumption upgrading, underwater photography robots, thrusters and other products are gaining rapid market penetration, and Shenzhen enterprises have built global competitiveness in this field. The international marine engineering service market is another important blue ocean for the future. Leveraging Belt and Road Initiative cooperation, Chinese underwater robot enterprises can export equipment and operation & maintenance services to Southeast Asia, Africa and other regions, enjoying broad market space.
A relevant person in charge of Weidu Intelligent stated that industrial investment logic has shifted from pure technology orientation to comprehensive consideration of technology, scenarios and business models.
For investors, target selection should focus on technological capabilities and corporate characteristics. Technologically, evaluation should cover adaptability to extreme environments, level of intelligent autonomy and self-developed ratio of core components. Corporate characteristics to be monitored include in-depth cooperation with downstream leading enterprises, capacity for business model innovation, progress in global layout and cost control capabilities. Enterprises with gross profit margins above 30% and domestic localization rates exceeding 60% generally feature stronger profitability resilience and competitiveness.
# Shenzhen Empowers Chinese Enterprises to Compete Globally
At present, the high-end global underwater robot market is still dominated by European, American and Japanese enterprises, while Chinese players represented by China State Shipbuilding Corporation and China Merchants Industry Holdings are transitioning from following to catching up on par. Against this landscape, Shenzhen can leverage three major advantages — scientific and technological innovation, supply chain efficiency and opening-up — to help Chinese enterprises expand global market share.
Hu Zhenyu analyzed that Shenzhen's scientific and technological innovation advantages help break high-end technical barriers. Deep integration of local industrial strengths in 5G, artificial intelligence and new energy with marine equipment enables the development of differentiated products such as 5G + underwater communication and AI + autonomous operations, forming core competitiveness. Highly coordinated supply chains constitute another major advantage of Shenzhen. A complete industrial chain covering sensors, batteries and communication modules allows enterprises to achieve local procurement and rapid iteration, significantly shortening R&D cycles, cutting costs and gaining cost-performance advantages to enter global mid-to-high-end and emerging markets. The depth and breadth of opening-up make Shenzhen a gateway for enterprises to connect with the world. Supported by platforms including the Belt and Road Initiative, Qianhai Free Trade Zone and China Marine Expo, Shenzhen promotes global expansion of equipment and services, participation in international standard formulation and enhancement of industrial discourse power.
Hu Zhenyu holds an optimistic attitude toward whether Shenzhen can cultivate internationally competitive leading enterprises. He believes Shenzhen has laid a sound foundation: an initial corporate echelon with leading players in both industrial and consumer markets; stable support from a ten-billion-yuan-level local market demand; and prominent innovation resources and industrial cluster effects. In the future, superior enterprises should be supported to build integrated capabilities through horizontal integration and vertical extension. They should be encouraged to conduct technological cooperation with world-leading manufacturers and establish overseas R&D and service centers. Meanwhile, policies should promptly launch a marine industry guidance fund to provide long-term capital support for leading enterprises and assist them in participating in major international projects to enhance global brand influence.
