Reporter |
Editor | Wen Shuqi
Ruochuang Technology, one of the most-watched startups to come out of the DJI ecosystem, has just closed its second funding round in nine months.
Recently, the company announced the completion of a nearly $100 million Pre-A+ round, backed by a leading mobility tech firm, an investment fund under a top domestic internet company, and a representative industrial fund from the Greater Bay Area. Just last November, Ruochuang had secured a tens-of-millions Pre-A round from investors including Matter Venture Partners and Vertex Ventures.
In an exclusive interview with NUPIAO, founder Hong Xiaoping revealed that the fresh capital will primarily fuel market expansion and product line growth. Starting in the second half of this year, the company’s first smart personal mobility device, the Strutt ev¹, will roll out in Germany, France, Australia, Canada, and mainland China.
Hong Xiaoping holds a PhD in Physics from UC Berkeley and previously led DJI’s lidar division. He was instrumental in building DJI’s optoelectronics department from the ground up, knows the full drill from R&D and supply chain to mass production, and also served as an assistant professor at Southern University of Science and Technology. In 2023, he founded Ruochuang Technology alongside co-founder Xiao Wenlong, a former head of DJI’s powertrain department.
This April, the first product, Strutt ev¹, officially entered mass production, with deliveries starting in May. Several hundred units have already been shipped to customers in the US and UK. In the States, the ev¹ retails at $7,499 (roughly ¥51,000). In China, Hong has branded it “昂首” (AngShou), and the product is called AngShou EV1, priced at ¥29,999—nearly half the overseas price. Test drive registrations are now open.
Compared to traditional electric wheelchairs, this price point is hardly cheap. But Hong told NUPIAO that the number of users who decided to buy on the spot after a test drive exceeded his expectations.
At first glance, the Strutt ev¹ looks a lot like an electric wheelchair, and indeed, many of its users are people with limited mobility. But Hong doesn’t want to call it a wheelchair—he’d rather describe it as a smart mobility device.
“A wheelchair is just the physical embodiment of a bygone era,” Hong says. Ruochuang’s ultimate goal is to build robots. The original vision for ev¹ was to pack a decade’s worth of mature automotive and robotics tech into a compact vehicle designed for trips within a 5-kilometer radius of home—first, to let people with mobility challenges get out safely, and then, step by step, to add grasping and execution capabilities, ultimately creating a “Helper Robot” that assists humans in daily life.
Why did Ruochuang target people with limited mobility first? Hong saw the need through his own grandmother. She used to ride a bicycle, then switched to a tricycle as she aged, and eventually even the tricycle felt unsafe to the family, so her world shrank to the immediate neighborhood. Many seniors have similar constraints, yet a huge number of users have told Ruochuang that they still have a strong desire to get out and about frequently.
Hong believes that for the average household, a robot with only an 80% success rate at fetching water might be hard to accept. But for an elderly person who struggles to stand or walk, the value a smart mobility device delivers is beyond imagination—far more practical than rushing robots into homes at this stage.
Anyone who’s used a traditional electric wheelchair knows the drill: rear-wheel drive with front casters that behave like shopping cart wheels, veering off course on grass or slopes. Since the motors can’t sense changes in resistance, they might keep ramping up power, then suddenly lurch forward once the resistance breaks. The rider has to constantly correct direction, making the whole experience exhausting.
Ruochuang took a completely different approach. In Hong’s words, they essentially built a “car”—they scaled down an automotive chassis, with two rear wheels for drive, two front wheels for active steering, and four-wheel independent suspension. It’s equipped with four motors, plus lidar, cameras, and ultrasonic sensors, and the long-range battery delivers about 32 kilometers of travel.
The chassis and autonomous driving tech are what set ev¹ apart from conventional electric wheelchairs. One user described it after trying it out as a “‘Hummer’ meets ‘Waymo'”: the former means it can conquer grass, slopes, gravel, and all kinds of rough terrain, while the latter means intelligence—making every ride safer.
In Hong’s view, unlike a car with its steering wheel, accelerator, and brake, a wheelchair typically has just a single joystick. Both direction and speed are crammed into a tiny range of motion, which is even harder for seniors or those with hand impairments—which is precisely why intelligence matters so much.
In terms of smart driving, ev¹ features a Co-Pilot mode that uses lidar and cameras to sense the environment, assist with lane-keeping, and can slow down or stop when obstacles are detected. The Copilot+ mode automatically adjusts the trajectory based on surroundings and can even dynamically maneuver around obstacles. And in Autopilot mode, ev¹ can autonomously take users to a pre-set destination.
User needs vary widely. One retired man living near Disneyland bought an annual pass but could no longer walk around the park all day—ev¹ gave him back the freedom to enjoy the theme park. A young woman with weak hand control who had never been able to maneuver a wheelchair independently made it across a room by herself for the first time in her life—she said it was one of the most unforgettable moments she’s ever experienced.
User feedback also taught the R&D team something surprising: seniors crave speed. Traditional electric wheelchairs typically cap out at around 6 km/h, while ev¹’s sport mode can hit 13 km/h. Hong originally assumed this feature would appeal more to younger users, but plenty of customers in their 70s and 80s have told him it’s their favorite mode.
The premium-positioned ev¹ started in Western markets, but the plan is to expand horizontally with more affordable and lifestyle-oriented product variants, while vertically adding more autonomous driving and AI capabilities to gradually widen the market reach.
ev¹’s biggest challenge right now is sales—it’s still a niche product. One key factor is that an electric wheelchair’s real feel can’t be conveyed through a promo video; people need to experience it firsthand.
Every hardware product faces the PMF (Product-Market Fit) hurdle after launch. Hong’s philosophy: if the P is good enough, the M will open up on its own. In his view, ev¹’s “Fit” is already emerging—evidenced by a near-zero return rate and word-of-mouth referrals from early adopters. But to go from a handful of adventurous early users to the mainstream, Ruochuang needs a denser offline retail network and a more compelling price point.
But no matter what, the demand is always there. Whether in China or around the world, the massive aging population and the need for age-friendly solutions are fundamental needs—and that’s a door just waiting for Ruochuang to push open.
