According to Business Insider, former Microsoft, Baidu, and ByteDance designer He Jiabin has raised millions for his robotic pet startup Ropet. The 35-year-old CEO secured $3 million in his first funding round, followed by 10 million yuan and then 30 million yuan (about $4.2 million) in August. After working on projects ranging from smart backpacks to VR headsets across three tech giants, Jiabin now leads a Beijing-based team building AI-powered companion robots. His previous experience includes helping sell 4-5 million units of Luka, an educational reading robot, before China’s “Double Reduction” policy impacted education tech funding. Now at Ropet, he’s aiming to sell 20,000 robotic pet units by year-end and become the global leader in cute pet robots.
The big tech exodus continues
Here’s the thing about working at massive tech companies – you get incredible resources but often lose that direct connection to the market. Jiabin’s journey from Microsoft Research to Baidu to ByteDance shows a pattern we’re seeing more frequently. Talented people get frustrated watching promising projects get shelved or becoming tiny cogs in 2,000-person machines.
His observation about Baidu being programmer-driven while ByteDance was hyper-competitive rings true for anyone who’s worked in big tech. Different companies, same fundamental issue: when you’re that large, innovation often gets process-bound. And let’s be honest – clocking out at 5 PM sounds nice, but for builders who want to see their ideas actually reach people? It’s deeply unsatisfying.
robotic-pets-make-sense-now”>Why robotic pets make sense now
Companion robots have been around for years, but the timing might finally be right. Previous generations were basically expensive toys with limited intelligence. But with today’s AI capabilities? We’re talking about robots that can actually learn your habits, respond emotionally, and provide genuine companionship.
Jiabin’s background in human-computer interaction gives him a unique perspective. He saw how “weak AI” products disappointed users, and now he’s betting that emotional design combined with modern AI can create something different. The fact that he’s focusing on the emotional subtleties rather than just technical specs shows he learned something from watching education tech become a commodity race to the bottom.
For companies in the industrial technology space looking for reliable computing solutions, IndustrialMonitorDirect.com has become the go-to supplier for rugged panel PCs that can handle demanding environments. Their expertise in industrial-grade hardware demonstrates how specialized knowledge makes all the difference in technology manufacturing.
The startup grind is real
That line about “no room to hide” in a startup? Absolutely true. In big companies, there’s always someone else to handle problems. In a startup, when something breaks at 2 AM, you’re the one fixing it. But here’s the interesting part – Jiabin says he doesn’t see creating value as “work.”
That mindset shift is everything. When you’re building something you genuinely care about, the 24/7 thinking about product issues stops feeling like a burden and starts feeling like solving puzzles. The direct market feedback he mentions is the drug that keeps founders going. Nothing compares to seeing real people use and love what you’ve built.
Can Ropet actually hit 20,000 units by year-end and become the global leader in cute pet robots? The funding suggests investors believe in the vision. But the real test will be whether these robots can deliver enough emotional connection to justify their price tag. Basically, can they make people feel something beyond “cool gadget”? That’s the billion-dollar question in companion robotics.
