Adds context in paragraphs 3-5
BEIJING, July 18 (Reuters) - Chinese startup Unitree Robotics has begun the so-called "tutoring" process for a potential initial public offering, a filing with the securities regulator showed on Friday.
CITIC Securities is acting as the company's tutoring institution and is scheduled to assist Unitree in preparing the listing application documents in accordance with relevant regulations in the fourth quarter of this year.
Hangzhou-based Unitree's movement towards a listing will look to tap investor interest in humanoid robots, a frontier industry that China is well positioned to lead, thanks in part to its diverse and largely self-sufficient manufacturing supply chains, as well as an abundance of local government subsidies and favourable policies.
While Chinese humanoid robots such as Unitree's G1 are still only being trialled on factory floors and other settings, the industry is investing heavily in the artificial intelligence necessary to empower these robots with a "brain" that can make them more economically productive.
Unitree has won at least 90 Chinese government and university contracts for a total of 39 million yuan ($5.43 million) in the past five years, with over half of that revenue coming in the past year, according to a Reuters review of tenders.
($1 = 7.1776 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Beijing newsroomEditing by David Goodman, Kirsten Donovan)
((qiaoyi.li@thomsonreuters.com;))
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