Kuala Lumpur-based private equity (PE) firm Crewstone International (CSI) has backed Uni-Ubi in its latest pre-IPO+ financing that saw the Chinese artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) solutions provider raise an equivalent of 513 million yuan ($73.6 million).
Shanhai Industries Group, a state capital investment group based in Wenzhou City in eastern China, also invested in the pre-IPO+ round, alongside existing shareholder Bojiang Capital, the startup announced in a WeChat post.
The new round will see Uni-Ubi step up its global expansion and overseas market localisation with a focus on emerging markets like Southeast Asia.
“Beyond capital contribution, CSI plays a strategic role in Uni-Ubi’s global expansion, leveraging its strong presence across Southeast Asia and international capital markets,” said Shien So, CSI’s director of investor relations.
“CSI’s involvement will support Uni-Ubi in overseas market entry, localisation strategy, strategic partnerships, and cross-border resource integration, accelerating the company’s transition from a China-centric operator to a globally scaled AI and robotics platform,” he said.
Founded in 2011 by Izmir Mujab and the former director general of Malaysia Investment Development Authority (MIDA), Jalilah Baba, CSI has grown into a dynamic PE firm with over $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) and investments in over 40 companies across logistics, healthcare, green tech, manufacturing, ICT, and e-commerce.
With the support of its investors, Uni-Ubi also plans to invest heavily in building what it calls “core AI 2.0 capabilities” in robotics, multi-modal large models, and general-purpose robot big and small brains—elements that collectively enable robots to perceive, reason, and act intelligently in unstructured environments.
This dedication to building “AI 2.0” strengths will see Uni-Ubi jump onto the bandwagon as embodied intelligence—which integrates AI into physical systems to enable them to interact with the physical world, typically through AI robots—becomes an unstoppable trend in private markets.
In China, embodied intelligence as a sector has raised 37.9 billion yuan ($5.4 billion) across 304 deals throughout 2025. The sectoral financing was over four times that in 2024, according to data provider IT Juzi.
Uni-Ubi, short for Universal Ubiquitous, has built a full stack of “AI 1.0” products, including AI algorithms and AIoT-based intelligent hardware that are focused on facial recognition and temperature measuring for access control, security, and digital management across various industries.
Founded in 2014 with offices in Shanghai and Hangzhou in China, the company forayed into the global market in 2019 and has since delivered its products and solutions for clients operating construction sites, parks, residential communities, hotels, and beyond, with products exported to nearly 90 countries and regions worldwide.
