Hesai Founders Launch Robotics Startup Sharpa

Sharpa is a robotics startup founded by former founders of Hesai and aims to focus on general-purpose and humanoid robots during the era of AI.

Three Hesai Technology co-founders, CEO Li Yifan, CTO Xiang Shaoqing, and Chief Scientist Sun Kai, have started up a second big entrepreneurship called Sharpa, the second company in their entrepreneurial history. The startup was established near the end of late 2024 and is operational without any binding equity relationship with Hesai and has already grown to over 100 employees.

The founders feel the time has come to have a startup company that deals with general-purpose robotics, as the field of AI keeps changing its face in the industrial and research sectors. Sharpa, according to the leadership, is focused on developing platforms of robotic foundation instead of the specifics of automation.

Sharpa is a company specializing in robotic hands and the first commercial product is SharpaWave, which has 22 active degrees of freedom. In October 2025, the product became mass-produced, and it costs tens of thousands of US dollars but is mostly initially adopted by research institutions and laboratories. This launch makes the startup firmly embedded in the sophisticated robotics ecosystem.

In the future, the startup is creating a general robot called Sharpa North, which is a humanoid. Li Yifan mentioned that one of the objectives in the long term is to lower the costs so that it would be affordable to households, and the target price is less than USD 5,000. Although the founders concede that robotics is yet to have its ChatGPT moment, they are confident that AI advances will open up more applications within a very short span of time. They also noted that future developments would indirectly benefit Hesai by extending LiDAR applications in robotics.