On September 23, important news came from the flexible tactile sensing field — SenseTech (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “SenseTech”) announced the completion of its Pre-A+ round financing. This round was jointly invested by Shenzhen Aishide Zhicheng Industrial Investment and M&A Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Shenzhen Wenzheng Asset Management Co., Ltd.
The funds raised will be mainly used for three directions:
Technology research and performance iteration of next-generation flexible tactile sensors
Construction of large-scale production lines
Market application expansion in humanoid robots, consumer electronics, and other industries
This financing will accelerate the transformation of flexible tactile sensing technology from laboratory to industrial application.
The Importance of Flexible Tactile Sensors
As the “electronic skin” of robots, flexible tactile sensors are crucial for robots to explore the external environment. Through contact, they can characterize the properties of objects (surface morphology, quality, etc.) or quantify contact parameters (force, temperature, etc.).
According to GGII predictions, by 2030 the global demand for flexible tactile sensors/electronic skin in the humanoid robot field will reach 1.525 million square meters, with a market size of 27.4 billion yuan. Guohai Securities stated that with the promotion of industry leaders like Tesla, humanoid robots are expected to enter the first year of mass production. Electronic skin (flexible tactile sensors) is the key to enabling bionic robots to achieve perception and interaction, with the market scale expected to continue growing rapidly.
Industry Challenges and Market Landscape
However, the flexible tactile sensor industry has relatively high technical barriers, long R&D cycles, and a concentrated market pattern, with high-end production capacity dominated by foreign companies. According to QYResearch data, the top five global flexible tactile sensor manufacturers in 2022 included Novasentis, Tekscan, Japan Display Inc. (JDI), Baumer, and Fraba, together accounting for about 57.1% of the market share.
Driven by huge market demand, domestic multimodal tactile sensor companies are increasingly favored by capital. Since 2025, more than a dozen tactile sensor companies have completed financing, including Natu Intelligence, Qianjue Robotics, Yuansheng Technology, Pasini Perception, Zhishi Intelligence, Weitai Robotics, and Lingdong Jiaxin.
SenseTech’s Competitive Advantage
Compared with these enterprises, SenseTech focuses on independent research and development of high-performance flexible tactile sensors and electronic skin. Through “material-structure-device-system” full-stack technological innovation, the company has successfully broken through performance bottlenecks of traditional sensing technologies in sensitivity, measurement range, response speed, and linearity.
Notably, to support the large-scale production line construction funded by this round of financing, SenseTech is introducing high-precision Automatic placement machine (SMT placement machine) for the core component assembly of flexible tactile sensors. These machines are capable of micron-level precision placement of key parts such as flexible electrodes, signal transmission circuits, and micro-sensing units — a critical capability for manufacturing thin, lightweight tactile sensors. By integrating the placement machine with its self-developed flexible substrate processing technology, SenseTech can reduce the component assembly error rate to less than 0.1% and increase single-line production efficiency by over 300%, effectively solving the mass production pain points of traditional manual or semi-automatic assembly (such as low precision and unstable yield) and laying a solid foundation for meeting the growing demand from humanoid robot and consumer electronics clients.
SenseTech’s independently developed tactile sensors not only possess excellent characteristics of high sensitivity, large measurement range, fast response, and high linearity, but also feature a thin, lightweight, flexible, and highly conformable physical form that enables accurate and stable detection of pressure, temperature, and other signals, showing broad application prospects in multiple cutting-edge industrial fields.
Application Scenarios
This technology has now taken root in multiple cutting-edge fields, becoming a “perception tool” for industrial intelligent upgrading:
In humanoid robots: SenseTech’s bionic skin tactile solutions customized for leading enterprises give robots human-like “tactile nerves” that can accurately perceive operating force, identify object materials, and complete complex tasks such as precision assembly and flexible grasping.
In consumer electronics: Even when covered by thick fur or silicone, the sensors maintain high sensitivity and signal stability. The company has cooperated with AI toy and smart wearable manufacturers to develop intelligent terminals controlled by touch gestures, reshaping the human-computer interaction experience.
In automotive electronics: The company’s intelligent seat pressure sensing system can monitor passenger posture in real time, while the anti-pinch detection module enhances the safety of doors and sunroofs, injecting new perception dimensions into the intelligent cockpit.
In healthcare: In collaboration with medical device manufacturers, SenseTech has developed flexible heart rate monitoring patches and plantar pressure feedback systems, providing more convenient technical solutions for chronic disease monitoring and rehabilitation training.
Future Outlook
“Enabling machines to have touch, making interaction more natural, and making life smarter — this is the constant pursuit of SenseTech people,” said Xiong Gengchao, CEO of SenseTech. “We will take this financing as an opportunity to accelerate technological innovation and product iteration, provide global customers with better tactile perception experiences, and help all industries achieve intelligent transformation and upgrading.”
With the completion of the Pre-A+ round financing, SenseTech will further accelerate product innovation and industry solution output, promote large-scale application of flexible tactile sensing technology worldwide, contribute to the intelligent upgrading of more industries, and open a new chapter in the development of the tactile sensing industry.
