On August 4, precision reducer manufacturer Talls Intelligent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.（陶世智能科技有限公司，以下简称“Talls Intelligent Technology”）announced the completion of a CNY 140 million financing round. Investors in the round included Qianhai Financial Holdings（前海金控）, Guangzhou State-Owned Capital（广州国控）, Haichuan Juyi（海川聚义）and Hangzhou Zhongshen（杭州众燊）, with Detai Capital（德太资本）serving as financial adviser. The proceeds will mainly be used for product development, production-line expansion and market development in the robotics sector.
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Shenzhen, Talls Intelligent Technology primarily develops and manufactures miniature orthogonal 90-degree reducers and robotic joint modules. Its core product is a miniature toroidal enveloping worm gear reducer that integrates speed reduction and directional rotation into a single structure, enabling more compact and precise power transmission.
In terms of its technical approach, Talls Intelligent Technology has chosen orthogonal transmission, setting it apart from conventional harmonic, RV and planetary reducers. Traditional systems typically require an additional right-angle mechanism to change the direction of transmission by 90 degrees, increasing product size, reducing precision and raising costs.
The company’s technology is based on the toroidal enveloping worm gear structure. Conventional worm gears naturally support orthogonal transmission, but they usually rely on single-tooth engagement. Once miniaturized, this design can suffer from insufficient load capacity, lower efficiency and shorter service life. Talls Intelligent Technology has optimized the tooth-contact geometry and introduced a toroidal enveloping design that allows multiple teeth to transmit power simultaneously, thereby improving load capacity and transmission stability.
To achieve mass production, Talls Intelligent Technology independently developed technologies across several areas, including machining equipment, testing systems, heat-treatment processes and lubricating materials. On the manufacturing side, it redesigned machinery based on the structure of imported equipment and developed a seven-axis, five-axis simultaneous grinding process to address the challenges of high-precision toroidal worm machining. The company also built its own testing equipment to verify product precision, service life and reliability, while improving operating efficiency and durability through optimized materials and lubrication systems.
In terms of product performance and market development, years of research have enabled Talls Intelligent Technology to establish a manufacturing system centered on miniature orthogonal reducers. Its toroidal enveloping worm gear reducer is approximately 40% smaller than conventional products, with precision of around ±0.5 arcminutes, tensile strength of 1,300 MPa and a service life of up to 10,000 hours.
During its early years, Talls Intelligent Technology primarily served the industrial automation market. It secured its first order from an aerospace customer in 2024 and subsequently entered the supply chains of companies including Foxconn（富士康）, Luxshare Precision（立讯精密）and Lens Technology（蓝思科技）, completing the initial validation of its products in industrial applications.
In 2025, the company began shifting its research focus toward robotic joint modules. It launched a highly integrated joint module for dexterous hands that is compatible with direct-drive, linkage-driven, tendon-driven and hybrid-drive systems. Talls Intelligent Technology is currently working with nearly 100 robotics companies and has signed a supply agreement covering 100,000 joint modules for humanoid robots. Its customers include LinkerBot（灵心巧手）, Kinetix AI（超维动力）, Shengji Miaosuan（绳肌妙算）and Zhongke Silicon Era（中科硅纪）.
In terms of production capacity, Talls Intelligent Technology currently operates a manufacturing base covering approximately 20,000 square meters. The facility can generate an annual output value of CNY 500 million and produce between 500,000 and 700,000 key modules per year. Once its new factory becomes operational, annual production capacity is expected to rise to between one million and 1.5 million key modules.
As humanoid robots enter the industrialization stage, the supply chain for core components is maturing rapidly. Industry data show that actuator systems—including motors, reducers and lead screws—account for approximately 45% of the cost of a humanoid robot, while sensor systems account for around 15%. Together, the two categories represent more than 60% of total production costs. As a core component connecting the power source with the actuator, the reducer is responsible for power transmission and precision control, directly affecting the strength, speed, stability and flexibility of robotic joints.
According to industry reports, the global market for humanoid robot components exceeded USD 42 billion in 2026, with core actuators and dexterous-hand modules accounting for more than 52% of total costs. As second-generation products from Tesla and Honda begin large-scale shipments in 2026, global humanoid robot production is expected to reach 80,000 units for the full year.
Data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology（中国信息通信研究院）show that the overall localization rate of core humanoid robot components exceeded 75% in the first quarter of 2026. The localization rate of harmonic reducers has only recently surpassed 50%, placing the segment in a period of accelerating domestic substitution.
Talls Intelligent Technology founder Tao Yulong（陶玉龙）said the company initially focused on a longstanding problem in industrial automation: many types of equipment need to change the direction of power transmission, but conventional solutions usually add a right-angle mechanism behind the reducer, creating problems involving size, precision and cost. The team therefore decided to integrate speed reduction and directional rotation into a genuinely compact orthogonal reducer.
Discussing the technical challenges, Tao said the greatest difficulty was not any individual component, but the creation of a complete industrial system covering design, manufacturing and validation. Conventional software systems do not support the development of this type of miniature orthogonal reducer, and the industry previously lacked suitable processing equipment.
“Over the past eight years, we have not simply been developing a reducer. We have built an entire system around it, covering everything from design and manufacturing to validation,” Tao said.
Looking ahead, Tao said humanoid robots had created new market opportunities, but the company would not focus exclusively on a single sector.
“Industrial automation, robotic joints and dexterous hands for humanoid robots all fundamentally require compact, high-precision transmission products,” he said.