Mint Incorporation Limited (Nasdaq: MIMI) said on August 26 that its wholly-owned subsidiary Axonex Intelligence has signed a binding customized structural development contract with Beijing Yunji Technology (HKEX: 2670) to jointly build a next-generation commercial-grade service robot for the Asian market, with Rice Robotics joining the deal as a technology and IP partner.
Three-way physical AI alliance
Under the agreement, Yunji will lead overall system architecture, hardware design and mass production, while integrating Axonex's AI intelligence control platform as a core module. Rice Robotics (Hong Kong) Limited — a majority-owned joint venture of Mint — will contribute technology licensing, intellectual property support, and its brand and market reach across Japan and Southeast Asia. The signing ceremony took place in Beijing on August 22.
"This partnership brings together three complementary strengths — Axonex's AI technology, Yunji's proven robotics excellence, and Rice Robotics' brand and market reach in Asia," said Damian Chan, chairman and chief executive of Mint. Rice Robotics founder Victor Lee added that his company's footprint in Japan and Asia would give the partnership a runway into the commercial service robotics market.
1,000-unit first-year target
The parties have set an initial production target of roughly 1,000 units during the first year following development, aimed at Southeast Asia, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and mainland China. Yunji, listed in Hong Kong under stock code 2670, brings supply-chain and mass-production experience from its hospitality delivery robots deployed across thousands of hotels, while Axonex's AI stack is designed for enterprise service scenarios such as real estate, malls, and government facilities.
Latest step in Mint's robotics roll-up
The Yunji deal is the latest in a string of expansion moves for Mint. In February the group's Aspiration X unit signed an MoU with Rice Robotics, and by May the pair had launched a JV, Rice Robotics AGI, backed by a $15M commitment. Mint has also formed a Singapore alliance with Ascendze and used Axonex to showcase its Nex service robot in Hong Kong earlier this year. Cross-border partnerships remain a defining feature of the service-robot race, echoed in this week's Deep Robotics deployment in Singapore and Bear Robotics' Bowe IQ warehouse tie-up.
Reporting based on coverage from GlobeNewswire, Investing.com, and Rice Robotics.