RoboNova.i Eva.i fact check: Warm skin, bold promises…

Research status: 5 September 2026

A humanoid robot with a surface warmed to 37°C, touch-sensitive skin and a memory designed to support a long-term relationship: Eva.i places the young Shenzhen company RoboNova.i in one of robotics’ most intimate markets—the home. It is a technically and socially important idea. The available evidence, however, shows a wide gap between an impressive vision and a proven mass-produced device.

The company, campaign and early investment are real. Yet many performance claims come only from RoboNova.i, crucial engineering data is absent, and the production schedule has moved repeatedly. Privacy statements from the company also sit uneasily beside disclosures in the mobile app stores.

Key facts

Company: RoboNova.i is operated by a company commonly rendered in English as Shenzhen Yizhizai Intelligent Technology. Its founder and CEO is Wu Heng, also known as Mark Wu.
Product: Kickstarter lists Eva.i at roughly 160 cm and 40 kg with 23 articulated joints. It cannot walk or stand unsupported and is intended for seated or reclining interaction.
Sensors: The company advertises 21 FPC touch zones, moving eyelids, pupils and mouth, a surface heated to about body temperature, and a removable camera embedded in glasses or jewellery.
Price and campaign: The stated international hardware price is US$7,999. Kickstarter recorded HK$1,262,612 from 130 backers, about 162% of the funding goal.
Maturity: A 4 September 2026 company profile said conditions for mass production were now expected around January 2027. Eva.i is best described as a pre-series or pilot product.

The company behind the robot

The operating company is based in Shenzhen’s Nanshan technology district. A second verifiable entity is Aiyo Technology Limited, incorporated in Hong Kong on 25 August 2025 according to the official registry. Google Play lists an address in the Lepu Building, Xili, Nanshan.

Founder Wu Heng says he previously worked across AI, smart construction, mining and robotics. A motorcycle journey in 2024 reportedly exposed him to fandom, collectibles and ball-jointed dolls, shaping the idea that domestic robots would be bought as characters rather than machines alone. A recent 36Kr profile reports three funding rounds in six months; the only publicly named investor so far is the Henan Lihe Angel Technology Innovation Industry Investment Fund. A separate investment report describes plans for a Zhengzhou subsidiary and production line without disclosing the amount or valuation.

RoboNova.i now presents a platform strategy: one standardised body could receive different heads, exteriors, voices and personalities, supporting both original characters and licensed IP collaborations. That could shorten development cycles, but the commercial catalogue remains preliminary; parts of the official site still say “Coming soon”.

What Eva.i can—and cannot—do

The most concrete public specifications are in the official Kickstarter FAQ. The 23 joints are intended for gestures, head motion and hugs. Eyelids, pupils and mouth are meant to react together. Twenty-one flexible-circuit sensor areas cover the arms, neck, chest, legs and cheeks. A graphene heating layer is claimed to keep the outer surface near body temperature.

The central limitation matters: Eva.i does not walk and cannot stand freely. It must sit, recline or lean against support. This is not a general-purpose household worker in the class of mobile humanoids. It is an embodied conversation and interaction platform.

The camera is designed as a removable accessory rather than a permanent eye, potentially making its presence and physical disconnection clearer. But published material does not establish microphone controls, hardware kill switches or European certification. Battery endurance, computing hardware, actuator performance, acoustic noise, repair procedures and payload are also missing.

AI, memory and personality

EVAIOS is supposed to coordinate language, long-term memory, personality and body motion. RoboNova.i refers to a proprietary two-billion-parameter model connected to services such as ChatGPT, Gemini and, in later comments, Claude. The description is technically ambiguous: architecture, training data, benchmarks and the division of work between local and cloud models have not been published.

Basic voice functions are said to work offline, while updates and more capable models need an internet connection. Fully offline use does not synchronise cloud memory. The company lists 256 GB of local storage plus “unlimited” cloud capacity and says memories can be imported or exported using a removable chip. It promises continuity through a third-party platform if the company fails, but the software remains closed-source. That is weaker than a formal escrow or open-source continuity plan.

Privacy signals deserve scrutiny

A relationship robot may process voice, video, routines, private conversations and emotional reactions. RoboNova.i says data is encrypted locally and that edge computing limits cloud transfers. At the time of our check, however, Google Play showed only “50+ downloads”, listed possible collection of personal information and messages, and stated that data was not encrypted. Its privacy link redirected to the shop.

The German App Store listing rates the app 16+ and reports several categories of data linked to identity. Apple also says the developer has not identified itself as a trader in the European Economic Area. These notices do not prove misconduct, but they are material due-diligence concerns for a camera- and microphone-equipped system with persistent memory.

A successful campaign and a moving delivery date

The Kickstarter campaign ran from 27 February to 28 April 2026, raising HK$1,262,612 against a HK$780,000 goal from 130 backers. Because lower-priced reward tiers existed, that figure cannot be treated as 130 robot orders. Free shipping was promoted for major markets, while taxes and import charges remained the buyer’s responsibility.

The timeline is more concerning. Public statements moved from February 2026 mass production to June, then August and October. The 36Kr profile published on 4 September still described a fourth-generation prototype before formal tooling and said mass-production conditions were expected around January 2027. RoboNova.i cites 160 initial orders, about 400 private seed users and a 200-unit Japanese enquiry it could not fulfil because of capacity. No independently audited delivery totals have been published.

Emotional AI is becoming a compliance category

China’s rules for anthropomorphic AI services took effect on 15 July 2026. The Cyberspace Administration of China requires lifecycle safety, privacy protection, AI disclosure, dependency warnings, reminders after extended use and an easy way to end interactions. Providers should not aim to replace human relationships or deliberately create emotional dependence.

That goes to the heart of Eva.i. A product combining touch, memory and relational language needs more than a convincing demo: it needs explicit boundaries, understandable retention and deletion controls, protections for minors, crisis protocols and auditable safety mechanisms. In Europe, data protection, consumer protection and product safety create further obligations. We found no public CE, radio, EMC or battery certification for a finished production unit.

Verdict: important concept, unproven series product

RoboNova.i understands a key truth about domestic robotics: people may buy an embodied character, not merely motors and compute. A modular platform, warm surface, touch sensing and portable memory are noteworthy ideas. Real funding and a completed crowdfunding campaign mean the company should be taken seriously.

So should the caveats. “Hyper-bionic” is a marketing label, not a standard technical category. Mobility is limited, independent testing is absent, production has slipped and privacy communication is inconsistent. Eva.i should currently be treated as an ambitious pre-series system—not yet as an independently validated mass-market robot. RoboNova.i is unrelated to the older Korean Hitec Robonova-1 educational robot.

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Nico Nuss

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Author Nico Nuss has been working on mobile computing and automation software since 2001. Drawing on his experience and strong interest in future technologies, he focuses on robotics and AI.