Summary
Fangwei Li is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Bear Robotics, where he has led robotics software, hardware, and AI development since June 2017. Li holds a PhD in Computer Science from The University of Hong Kong, where his research focused on developing distributed Java virtual machine systems, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from Xiamen University. Before co-founding Bear Robotics, Li worked as a software engineer at Google and co-founded Google’s internal startup incubator, Area 120.
Career
Li completed his PhD in Computer Science at The University of Hong Kong from 2005 to 2009, conducting research on distributed Java virtual machine systems. He earned his Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from Xiamen University between 2001 and 2005.
After completing his doctorate, Li joined Microsoft as a software engineer, where he worked on the Chakra JavaScript engine and the Windows 8 XAML framework. In September 2012, he moved to Google, where he spent nearly five years as a software engineer working on machine intelligence, data processing, and analysis. Li was a founding member of the TFX Serving project, which became a core component of Google’s machine learning infrastructure.
In September 2016, Li co-founded Area 120, Google’s in-house startup incubator designed to help Google employees develop and launch new product ideas within the company. He remained with Area 120 until June 2017, when he left Google to co-found Bear Robotics alongside John Ha, Juan Higueros, and Brennand Pierce.
As CTO of Bear Robotics, Li has led the development of the company’s core robotics platform, including navigation, perception, safety systems, and fleet management software. He has taken ownership of complex software innovations that enable Bear’s robots to operate reliably in unstructured commercial environments. Li has been involved in prototype development across the United States, South Korea, and other international markets, working closely with engineering teams to refine the Servi family of service robots and the Carti industrial AMR line.
In June 2026, Li played a key role in the acquisition of Kinisi Robotics, which brought humanoid manipulation capabilities to Bear’s platform. In a LinkedIn post announcing the acquisition, Li stated, “I have spent much of my career thinking about how robots can operate reliably in the real world — not just in demos, but in complex, unstructured commercial environments. The next major step for robotics is Physical AI: systems that can perceive, reason, move, and interact with the world around them.” The acquisition brought Brennand Pierce, one of Bear’s original co-founders and Kinisi’s founder, back to Bear as Chief Robotics Officer.
Li continues to lead Bear’s technical vision as the company expands beyond restaurant service into autonomous cleaning, warehouse automation, and humanoid manipulation under LG Electronics’ ownership.
Source Notes
This profile draws from Fangwei Li’s LinkedIn profile, The Org company profile for Bear Robotics, and Li’s own LinkedIn posts regarding the Kinisi acquisition. Educational background and career timeline are documented on LinkedIn. Li’s role in Area 120 and his work on TFX Serving at Google are sourced from his LinkedIn and public records of Google’s internal projects.