SwitchBot

Li Zhichen graduated from the Harbin Institute of Technology in 2011 with a degree in electronic information engineering and completed a master's in electronics at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. After a stint at a Singapore-based technology firm, he returned to China to pursue entrepreneurship, co-founding Woan Technology (later branded OneRobotics) in Shenzhen in 2015 with classmate Pan Yang. The company built its reputation on the original SwitchBot, a small Bluetooth actuator that physically presses existing wall switches, and the world's first commercial "finger robot" in 2017, before expanding into smart locks, hubs, and motorized blinds sold across more than 90 countries. He helped lead the parent to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing at the end of 2025.

Pan Yang graduated from the Harbin Institute of Technology in 2011 in electronics science and technology and co-founded Woan Technology, the maker of the SwitchBot brand, in Shenzhen in 2015 with fellow alumnus Li Zhichen. He has emphasized the company's engineering precision in retrofit automation, noting that its devices were tested against the vast majority of switches on the market to within fractions of a millimeter of actuation accuracy. He helped grow SwitchBot from its original switch-pressing robot into a broad line of smart-home gadgets and guided the company alongside Li through its parent's 2025 Hong Kong IPO as a pure-play AI home-robotics company.