Updated FTP location. Self-renewal of tendons is rare since the vascular formation inside is extremely poor, thus reconstructive surgery using autologous tendons has been often taken place in the case of severe injury. However, the rate of re-injury after surgery is relatively high, and collection of autologous tendons leads muscle weakness which results in prolonged rehabilitation. Here, we introduce the induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)-based technology aiming at developing a new therapeutic option after tendon injury. Firstly, we derived tenocytes from human iPSCs by recapitulating the normal progression of step-wise narrowing fate decisions in the vertebrate embryo. We used single-cell RNA sequencing to analyze the developmental trajectory of iPSCs-derived tenocytes. We then demonstrated that grafting iPSCs-tenocytes contributed to recovery of motor function after Achilles tendon injury in rat via engraftments and paracrine effects. The biomechanical strength of regenerated tendons recovered comparable to that of healthy tendons. We propose that the iPSCs-tenocytes will provide a novel therapeutic option in tendon injury.