Shunwei Capital and Qifu Capital have invested in a children's hardware education company, aiming to recreate classic book IPs with AI | Exclusive Report by Yingke
Author | Huang Nan
Editor | Yuan Silai
Yingke has learned that Shenzhen Qiduo Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Qiduo Intelligent KidoAI") recently completed a seed round + financing of tens of millions of yuan. We have summarized the information of this round of financing and several highlights of the company:
Financing Amount and Investment Institutions
Financing Round: It has completed two rounds of seed - round financing just three months after its establishment.
Financing Scale: Tens of millions of yuan.
Investors: Supported jointly by Shunwei Capital and Qifu Capital.
Use of Funds: This round of financing will be mainly used to accelerate the construction of the core team, increase R & D investment to improve the product matrix, and promote the large - scale mass production and market delivery of the first batch of products.
Basic Company Information
Establishment Time: July 2025
Registered Address: Futian District, Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province
Enterprise Positioning: "Qiduo Intelligent KidoAI" is an innovative enterprise in children's digital life with the core model of "IP + AI + hardware". Through self - developed intelligent hardware products, it provides a new AI life solution integrating cognitive enlightenment, language training, scenario interaction, and creative sharing for children's growth and family life.
Team Background: The founder and CEO, Huang Yong, is a serial entrepreneur. He has led the implementation of multiple children's education projects from scratch and has more than a decade of experience in R & D and operation management of AI education hardware products. Most of the core members come from the fields of consumer electronics, AI algorithm R & D, and children's education technology, covering areas such as children's IP content development, AI interaction, and intelligent hardware design. They have both the ability to implement technology and insights into educational scenarios.
Technical Highlights: The core of "Qiduo Intelligent KidoAI"'s products lies in using AI technology to "republish" children's content. Simply put, it digitally reconstructs authoritative content IPs through AI agents and finally loads them into special hardware carriers, forming a product model of "IP + AI + hardware" trinity.
This new - type publishing production line proposed based on large AI models has achieved full - process intelligence from content production, review to interaction, transforming traditional paper - based IP content such as picture books, books, and popular science knowledge into interactive experiences that can be conversed with, accompanied, and generate personalized content.
Children's AI Exploration Camera of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" (Source/Enterprise)
In terms of content selection, the R & D team targeted the diverse learning scenarios of users aged 3 - 18. Its first AI exploration camera reconstructed the intelligent hardware for the classic book IP of "One Hundred Thousand Whys", transforming the knowledge enlightenment scenario of school - age children into a series of interactive and immersive digital experiences.
In the future, the company will also carry out innovative cooperation with more content IP parties to build a structured knowledge base and AI hardware products covering more fields such as music, popular science, and literature.
Market Size
According to the joint data of iResearch and IDC, in 2024, the market scale of children's educational intelligent hardware (including learning tablets, AI reading pens, etc.) in China has exceeded 38 billion yuan. It is expected to reach 45 billion yuan in 2025 and continue to expand at an average annual compound growth rate of 18.5%, and is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan by 2030. Among them, the overall scale of early childhood education machines in China has reached about 18.5 billion yuan, with an average annual compound growth rate of about 12.3%. It is expected to exceed 32 billion yuan by 2030. Mid - to high - end products with functions such as AI voice recognition account for more than 60% of the total market.
Founder's Thoughts
Yingke: Judging from the form of Qiduo Intelligent KidoAI's first product, you haven't made many changes to the hardware structure. How is its innovation reflected?
Huang Yong: In our opinion, the market foundation of successful hardware categories lies in the proven user perception and large - scale shipment ability.
Therefore, Qiduo's product strategy will not easily define new categories but focus on mature tracks with an annual shipment of no less than 3 million units, such as the children's camera category with an annual global sales volume of tens of millions of units. This type of product has formed a stable form symbol in users' perception. That's why our first product still chooses the "card - shaped, rectangular" camera that users are familiar with as the product carrier, in order to avoid additional user education costs caused by form innovation.
At the same time, we have observed that the essence of any educational hardware is a content carrier. Whether users consume content through APPs, hardware, or paper media, their core demand is always content consumption. Qiduo's unique product logic of "IP + AI + hardware" takes classic content IP as the core, reconstructs the content experience through AI technology, and then loads it into a hardware form that conforms to users' perception.
Taking the classic IP of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" as an example, in the past, it was published in the form of books and audio. After entering Qiduo's AI publishing process, it is "republished" as a children's exploration camera. Here, the hardware serves as a new output medium for content, while AI is the key engine to enhance the content interaction experience.
Real - world - based AI content interaction (Source/Enterprise)
It can be said that in essence, Qiduo is more like a new - type publishing company with hardware as the carrier. We don't create content but reshape the way of transmitting classic content through the integration of technology and hardware, making each product a new - type knowledge medium carrying wisdom and inspiration.
Yingke: There are many AI hardware products in the market trying to combine with IP. How to form the sustainable vitality of the products?
Huang Yong: In the field of intelligent hardware entrepreneurship, any team must face two fundamental problems, namely, how to deal with the substitution of mobile phones and how to deal with the imitation pressure from Huaqiangbei.
Regarding the problem of mobile phone substitution, we found a breakthrough through accurate user scenario analysis. Public data shows that the mobile phone penetration rate of children under 12 years old in mainland China is relatively low. Although the penetration rate of smartwatches is high, their core functions are mainly for calling and positioning, and the shooting experience far fails to meet the demand. This is the basic logic for the children's camera category to maintain an annual sales volume of tens of millions of units. For users over 12 years old, we adopt a strategy of co - existing with mobile phones, providing more professional services in specific scenarios by connecting with mobile phones.
White - label imitation is a considerable pressure for current hardware startup companies. In this regard, we will build a differentiated content barrier through in - depth cooperation with authoritative IPs. The Huaqiangbei model is good at hardware assembly but difficult to replicate the content ecosystem.
Yingke: What is the biggest difficulty you encountered during the product R & D process?
Huang Yong: The most challenging part is to find the most suitable hardware carrier for different IPs. Just as traditional publishing needs to decide whether an IP is suitable to be made into a picture book, a comic strip, or a novel, we need to find the most suitable hardware form for each content IP.
For example, the core value of the IP of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" lies in stimulating children's exploration desire and curiosity about the real world. We chose the AI camera as the hardware form because the camera, as a tool for "capturing reality", is highly consistent with the "exploration and discovery" core of the IP. When a child captures an insect, a strange leaf, or a rainbow outdoors, the AI camera can instantly recognize it and activate the relevant knowledge base in "One Hundred Thousand Whys", realizing the scenario - based learning of "seeing is learning", which is an immersive experience that traditional books or audio forms cannot achieve.
Children's AI Exploration Camera of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" (Source/Enterprise)
Yingke: This also means that you must not only understand content operation, AI technology R & D, but also understand how to integrate the two.
Huang Yong: This multi - dimensional cross - border ability combination actually constitutes Qiduo's core advantage. We have built a complete AI content production line, covering the entire process from IP import, content processing, knowledge supplementation to three - review and three - proofreading. On the basis of strictly following publishing standards, through the structured construction of the knowledge base and in - depth processing technologies such as RAG, we ensure the professionalism and accuracy of the content.
At the product development level, we plan to launch 3 - 4 products every year in the future. We will continue the underlying logic of hardware reconstruction. By choosing mature categories verified by the market, the supply - chain risks can be effectively controlled. The key is how to accurately match the most suitable hardware carrier for each IP and reshape the content interaction experience with the help of AI technology.
Hardware is just a carrier, content is the soul, and AI is the engine to activate the value of content. By integrating the professionalism of traditional publishing, the innovation of AI technology, and the stability of mature hardware, we hope to explore a new path of "hardware - based content value", enabling classic knowledge to be integrated into the learning lives of the new generation in a more vivid and interactive way.