The "hidden champion" behind humanoid robots is poised to launch an IPO in Hong Kong.

The "joint heart" of robots has underpinned an A+H listed company.

Recently, Leaderharmonic, known as the "first robot joint stock" on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, officially announced its formal advancement of the Hong Kong stock IPO process.

It is worth noting that the harmonic reducer is the core transmission component in robot joints, with extremely high technical barriers, and is widely used in multi-joint humanoid robots and industrial robots.

However, according to CIC, there is currently no mature humanoid robot enterprise that has the ability to independently design and mass-produce harmonic reducers; as of December 31, 2025, only two domestic enterprises have achieved mass production and batch supply of harmonic reducers for humanoid robots.

One is Leaderharmonic, and the other is Laifu Harmonic, which was just listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on June 30.

Calculated based on shipment volume and revenue in 2025, the two rank first and second respectively among domestic robot harmonic reducer manufacturers.

Now, as Leaderharmonic tries to knock on the door of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the only two humanoid robot harmonic reducer suppliers in the industry will gather on the Hong Kong stock market to compete on the same stage.

Foundry in Suzhou Grew Into a 50-Billion-Yuan Domestic Leading Enterprise for Robot Joints

The starting point of Leaderharmonic was a precision processing foundry in Suzhou.

In 2003, Hengjia Metal, operated by founder Zuo Yuyu, lingered at the bottom of the industrial chain for a long time. At that time, the domestic robot harmonic reducer market was almost exclusively monopolized by Japan's Harmonic Drive Systems. For this core component that determines the motion accuracy of robots, there was no mature independent R&D solution in China.

Therefore, Zuo Yuyu decided to abandon low-value-added OEM business, and invested all the profits accumulated over the years into the R&D of harmonic reducers, where micron-level process problems of flexible wheels, material formulas, and special processing equipment all required trial and error from scratch.

It was not until 2013 that they successfully developed the "P-type tooth" profile design with completely independent intellectual property rights, taking the lead in breaking the overseas technological monopoly.

In 2020, Leaderharmonic was listed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, becoming the "first robot joint stock" on the A-share market.

After the listing, benefiting from the substantial expansion of the embodied intelligent robot business scale and the continuous recovery of downstream demand for industrial robots, the company's scale rose rapidly.

In 2025, Leaderharmonic achieved significant performance growth, with annual revenue of 571 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47.31%; attributable net profit of 124 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 121.42%; non-recurring profit and loss deducted net profit of 99.4285 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 115.19%. The net cash flow generated from operating activities was 152 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 443.23%.

According to data from QY Research, in 2025, Leaderharmonic's global market share of harmonic reducers was about 12%, ranking second in the world and first among domestic brands. In the domestic market, the company's shipment market share reached 27.5% in 2025, ranking first in the country.

According to other industry data disclosure, among the humanoid robots that have adopted harmonic reducers in China, Leaderharmonic's market share has jumped from about 70% in 2025 to 80% to 90%. The customer list includes humanoid robot manufacturers such as Unitree Robotics, Ubtech, and Agibot.

As of the close of trading on September 1, Leaderharmonic's share price was 290.02 yuan per share, with a market value of 52.7 billion yuan.

Under Profitability Pressure, the "Joint Heart" of Robots Seeks New Increment Overseas

For this Hong Kong IPO, Leaderharmonic has a clear strategic intention: to build an A+H capital platform, obtain endorsement from the overseas capital market, and support the certification of top overseas customers, local factory construction and global supply chain layout.

The 2026 semi-annual financial report shows that the company's overseas revenue accounts for only 14.59%. Even if the overseas revenue surges 78.18% year-on-year, compared with the global revenue structure of Harmonic Drive Systems, the overseas market is still the largest growth ceiling for the company in the future.

The previous listing of Laifu Harmonic on the Hong Kong stock market also confirms the industry trend of the whole track breaking through by going global.

The brutal price war among domestic players has been written into Leaderharmonic's financial statements.

Product prices have been declining for a long time. According to Bernstein's statistics, the average price of the company's harmonic reducers dropped from about 1,900 yuan in 2017 to 1,100 yuan in 2024, with the price almost halved in seven years.

In 2025, the company's annual comprehensive gross profit margin was 36.91%, down from the high point of 52.21% in 2021.

In the first half of 2026, the company's revenue was 349 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 38.64%; the attributable net profit was 70.1092 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of only 31.25%; the comprehensive gross profit margin dropped to 32.26%.

It can be seen that while shipment volume and revenue continue to rise, the profitability per unit product is continuously compressed.

The financial report of Laifu Harmonic also sends the same signal. Relying on low prices to rapidly expand its scale, its product selling price dropped from 802 yuan in 2023 to 573 yuan in 2025, with a two-year decline of nearly 28.5%. Its revenue in 2025 was 261 million yuan, a year-on-year surge of 142.2%, but the loss for the year reached 171 million yuan, and it failed to achieve profitability.

In comparison, the overseas market shows obvious growth potential.

In the first half of 2026, the gross profit margin of Leaderharmonic's overseas sales was as high as 44.60%, while the domestic gross profit margin was only 30.15%, which shows that the overseas market demonstrates stronger profitability.

At the same time, from the perspective of the industry pattern, the global harmonic reducer market has long been dominated by Harmonic Drive Systems, which had a global market share of about 40% in 2024, while Leaderharmonic accounted for about 12%. The gap is narrowing rapidly.

In this context, the sprint for Hong Kong stock listing is actually a shift of Leaderharmonic's strategic focus: the competition battlefield has shifted from the domestic share scramble to the global high-end supply chain positioning.

If the H-share listing is successfully completed, Leaderharmonic will obtain more abundant financial support for capacity expansion and technology iteration, and further narrow the gap with international giants under the dual drive of domestic substitution and the surging humanoid robot industry.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Direct to IPO", written by Sun Yuan, authorized for release by 36Kr.