Der Tsinghua-Elite, der seine Wohnung verkauft, um sich selbst zu retten, will eine Börsengänge durchführen.

Recently, Zhejiang Yifei Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yifei Technology") officially submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and plans to be listed on the main board of the Hong Kong stock market.

This national-level specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprise established in 2012 focuses on the R & D, production, and sales of light industry robots and is expected to become the "first stock of full-category light industry robots" in the Hong Kong stock market.

Its founder and CEO, Zhang Sai, a technical expert with a bachelor's degree in precision instruments from Tsinghua University, a master's degree from Columbia University in the United States, and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Tsinghua University, led the company to start from a small office in Jinan. After more than a decade of development, its products have been sold to more than 20 countries and regions around the world, serving nearly 300 customers, including well - known enterprises such as BYD, Foxconn, and Lens Technology.

The prospectus shows that after completing multiple rounds of financing, the company's valuation has reached approximately 3.6 billion yuan. It has received support from institutions such as Broadband Capital, Tsinghua Holdings Ginkgo Venture Capital, Ivy Capital, Primavera Capital, Guoke Yingfeng, Jasic Technology, Septwolves Group, Fengrui Capital, Yuhuan State - owned Investment, Junyuan Capital, Feitu Venture Capital, Zhongli Capital, Chuxin Capital, Wutong Investment, Keke Capital, Yuandu Venture Capital, and TusStar.

Tsinghua University's top student once sold his house to save the company

With a bachelor's degree in precision instruments from Tsinghua University, a master's degree from Columbia University in the United States, and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Tsinghua University, Zhang Sai's excellent academic background has become his strongest core competitiveness.

Zhang Sai's entrepreneurship began with an industry observation. After returning to China in 2012, he found that the domestic high - end industrial robot market had long been monopolized by foreign enterprises such as ABB and FANUC. Especially in the field of parallel robots, the domestic production rate was less than 5%.

This Tsinghua University doctor resolutely founded Yifei Technology and led the team to start R & D from scratch. "At that time, there was no industrial support in Jinan, so we could only rent an office in an urban village and secretly use a cutting machine to make parts at night," Zhang Sai recalled. In 2014, the team finally completed the first prototype of a parallel robot, but the market development was not smooth, and only 3 devices were sold in the first year.

The turning point came in 2016. When the company was facing a cash - flow crisis, Zhang Sai sold his property in Beijing to buy back shares and introduced an investment of 9.3 million yuan from institutions such as Fengrui Capital. This capital supported the team to achieve a key breakthrough: the Bat series of parallel robots launched in 2018 passed the 20,000 - hour fault - free test, and the repeated positioning accuracy reached 0.08 mm, exceeding that of international similar products.

In 2020, the independently developed Gorilla control system realized multi - machine collaborative control, and its technical indicators reached the leading level in the industry. As of 2024, the company has obtained 271 patents, among which 36 invention patents have built up its core competitiveness.

In terms of market expansion, Yifei Technology adopted the strategy of "encircling the cities from the countryside". In 2018, it avoided the fields dominated by giants such as automobile manufacturing and turned to the light - industry segmented markets such as food packaging and electronic assembly.

In Shaoxing, Zhejiang, the team developed the world's first unmanned silicon wafer sorting line for photovoltaic enterprises; in a semiconductor factory in Shenzhen, the Lobster wafer robot solved the transmission problem at the 0.1μm level. This differentiated competition strategy has achieved remarkable results. In 2024, the overseas revenue reached 25.5 million yuan, covering more than 20 countries and regions.

Calculated by the revenue in 2024, Yifei Technology is the fifth - ranked domestic enterprise among the suppliers of industrial robots and related robot solutions focusing on the light - industry in China.

Yifei Technology is also one of the few robot enterprises in China with the ability to comprehensively cover large - scale industrial robots and related robot solutions. Its products are applied in multiple industries such as electronics, automobile parts, food and beverage, medical and health, and semiconductors, and its customers are all over 28 provinces in China and more than 20 countries overseas.

Annual revenue of 260 million yuan

Let's take a look at the financial data:

From 2022 to 2024, the company's operating revenue continued to grow, reaching 162 million yuan, 201 million yuan, and 268 million yuan respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 28.5%. This growth rate is significantly higher than the average growth rate of about 14.2% in the Chinese light - industry robot industry during the same period.

The company's revenue mainly comes from two aspects: the sales of robot bodies and robot - based automation solutions. During the reporting period, a significant change was that the proportion of robot body sales increased significantly: from about 5% in 2022 to about 12.3% in 2023 and then to 20.8% in 2024. Correspondingly, the proportion of solution revenue decreased from 95% in 2022 to 79.2% in 2024. This reflects the improvement of the company's product competitiveness and market recognition, and the scale effect of standardized hardware sales has begun to appear.

In terms of profitability, the company is still in the investment stage. From 2022 to 2024, it recorded net losses of about 63 million yuan, 104 million yuan, and 71 million yuan respectively, with a cumulative loss of about 238 million yuan in three years.

The losses are mainly due to high - intensity R & D investment, the expansion of the sales network, and the pre - investment in new production lines (wafer robots) to seize high - growth fields such as semiconductors.

The company's cumulative R & D expenditure in three years exceeded 100 million yuan. In 2024, there were 202 R & D personnel with an average annual salary of 147,000 yuan. Compared with robot companies in the same industry at a similar development stage, this strategic loss is a common feature in the industry.

With the optimization of the product structure and the cost reduction brought about by large - scale production, the company's overall gross profit margin increased from about 25.9% in 2022 to 26.5% in 2024.

Another major financial highlight of Yifei Technology is the rapid expansion of the overseas market: the overseas sales revenue increased nearly 10 times in three years, from about 2.6 million yuan in 2022 to 25.5 million yuan in 2024, accounting for 9.5% of the revenue. Its customers cover German automobile parts factories and Southeast Asian electronic contract manufacturers.

After adjustment, the company's customer structure began to diversify: the revenue proportion of the largest customer decreased from 71.2% in 2022 to 23.7% in 2024, and the revenue proportion of the top five customers decreased from 83.3% to 50.1%, with a more extensive and healthy customer base.

Valued at 3.6 billion yuan before IPO

From the struggling start - up in an urban village in Jinan to the sprint for an IPO on the Hong Kong stock market, Yifei Technology has completed a survival battle of hardcore technology in 13 years. Yifei Technology has also gone through multiple rounds of financing during this period.

In 2014, Yifei Technology achieved its first sale of parallel robots. In the same year, it also received an angel - round investment of 6 million yuan from Shenzhen Jasic Robot Automation Equipment Co., Ltd., and the post - investment valuation of Yifei Intelligent was 20 million yuan.

In 2015, Yifei Technology completed a Pre - A round of 18 million yuan, with a post - investment valuation of 75 million yuan, jointly invested by institutions such as Shanghai Dongshu, Ivy Innovation, and Xingzhi Wenhua.

As mentioned above, in 2016, the company was facing a cash - flow crisis, and its partners also withdrew one after another. Zhang Sai finally sold his house to raise money to buy back shares to keep the company going. Then, it quickly introduced an investment of 9.3 million yuan from Fengrui Capital, TusStar, Chuzhe Zhixin, Runzhe Investment, and Shanghai Haode to complete the A1 - round investment, with a post - investment valuation of 93 million yuan.

After that, Fengrui Capital participated in the investment in Yifei Technology many times. Zhongli Capital, Broadband Capital, Septwolves Group, Tsinghua Holdings Ginkgo Venture Capital, Primavera Capital, Guoke Yingfeng, Yuhuan State - owned Investment, Junyuan Capital, Feitu Venture Capital, Chuxin Capital, Wutong Investment, Keke Capital, Yuandu Venture Capital and other institutions also successively took stakes. After multiple rounds of financing, the company's valuation reached 3.6 billion yuan.

The ability of Yifei's full - stack technology ecosystem (coordination of brain, eyes, hands, and feet) to be implemented in light - industry scenarios is the key for capital to continue to bet on it.

Choosing to list under Chapter 18C of the Hong Kong stock market, Yifei Technology's IPO is precisely targeting the "embodied intelligence" concept stocks in the Hong Kong stock market. The use of the raised funds: 30% of the funds will be invested in the R & D of embodied intelligence, and the "robot + AI" laboratory jointly built with Huawei has made breakthrough progress; 20% will be used for overseas expansion, and it plans to build the first European robot training center in Hungary.

Its layout is highly consistent with the industry trend - according to data from GGII, the global embodied intelligence market size will reach 12 billion US dollars in 2025, and Yifei Technology completed its technology reserve two years in advance and holds 37 relevant patents.

The year 2025 is known as the "first year of embodied intelligence", and this concept was also written into the government work report for the first time, clarifying the importance of combining artificial intelligence with physical robots. As a robot with real implementation scenarios, Yifei Technology is facing a new development opportunity.

As Tian Jiangchuan, the managing partner of Chuxin Capital, wrote in his message: "In March 2016, I first met Zhang Sai, who was carrying a robot dream, at Costa in Wudaoying Hutong. Then Chuxin Capital got involved with Yifei. In nine years, what we bet on is not only Yifei Technology as a company, but also the automation dream of founder Zhang Sai step by step and the general trend of the rise of China's independent industrial automation."

This article is from the WeChat public account "Dongshisitiaojie Capital" (ID: DsstCapital), author: Riemann, published by 36Kr with authorization.