Über 40 Venture Capital-Firmen setzen ein, und ein Gründer aus der 80er-Jahrgangsstufe strebt danach, das erste Aktienpaket eines Unterwasserroboterunternehmens zu emittieren.
In the past year, the robotics field was undoubtedly the area where industry opinions were most concentrated. During this hype phase, humanoid robots got caught up in fierce controversies due to the unclear application scenarios. In contrast, non - humanoid robots enjoy the favor of investors because of their clearly defined real - world needs and the potential for commercial implementation.
Underwater robots are a typical example of this. By the end of 2025, the pre - IPO supervision system of the stock exchange showed that the pre - IPO status of Shenzhilan Ocean Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shenzhilan") had been changed to "preparations completed". The consulting firm is China International Capital Corporation. As early as October 2023, the company formally submitted an application for pre - IPO preparations and is aiming directly at the STAR Market. In the meantime, eight phases of preparatory work were required.
It is known that Shenzhilan hopes to raise 1.5 billion yuan in this IPO. If the IPO is successful, Shenzhilan will be the "first listed company among Chinese underwater robot enterprises".
More than 40 investors like Lei Jun are betting on Shenzhilan
Wei Jiancang, the leader of Shenzhilan, is an "80s" person with a profound technological background. He was the first national defense student at Tianjin University and was later admitted to the National University of Defense Technology for further study. He previously worked in the experimental equipment factory of the Military Medical Academy and was involved in the research and development of medical experimental equipment.
In 2013, Wei Jiancang decided to take off his military uniform and enter the business world. At that time, he found that compared with the developed underwater equipment industries in Europe and the United States, hardly anyone in China was interested in the underwater robot market. The few involved companies were mainly trading companies that were dependent on imports for the main components. "In the underwater drone industry, we lack many core competencies, and there are also few private enterprises. Someone needs to do this well. So I left the army to do something that ensures the core capabilities for the exploitation of marine resources and the national security of our country." Wei Jiancang once said in an interview about his reason for starting the business.
After several years of hard work, Shenzhilan has successfully achieved the industrialization of domestic underwater thrusters. Today, the company has a very rich product portfolio, ranging from tethered underwater robots, autonomous vehicles to underwater gliders. These hardcore equipments play an important role in areas such as marine research, water and power supply, and emergency rescue. In many major emergencies such as the rescue of the crashed bus in Wanzhou, Chongqing, and the shipwreck on Phuket, Shenzhilan's equipment has provided important technical support.
In addition, Shenzhilan also has the consumer brand Sublue, which offers intelligent products for water sports to private consumers, such as underwater thrusters, motorized surfboards, underwater drones, and intelligent surfboards. The products are exported to more than 70 countries around the world, and the company is regarded as the "DJI" in the underwater equipment industry.
Regarding capital attention, Shenzhilan received the support of two private investors, Sun Haibo and Huang Jian, when it was founded in 2013. In April 2017, Shenzhilan received its first financing of over one billion yuan, led by Sled Investment. Not only did the old supporters Sun Haibo, Huang Jian, Yuanxing Capital, and TEDA Science & Technology Investment invest again, but Lei Jun was also enthusiastic, and Shunwei Capital joined in. Since then, Shenzhilan has become a new member of the Xiaomi ecosystem chain.
To date, Shenzhilan has already completed more than ten rounds of financing and has raised a total of over 1.3 billion yuan in capital. The capital structure shows that the founder Wei Jiancang holds 23.64% of the shares, making him the largest individual shareholder and the actual controller of the company. There are many institutional shareholders, and their shares are widely spread. In total, there are 43 shareholders. Among them, the "Shenzhen Capital Group segment" (holding 9.11% of the shares through Yuanxing Equity) is the largest institutional shareholder. In second and third place are TEDA Science & Technology Investment and Haida Investment, each holding 4.91% of the shares. Sled Investment and Hongtai Fund hold 4.18% and 3.52% of the shares respectively. Shunwei Capital holds 2.48% of the shares through Hangzhou Shunying and is thus among the top six institutional shareholders.
The underwater robot market is getting hotter and hotter
In 2025, deep - sea science and technology, along with commercial spaceflight and low - altitude aviation, were officially included in the "Government Work Report" as emerging industries. In the capital markets, the stocks of the marine economy have been rising steadily. Many young companies in this field have successively completed financing, and a large number of players in deep - sea science and technology are emerging rapidly.
In May last year, the two - year - old Shihang Intelligence successively raised 50 million yuan in the Angel+ round and the Pre - A round. The investors include China Merchants Group's CM Venture Capital and GSR Ventures. The founder of the company, Wang Jian, studied at Northwestern Polytechnical University and led the research and development of China's first commercial underwater cleaning robot and China's first ship - type surface unmanned vehicle.
In June and September of last year, Shandong Future Robot, founded in 2015, completed a total of two rounds of financing of several hundred million yuan. The company specializes in the development and operation of shallow - water underwater robots in areas such as ROV (large underwater robots), trench construction, mining, and seabed construction projects. Its customers include CNOOC Energy Technology & Services Limited and China Yangtze Power Co., Ltd.
Cao Ying, the COO of Shihang United Innovation, once told Touzhongwang that the R & D expenditures for underwater scenarios are actually higher than those for humanoid robots in other scenarios. In the entire robotics market, it is not common for a company to become profitable again within a year or so after high R & D investment.
In terms of sales, Shenzhilan has shown strong expansion in recent years. From 2022 to 2024, sales increased from 1.14 billion yuan to 2.51 billion yuan, representing an average annual growth of 33.23%. In 2025, sales in the first half of the year were already 1.41 billion yuan, which is equivalent to the total sales of 2022. This shows that the company's global expansion in the consumer market for underwater thrusters and the stable delivery of orders for industrial underwater robots have driven the company into a critical phase of sales - oriented expansion.
However, due to high R & D expenditures in the initial stage and employee incentive programs, the company had a cumulative undistributed profit of - 622 million yuan by June 2025. It has not fully turned losses into profits yet. But over the years, the net debt has significantly decreased from 134 million yuan in 2022 to 66 million yuan in 2024. In the first half of 2025, the net debt has been reduced to 2.0781 million yuan.
According to the company's estimate, it could become profitable as early as 2026. Whether it can be profitable in 2026 mainly depends on the combination of sales, profit margin, and operating costs.
As the global marine economy enters the intelligent era, the penetration rate of deep - sea robots in areas such as energy development, national security, and ecosystem repair is rising rapidly. Data shows that the market volume of the Chinese underwater robot market has increased from 1.24 billion yuan in 2018 to 6.27 billion yuan in 2022. It is estimated that it will exceed 30 billion yuan in 2027. The global market for the supply of complete deep - sea robots will grow to 420 billion yuan by 2028, and the market for the associated engineering services will even reach 1.5 trillion yuan.
Industry experts believe that the underwater robot market has higher market security and clearer application scenarios compared to surface unmanned vehicles. Currently, this field is mainly divided into three categories: defense, industrial, and consumer levels. The requirements for the defense and industrial levels are extremely high, while the consumer market, although highly competitive, has a relatively more mature overseas market.
For these companies, the future focus of competition will be concentrated on two core technologies: First, acoustic sensors. Currently, this area is still dominated by traditional maritime powers such as Denmark and the United Kingdom. Whoever can achieve independence and controllability in underwater acoustic exploration has the core competitiveness. Second, the navigation and positioning system and the attitude control system. This is the "basic equipment" for underwater robots to stably perform tasks.
This article is from the WeChat account “DsstCapital”, author: Wei Xianghui. Published by 36Kr with permission.