Anker Revives Old Dreams as New Product Crowdfunding Exceeds 100 Million | Focus Analysis
Author | Zhang Ziyi
Editor | Yuan Silai
In the first half of this year, Anker Innovations seemed a bit anxious.
Anker's eufy brand has been quite active. Previously, this brand mainly focused on security and household cleaning products. However, at this year's CES, it launched its first lawn mowing robot. In April, this new product went on sale on AliExpress and exceeded $10,000 in sales within a week in Germany.
Almost simultaneously, AnkerMake, the original 3D printer brand under Anker Innovations, was renamed eufyMake and launched its first UV printer, the eufyMake E1, on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.
This has become a huge hit on Kickstarter this year. It raised over $10 million in crowdfunding within just 12 hours, and the amount has now exceeded $20 million, breaking the global historical crowdfunding record for technology products.
Anker had previously been involved in both lawn mowing robots and 3D printers. The former ended with the dissolution of the product team, while the latter got off to a bad start due to difficulties in mass - producing and delivering the first 3D printer, and the product has been performing mediocrely.
Among the many large cross - border e - commerce sellers in Shenzhen, Anker Innovations is an absolute benchmark. It is the first seller to truly build a brand, completely breaking the equation of "Made in China = Low - end".
Anker started with power banks and then developed the audio brand Soundcore and the smart home brand Eufy. At its peak, Anker Innovations had 27 product teams internally.
However, apart from Soundcore, Anker has not developed any other successful sub - brands. Three years ago, Yang Meng, the founder of Anker, "encountered a systematic failure". He couldn't find a way out and felt "extremely scared".
He cut 10 product lines and refocused on limited ace categories such as mobile energy storage and audio. He quickly emerged from the trough. In 2024, Anker's revenue exceeded 20 billion yuan, with both revenue and net profit growing by over 30%.
Now, Anker wants to seize the new opportunities arising from the rise of robots and niche markets.
01 Hot Products in 2025
Anker's decision to enter the consumer - grade UV printer market surprised many in the industry.
UV printing (short for ultraviolet printing) is not a new technology. It emerged over 20 years ago and is a digital inkjet technology. This process applies multiple layers of colored inks on the surface, and these inks dry immediately under ultraviolet light, forming a long - lasting image. It has a wide range of application scenarios, from paper to wood, from acrylic to leather.
Traditional UV printers are mainly used in industrial production scenarios. They are expensive, only support flat printing, are bulky, complex to operate, and require professional technicians.
The eufyMake E1 is claimed to be the world's first personal 3D texture UV printer. Its basic package is priced at $1,899, and the early - bird offer price is $1,699. This thousand - dollar price is also quite affordable in the overseas market.
In addition to the advantage of a lower price, the product has also made many technological breakthroughs in terms of usage threshold and application scenarios.
According to the official website of eufyMake E1, the core ability of the eufyMake E1 lies in its support for 3D texture printing. It can stack up to 5mm of three - dimensional relief on various materials through precise nozzle control and Z - axis adjustment. Dual lasers and cameras enable nanometer - level scanning to ensure printing accuracy. The operation process has been greatly simplified. Users only need to take a photo of the object, select a template, and click print, and the rest can be left to AI. The built - in more than 20,000 templates cover more than 20 styles, from leather embossing to starry sky gradients.
As for the much - criticized maintenance cost of traditional UV printing, the eufyMake E1 has solved it through its self - developed JetClean self - cleaning system. The maintenance cost is only 1/10 of that of traditional equipment.
"The eufyMake E1 has a good ecological niche. There are no similar products in this category at present. The technology it requires is much simpler than that of 3D printers and a bit more difficult than that of laser cutters. It is in the middle position, and Anker has always had an advantage in promotion," an investor in the consumer electronics hardware field told Yingke.
She is very optimistic about the eufyMake E1's ability to integrate the complex printing processes, which will undoubtedly attract more C - end consumers.
"There have been similar printers in the market before, but they involve many steps. You have to print the pattern on the film first, manually spread glue, put it in the oven to melt, and then use a heat press to transfer the pattern. It can't achieve integration, so it's difficult to be used at home," the above - mentioned investor told Yingke.
Product official website image
From the official website of the eufyMake E1, it can be seen that the product's user group is clearly targeted at DIY creative enthusiasts, makers, and small - business users.
This group of people has huge consumption power and is collectively referred to as "Makers". The annual revenue of Xtool, a leading laser cutter company, which exceeded 2 billion yuan, largely depends on this group of users.
This market has never been very popular, but it has become crowded after many Chinese hardware companies flocked to it.
This year, XTool launched a clothing printer. The company said that it is compatible with "all clothing and all fabrics", including cotton, polyester, denim, canvas, spandex, and leather. It is the first device to achieve a fully automated workflow from printing to baking, suitable for both single - piece production and batch production. It can be seen that the application scenarios and user groups of the eufyMake E1 overlap with those of the Xtool clothing printer.
More similar to the Xtool clothing printer in terms of positioning and product is Procolored's entry - level DTF printer (Digital Transfer Film Printer), which raised $1.79 million in crowdfunding. Both sides have similar technical routes, aiming to reduce the difficulty of using DTF printers.
In the view of insiders in the printer industry, consumer - grade 3D printer companies have been educating the market users for many years, and as a result, many other printing needs have emerged, including printing patterns on clothes and bags. Previously, the application scenarios were more B - end oriented, but now hardware companies are starting to transfer these technologies to the C - end.
It can be said that before eufyMake entered the market, other hardware companies had already noticed the "printing" market. Currently, each company has a different technical route, but there are overlapping application scenarios and user groups. It's only a matter of time before the competition heats up.
02 The King of the In - crowded Lawn Mowing Robot Market
If the consumer - grade UV printer launched by Anker Innovations created a new category, then the lawn mowing robot it launched has joined the already highly competitive lawn market.
In February this year, eufy officially announced the launch of two lawn mowing robots, the E15 and the E18, entering the lawn mowing robot market, with a price in the thousands of dollars.
eufy adopted the currently most popular boundary - less lawn mowing robot route, which was initiated and led by Chinese overseas brands, aiming to replace the buried - wire lawn mowing robots.
There is no consensus on the technical solution for boundary - less lawn mowing robots. There are a pure vision solution with lower cost, a vision + RTK solution, and the most expensive lidar + vision solution.
According to the product introduction, the two eufy lawn mowers are mainly equipped with a vision - based obstacle avoidance system. This type of solution has a lower cost, but due to its susceptibility to light interference, it requires a large amount of data and strong algorithm computing power, posing higher technical requirements.
"The complexity of a lawn mowing robot using a pure vision solution is quite high and requires a large amount of algorithm training. Previously, a robot company (using a pure vision solution) misidentified a hedgehog as grass and ran over it, causing a big public outcry. A lawn is a very complex scenario. There may be animals, animal feces, tables and chairs on it, which makes the algorithm training cycle very long and full of pitfalls," an investor focusing on the robot investment field told Yingke.
Technology is just one of the obstacles.
Anker's lawn mowing robot products are simultaneously targeted at the North American and European markets. However, the grass quality of lawns in Europe and North America is different, and the requirements for lawn mowers are also different. The grass in European lawns is relatively delicate and grows at a moderate speed, requiring higher cutting efficiency and precision from lawn mowers. The grass in North America is coarser and grows faster. Especially during the peak season, the lawn needs to be mowed 2 - 3 times a month, requiring high - power, high - efficiency, and durable lawn mowers. In many cases, large - horsepower gasoline lawn mowers are needed to handle it.
Even now, the penetration rate of boundary - less lawn mowing robots in the United States is only 2%, and no lawn mowing robot company can replace traditional lawn mowers.
More importantly, lawn mowing robots rely heavily on offline channels.
"Lawn mowing robots are durable products that operate in harsh conditions and are prone to damage. They have a need for maintenance, and at this stage, the delivery of lawn mowing robots is not simple. In many cases, offline staff training is required. Everyone hopes to sell this category online, but in fact, it still depends on offline channels," an investor told Yingke.
Although Anker Innovations is good at sales channels, its resources are mainly online. Its annual report shows that online revenue accounts for 71.23%, while offline revenue only accounts for 28.77%. The inability to reuse sales channel resources is also a new challenge for the future operation and expansion of Anker's lawn mowing robots.
However, Anker will not give up this hot market. As a listed company, it needs a growth story beyond power banks.