Dreame Group has established a new company and will release an action camera in the second half of this year | Exclusive from 36Kr

Author | Zhang Ziyi

Editor | Yuan Silai, Yang Xuan

36Kr exclusively learned that recently, Shenzhen Photon Leap Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Photon Leap") completed an angel - round financing of hundreds of millions of yuan. Zhuchuang Venture Capital participated in the investment. The funds will be used to deepen the R & D of AI imaging algorithms, layout the global market, and prepare for the mass production of intelligent hardware products. Its first sports camera product is expected to be launched in the second half of this year.

36Kr learned that in less than a year since its establishment, the Photon Leap team has more than 100 members, many of whom come from established domestic intelligent imaging enterprises, leading mobile phone manufacturers, and leading companies in the fast - moving consumer goods industry.

Yuan Qian, the president of Photon Leap, told 36Kr that the company plans to launch a camera in a brand - new form, which can meet the needs of Vloggers and sports enthusiasts in terms of usage scenarios. The product will be differentiated from the mainstream in the industry in design, targeting more content creators.

In terms of pricing, the mainstream sports camera brands in the industry are all priced starting from thousands of yuan. The first - generation product of Photon Leap will be positioned relatively high - end.

Technically, according to Yuan Qian, "The company's first sports camera will launch three to five technologies that have never been released in the industry."

Taking the anti - shake function of sports cameras as an example, many products in the market solve this problem by improving software algorithms. Yuan Qian said that Photon Leap's camera improves the upper limit of anti - shake performance from the hardware aspect by customizing lens components, and fully unleashes the hardware capabilities in combination with self - developed anti - shake algorithms.

Photon Leap has entered a relatively niche but continuously growing market segment.

With the rise of global short - videos and the expansion of the groups of extreme sports and outdoor sports enthusiasts, the sports camera category has grown rapidly. According to data from consulting firm QYResearch, the global sports camera market sales reached $2.292 billion in 2024 and are expected to reach $3.449 billion in 2031, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.1%.

Among sports camera companies, Insta360, the leading enterprise in the sports camera category, is about to be listed on the STAR Market. Its prospectus shows that the company's revenue was 1 billion yuan in 2021 and reached 5.6 billion yuan in 2024, a five - fold increase in three years.

It is worth noting that the imaging product industry is not easy to enter.

“Imaging products are different from other consumer electronics. Their product chains are long, and the technical routes are more complex. It is almost impossible to develop a camera product in a short time under the condition of full self - research,” an industry insider told 36Kr.

Benefiting from the technological catch - up of Chinese consumer electronics products in recent years, well - known brands such as AKASO and DJI have emerged in the Chinese smart device market, ending the initial monopoly of traditional European, American, and Japanese camera enterprises.

However, among the core components of intelligent imaging devices, such as CMOS image sensors, DSP processing chips, and optical lenses, only optical lenses have achieved complete domestic substitution, while the supply sources of the rest are concentrated in countries such as Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea.

For Photon Leap to break through, it must have stronger support.

According to Aiqicha, Photon Leap was established in March 2025, with Yuan Qian as the legal representative. The company's shareholders have previously invested in other enterprises in the Dreame ecosystem.

In addition to the hardware itself, 36Kr learned that there are also quite a few difficulties in improving the software of intelligent imaging devices, including the need for the device to combine software and hardware to perform complex tasks such as motion correction, exposure adjustment, and image editing of complex image data.

“The imaging industry is a field that requires high - level underlying innovation capabilities. For example, how do you achieve higher pixels and how do you develop software algorithms? If you adopt the consumer - goods marketing strategy, is there still new market awareness for you to capture? If there is not much difference, and you want to take the high - cost - performance route, there are already many players with such positioning in the market,” an investor analyzed to 36Kr.

Perhaps the answer to this question will not be clear until Photon Leap's products are launched on the market.