A Huawei engineer sells millimeter-wave radars, with an annual income of 348 million yuan, and the company goes public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Another future unicorn has emerged in Shenzhen.

Recently, Shenzhen Chengtai Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Chengtai Technology) submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a listing on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Chengtai Technology specializes in automotive millimeter - wave radars. In terms of shipments in 2024, it is the largest domestic supplier of automotive forward - facing millimeter - wave radars in China and the third - largest automotive millimeter - wave radar supplier in China, with market shares of 9.3% and 4.5% respectively.

Since its establishment, Chengtai Technology has received eight rounds of financing, raising a total of 350 million yuan. After completing its Series C financing in May 2024, its valuation reached 1.32 billion yuan.

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Millimeter - wave radar is the "eyes" of a car. It can detect the distance and speed of the vehicle ahead, monitor blind spots, and assist in lane changes, providing a stable all - weather perception foundation. It is one of the core components for achieving intelligent driving.

Chengtai Technology was founded in Shenzhen in 2016 by two founders, Chen Chengwen and Zhou Ke.

Both Chen Chengwen and Zhou Ke once worked as engineers at Huawei. Chen Chengwen worked at Huawei from November 2005 to July 2009, and Zhou Ke worked there from June 2006 to May 2007. After leaving Huawei, both Zhou Ke and Chen Chengwen worked at Beijing Aotian Donglian.

Before starting their business in 2016, they analyzed lidar and millimeter - wave radar. They believed that it would take a relatively long time for lidar to be commercially viable at that time, so they chose millimeter - wave radar as their business direction.

The millimeter - wave radar field has high technological barriers, and domestic enterprises entered the market relatively late. At that time, there were no domestic brands, and the market share was divided among international companies such as Bosch Group and Continental Group. These two giants together accounted for more than 60% of the global forward - facing millimeter - wave radar market share.

Millimeter - wave radars are divided into forward - facing radars and corner radars. Forward - facing radars are mainly located at the front of the vehicle to detect obstacles ahead, while corner radars are located at the four corners of the vehicle to detect blind spots at the rear sides. Chengtai Technology produces both types. The revenue from forward - facing radars accounts for 63.9%, and that from corner radars accounts for 35.3%.

From 2022 to 2024, Chengtai Technology's revenues were 57.65 million yuan, 157 million yuan, and 348 million yuan respectively, a five - fold increase in three years. During the same period, the net losses were 79.17 million yuan, 96.6 million yuan, and 21.77 million yuan respectively.

BYD is Chengtai Technology's "benefactor". Since 2022, BYD has purchased multiple radar products from Chengtai Technology.

From 2022 to 2024, the sales amounts of Chengtai Technology to BYD were 47.2 million yuan, 143 million yuan, and 326 million yuan respectively, accounting for as high as 81.9%, 91.3%, and 93.6% of the total revenue. According to statistics from "IPO Daily", Chengtai Technology's millimeter - wave radar products are used in multiple BYD models such as Han, Tang, and Song.

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Data shows that with the rapid popularization of automotive intelligence and assisted driving, the market size of China's automotive millimeter - wave radar will grow from approximately 12.8 billion yuan in 2023 to 37 billion yuan in 2030.

The Shenzhen Internet of Things Industry Association predicts that the average annual growth rate of the Chinese millimeter - wave radar market in the next few years can reach 26%. The Qianzhan Research Institute also expects the average annual compound growth rate from 2025 to 2030 to be about 20%.

As the penetration rate of intelligent driving models increases, the number of radars per vehicle is constantly increasing: L2 - level models are generally equipped with about five millimeter - wave radars (1 forward - facing + 4 corner radars), and fully autonomous L5 - level vehicles in the future are expected to be equipped with up to eight millimeter - wave radars.

Some self - owned brand models in the price range below 150,000 yuan are standard - equipped with a millimeter - wave radar combination of "1 forward - facing + 4 corner radars" to achieve L2 - level assisted driving functions. This "1 + 4 combination" is widely promoted with the penetration of electric vehicles.

4D millimeter - wave radar is the latest trend in millimeter - wave radars.

Compared with traditional millimeter - wave radars, 4D millimeter - wave radars add a detection dimension for the target's height, can output dense point clouds, and achieve imaging perception of the target's contour, category, and behavior. The detection range of 4D radars can reach 280 meters, with a vertical field of view of 60°. The distance accuracy is improved to 5 centimeters, enabling it to accurately identify small or high - position obstacles in both high - speed driving and parking scenarios.

Industry giants such as Bosch and Continental have launched fifth - generation/sixth - generation 4D radar products; ZF's long - range 4D radar has been mass - produced in SAIC's R models, with 192 channels and a detection range of 350 meters. In China, at least 20 domestic enterprises are investing in the research and development of 4D imaging radars. In 2024, Huawei released China's first high - precision 4D imaging radar, "Qiankun", with a 35% increase in detection range, a four - fold improvement in accuracy, and a 65% reduction in latency, marking the practical application of domestic 4D radars. As the cost of 4D radars gradually drops to the thousand - yuan level, it has a huge cost advantage over lidars that cost thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan, and its potential to replace lidars has attracted industry attention.

Meanwhile, millimeter - wave radars are being deeply integrated with AI algorithms to achieve more intelligent perception and decision - making. On the one hand, deep - learning algorithms are used to identify and classify targets in radar echo point clouds, which can compensate for the low resolution of traditional radars. For example, some startups are developing all - digital radar chips based on digital coding modulation (DCM) to improve the quality of point - cloud imaging through algorithms, enabling radars to "see" the contours and postures of pedestrians.

On the other hand, the multi - sensor fusion of radars, cameras, and lidars has become the mainstream trend: through AI fusion algorithms, the visual recognition of cameras and the ranging and speed - measuring advantages of radars are complementary, which can significantly improve the reliability of environmental perception (reducing false alarms and missed detections). Some high - end models even add lidars for redundancy. For example, models of XPeng and Li Auto integrate cameras and millimeter - wave radars to achieve high - speed NOA; after encountering bottlenecks in pure - vision technology, Tesla also applied for an additional high - resolution 4D millimeter - wave radar to assist FSD autonomous driving in 2023.

The content of this article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice. The cover image is created by AI. This article also refers to reports from Bullet Finance, Investor, IPO Daily, etc. Thanks to them all.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Pencil News" (ID: pencilnews), written by Zhu Zhishan, and published by 36Kr with permission.