A unicorn robotics company valued at tens of billions is gearing up for an IPO, ranking first in revenue in its niche market.

The Hong Kong stock market has welcomed a robot unicorn valued at 10.5 billion yuan.

Mega Robotics, allegedly the highest - earning autonomous intelligent agent provider of robots in China, recently submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The founding team members come from an electronics manufacturing giant and Huawei. Their original intention for starting the business was to create robots that can truly "liberate scientists". You can hear its name in both the life sciences and manufacturing industries.

Behind it, there are not only the strong support of two giants, Bosch and WuXi AppTec, but also the backing of star - capital such as Goldman Sachs, Sinovation Ventures, and Matrix Partners. Its valuation has exceeded 10.5 billion yuan.

Now, the robot industry is booming, and Mega Robotics has also reached its IPO moment.

Who is Mega Robotics?

Founded in 2016, Mega Robotics is a provider of autonomous intelligent agents in the field of robot technology.

More straightforwardly, what Mega Robotics is doing is creating "robot scientists" that can liberate human labor from tedious basic work in specific fields.

What is an autonomous intelligent agent?

It is an intelligent system that can perceive the environment, make decisions, and take actions autonomously without direct human intervention.

The application fields for such autonomous intelligent agents are actually very extensive. Mega Robotics has selected two key scenarios:

One is mainly targeted at the life sciences field. Mega Robotics has developed an autonomous intelligent agent for smart laboratories, which is the field where Mega Robotics focuses deeply.

CEO Huang Yuqing once revealed the reason for choosing this field:

We found that, different from the automotive and semiconductor industries with highly developed automation, the experimental methods in the life sciences field are almost the same as they were 100 years ago. Practitioners still spend more than 80% of their time on basic work.

Mega Robotics' original intention is to deliver a "robot scientist" to customers - robots will complete the basic work in the laboratory, allowing scientists to have more time to design experiments and analyze data.

Therefore, Mega Robotics' core intelligent agent products in this area can meet various needs in life sciences and laboratory scenarios, such as liquid handling, beverage dispensing, high - content cell imaging analysis, and full - process automated pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Auflo: Liquid handling intelligent agent

Take the "emergency - response" product during the fight against the COVID - 19 pandemic as an example. During the virus nucleic acid testing process, samples need to be inactivated and then transferred to another plate.

Manual operation involves a series of complicated operations such as unscrewing the cap, pipetting, and screwing the cap back on. Large - scale screening often involves thousands of samples, which not only means a huge workload but also poses a risk of infection.

Mega Robotics developed an intelligent product for automated sample dispensing of pathogens. The first two prototypes were delivered only 25 days after the project was initiated, far faster than the industry's average product delivery cycle of 4 months.

Mega Robotics' pathogen sample dispensing system

The other field Mega Robotics has chosen is the intelligent manufacturing industry.

The related products focus on two major technologies: high - precision detection and cutting. They are used for the detection of wafer defects, particle defects, and batteries, as well as laser slicing and wafer cutting.

Mega Robotics' two major product categories both offer multi - agent solutions, allowing multiple products to work together to complete more complex and comprehensive workflows.

The three core technologies required behind its products are: Perception - Conception - Execution.

Perception is the "eyes" of the intelligent agent, used to process environmental input signals accurately in real - time, achieving microsecond - level response and high - precision detection.

Conception is the "brain" of the intelligent agent. Its function is to drive decision - making based on perception input through AI and optimize execution strategies.

The final Execution is equivalent to the "limbs", which can accurately complete physical operations to ensure the reliable implementation of tasks.

These two fields may seem to have a large gap, but in fact, many underlying technologies are the same, such as motion control, measurement, optics, materials, etc. And they both belong to industries with high market ceilings and are in rapid growth.

As of the end of 2024, Mega Robotics has served more than 880 customers. The repurchase rate of new customers in 2022 was 74%, and the revenue retention rate reached 115%, indicating a high level of customer stickiness.

Moreover, many of these partners are global giants. For example, WuXi AppTec in the pharmaceutical field and Bosch in the manufacturing field. These two major customers are also the company's strategic investors, representing the recognition of Mega Robotics in these two fields.

So, what kind of performance can support Mega Robotics' current industry position?

How is Mega Robotics' performance?

From 2022 to 2024, Mega Robotics' operating revenues were 455 million yuan, 663 million yuan, and 930 million yuan respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 43.0%.

Looking at different scenarios, the product revenues from both smart laboratories and intelligent manufacturing have increased significantly, but the revenue from the intelligent manufacturing scenario accounts for a higher proportion.

From 2022 to 2024, the revenue from the intelligent manufacturing scenario accounted for 59.1%, 75.7%, and 68.3% of the total revenue in the same period respectively.

As the revenue increases, the company's profit level is relatively stable.

First, looking at the gross profit, in the past three years, Mega Robotics' gross profits were 128 million yuan, 159 million yuan, and 270 million yuan respectively; the gross profit margins were 28.1%, 23.9%, and 29.0% respectively.

From the perspective of application scenarios:

The gross profit margin in the smart laboratory scenario fluctuated greatly. It was 35.3% in 2022, dropped to 13.4% in 2023, and rebounded to 21.9% in 2024.

The gross profit margin in the intelligent manufacturing scenario has been rising steadily, from 23.1% in 2022 to 27.3% in 2023, and then to 32.3% in 2024, which is the main driving force for the rebound of the company's overall gross profit margin.

Then, looking at the net profit/loss level, from 2022 to 2024, Mega Robotics' net losses were 759 million yuan, 742 million yuan, and 780 million yuan respectively.

Just looking at the losses, there is no obvious narrowing, but the net loss rate has improved significantly, dropping from - 167.0% in 2022 to - 83.9% in 2024.

Excluding the impact of share - based payment expenses, the adjusted net losses of the company in 2022, 2023, and 2024 were 324 million yuan, 386 million yuan, and 431 million yuan respectively.

Mega Robotics explained that although it is still in the early stage of losses, it is expected that the company will achieve break - even through a significant economies - of - scale model, and the efficiency of various expenses is also improving.

Especially in terms of R & D, which is a major expense item, in the past three years, the company's R & D expenses were 340 million yuan, 308 million yuan, and 394 million yuan respectively. The proportion of R & D expenses to total revenue has dropped from 74.7% in 2022 to 42.4% in 2024.

At the same time, attention should be paid to the company's cash situation. As of the end of 2024, Mega Robotics' cash and cash equivalents were 458 million yuan, significantly lower than 1.125 billion yuan in 2022 and 913 million yuan in 2023.

Therefore, Mega Robotics also stated in its prospectus that the funds raised from this listing will be used for the company's normal operations.

At the same time, Mega Robotics will also allocate more funds to technology and product R & D, expanding production capacity and sales networks, and seeking strategic cooperation and investments.

Where does Mega Robotics come from?

Mega Robotics has an electronics manufacturing gene. The three members of the founding team - Huang Yuqing, Qiao Zhixin, and Zhang Yan

Huang Yuqing, the current CEO of Mega Robotics, graduated from Xi'an Jiaotong University with a major in Information Engineering for his undergraduate degree and obtained an MBA from Tsinghua University.

Huang Yuqing

Qiao Zhixin, the senior vice - president and chief operating officer, graduated from Beijing Jiaotong University with a major in Measurement and Control Technology and Instruments. He worked at Huawei for 6 years and served as the project director of the UMG project at Huawei's Beijing Research Institute.

Qiao Zhixin

Zhang Yan, the senior vice - president of Mega Robotics, obtained a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Design, Manufacturing and Automation and a master's degree in Instrument Science and Technology from Xidian University. She is currently in charge of the company's smart laboratory business.

Zhang Yan

The three of them are actually old colleagues who worked together at the measurement instrument giant Rigol Technologies.

Around 2010 was a turning point.

The three, who were originally in different product lines, noticed a common phenomenon: the labor cost was growing rapidly, and at the same time, new economic and business models in the Internet era were emerging on a large scale.

Based on this phenomenon, Huang Yuqing judged that the replacement of humans by robots was a major trend.

Moreover,