Tencent Bets Big: Another Industry Leader in Shenzhen Launches IPO with Annual Revenue of 2.3 Billion Yuan
Shenzhen has witnessed another IPO.
Recently, Creality 3D, a globally leading provider of consumer-grade 3D printing products and services from Shenzhen, Guangdong, submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, planning to list on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
According to CIC Consulting, based on the cumulative shipments of consumer-grade 3D printers from 2020 to 2024, Creality 3D is the world's largest provider of consumer-grade 3D printing products and services, with a market share of 27.9%.
Looking at this IPO move, it can be found that it is also a capital feast for top venture capitalists in Shenzhen.
In 2021, Creality 3D received its only round of external financing of 500 million yuan before the IPO. It was jointly invested by 9 capital institutions at once, and its post-investment valuation rose to 4 billion yuan. Among them were many well - known VCs in Shenzhen, including Qianhai FOF, Shenzhen Capital Group, Tencent Ventures, and AVIC Pingshan.
In addition, as early as January last year, the company completed the record - filing for guidance with the Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau. The guidance institution was CICC, and it embarked on the journey to go public.
Now that it has officially submitted its prospectus, it also indicates that Creality 3D has officially embarked on a new journey of abandoning the A - share market and heading for the Hong Kong market.
Four post - 85s Built an IPO with Annual Revenue of 2.3 Billion
The story of Creality 3D starts with four young men.
Going back to 2014, the company's four co - founders, Chen Chun, Ao Danjun, Liu Huilin, and Tang Jingke, got acquainted at a 3D printing exhibition. They keenly noticed the gap in the consumer - grade 3D printer market.
At that time, it was an industry with few players. Their original intention for entrepreneurship was to make 3D printing as popular as 2D printing. So they decided to start their entrepreneurial journey with 300,000 yuan and established Shenzhen Bolingda Technology Co., Ltd. (the predecessor of Creality 3D) to explore 3D printing.
In the early days of entrepreneurship, the conditions were extremely difficult. The four of them had only a 20 - square - meter office in Longhua District, Shenzhen, and a credit card for capital turnover.
Nevertheless, within just one year, they launched the CR - 7 into mass production, achieving a market breakthrough. They also successfully developed the CR - 8, which nearly doubled the printing accuracy and speed.
After that, the company sold its products to the European and American markets by cooperating with large cross - border sellers in Guangdong.
In 2016, the company independently developed a hit product, the CR - 10. Priced at 500 US dollars, it broke the price pattern of over a thousand US dollars in the overseas market. With a monthly sales volume of over 20,000 units, it won more market share.
The initial success in sales also accelerated the company's transformation into an evolution of its own brand.
In 2017, Creality 3D started its overseas expansion story with "Creality" as its main brand and launched a new series, Ender, marking its global sales entering the fast lane.
To date, after more than a decade of in - depth development in the industry, Creality 3D's products and services mainly include 3D printers, 3D printing consumables, and various services provided on Creality Cloud (a global online community focusing on 3D printing content).
In addition, the company has expanded its product line to cover 3D scanners, laser engravers, and accessories. Recently, it also launched an overseas e - commerce platform, Nexbie, focusing on 3D creative finished products.
According to CIC Consulting, Creality 3D is the only company among the main participants in the global 3D creative industry that simultaneously provides consumer - grade 3D printing, consumer - grade 3D scanning, and consumer - grade laser engraving products and services.
Source: Creality 3D's Prospectus
From 2022 to 2024, Creality 3D's revenues were 1.346 billion yuan, 1.883 billion yuan, and 2.288 billion yuan respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 30.4%. The annual profits were 104 million yuan, 129 million yuan, and 88.66 million yuan respectively.
In the first quarter of 2025, the company's revenue was 708 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 28.67%. The profit during the period was 81.564 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 18.1%.
According to CIC Consulting, based on the shipments in 2024: the company's consumer - grade 3D printers ranked second in the global market share; its consumer - grade 3D scanners ranked first in the global market share; and its consumer - grade laser engravers ranked third in the global market share.
While both revenue and profit are growing, Creality 3D's gross profit and gross profit margin are also quite impressive.
In 2022, 2023, 2024, and the first quarter of 2025, the company recorded gross profits of 387.8 million yuan, 599.5 million yuan, 707.8 million yuan, and 249.5 million yuan respectively. The gross profit margins during the same periods were 28.8%, 31.8%, 30.9%, and 35.2% respectively.
In this regard, Creality 3D stated in its prospectus that the gross profit margin increased steadily during the performance record period, mainly due to the higher sales volume generated by direct sales, and its retail price was higher than that of distributors.
According to the prospectus, most of the revenue generated by its online sales channels comes from direct sales, while most of the revenue generated by its offline sales channels comes from sales to distributors.
During the reporting period, the revenue generated by online sales continued to increase, rising from 13.5% in 2022 to 40.9% in 2024. In the first quarter of 2025, the proportion reached 47.9%, almost equal to the revenue generated offline.
Source: Creality 3D's Prospectus
Before the IPO, the four post - 85s co - founders held a total of about 81.98% of the shares and were the controlling shareholders.
Top VCs in Shenzhen Have Invested, and the 3D Printing Industry is in Fierce Competition
Of course, Creality 3D's rapid business growth is also inseparable from the support of capital.
2020 is widely regarded as the "Year of Breaking into the Mainstream" for the consumer - grade 3D printing industry. The application scenarios have expanded significantly from personal creation to household use, and the significant increase in market visibility has promoted the enhancement of user awareness.
In recent years, the progress of 3D printing and AI technologies has further promoted the industry, improving the quality of 3D printed products, lowering the barriers to 3D modeling, and attracting and encouraging more people to create 3D objects.
In the primary market, institutions are the first to sense the changes.
In 2021, shortly after Creality 3D was restructured into a joint - stock limited company, the company secured 508.5 million yuan in Series A financing, which was also the only round of external financing before the IPO.
At that time, a total of 9 institutions invested, mainly top VCs in Shenzhen. Among them, Qianhai FOF (including Qianhai Equity, Zhongyuan Qianhai, and Smart Interconnect Telecom Ark) invested 200 million yuan, Shenzhen Capital Group (including Shenzhen Capital Group and Nanshan Hongtu) invested 149 million yuan, and Tencent Ventures invested 74.5 million yuan.
Source: Creality 3D's Prospectus
Before the IPO, Qianhai FOF, Shenzhen Capital Group, and Tencent Ventures were the top three institutional shareholders of Creality 3D, holding about 5.81%, 4.32%, and 2.16% of the shares respectively.
The story of top VCs in Shenzhen investing in a star startup in Shenzhen has, naturally, accelerated the latter's globalization process as the track heats up.
After the full - scale battle of Chinese brands going global began, in 2021, Creality 3D started to operate its official flagship store on Amazon and also set up independent websites and other channels. In the following year, the company also strategically launched a new overseas e - commerce website targeting direct customers.
As of March 31, 2025, Creality 3D had 74 self - operated online stores and 2,163 distributors, and its sales network covered about 140 countries and regions around the world.
However, with Creality 3D's successful financing and upcoming listing, there is one thing that cannot be underestimated. That is, after the capital has entered, the competition in the track is intensifying.
At the CES International Consumer Electronics Show in 2023, 3D printing was listed as one of the event themes. Among the 5 participating manufacturers, 4 were from China, namely Creality 3D, Shenzhen Kuaizao, Anker Innovations, and MoXin Technology.
Among them, Anker Innovations, which started from selling power banks, announced its entry into the 3D printing track in 2022. In May this year, E1, the world's first personal - grade 3D texture UV printer under its brand eufyMake, brought a remarkable breakthrough in 3D printing technology, transforming industrial - grade technology into consumer - grade products.
Public information shows that within less than 12 hours after its launch on the well - known global crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, the crowdfunding amount exceeded 10 million US dollars, setting a historical overseas crowdfunding record.
In addition to cross - border players, new forces are emerging.
Also from Shenzhen, Bambu Lab, which focuses on the R & D and sales of consumer - grade 3D printers, was established in 2020. Its founder, Tao Ye, was formerly an engineer at DJI. It is rewriting the industry rules with great momentum and has received two rounds of investment from IDG.
In 2022, its first X1 series of printers was launched, and it adopted a conservative strategy to test the overseas market. According to the data in the "3D Printer Brand Influence Report" in the fourth quarter of 2024, Bambu Lab ranked first in the cross - border brand influence of 3D printers. Its product users are spread across more than 60 countries and regions such as the United States, Canada, and Australia.
As can be seen from Creality 3D's prospectus, being surrounded by strong competitors has, of course, had an impact.
Source: Creality 3D's Prospectus
Among them, 3D printers are the main source of revenue, but the proportion shows a downward trend. From 2022 to 2024, the proportion was 81.7%, 74.6%, and 61.9% respectively. In the first quarter of 2025, the proportion further declined to 61.3%.
In contrast, the proportions of 3D printing consumables, 3D scanners, and laser engravers have increased significantly. Obviously, the company's business is expanding, and a second growth curve is emerging.
Obviously, as consumers become more aware of 3D printing technology, they begin to explore other application scenarios and put forward more new demands, which also stimulate the business expansion of existing players and the entry of new players.
As Creality 3D stated in its prospectus, driven by the continuous development of artificial intelligence, hardware performance, and digital manufacturing technologies, the global 3D creative industry (covering 3D printing, 3D scanning, and laser engraving) is in a stage of rapid development.
However, at the same time, the industry shows a relatively high degree of market concentration, especially in the fields of 3D printing and laser engraving. The top five companies together account for the majority of the global shipments.
This means that leading companies are competing in multiple dimensions such as printing speed and accuracy, material compatibility, ease of use, the integrity of the ecosystem, and software integration.
As product functions and user expectations continue to evolve, companies with strong R & D capabilities, a stable supply chain, and global community participation will be more capable of maintaining their competitive advantages.
Therefore, for this IPO, Creality 3D's fundraising will mainly be used for continuous investment in R & D, overseas user operations, global brand promotion, and sales channel development.
Liu Huilin, one of the co - founders of Creality 3D, once said that Creality 3D's advantages are its early entry into the market, certain brand accumulation, and technical foundation. However, the company is also a growing company and needs to seize market opportunities to continue growing.
Listing on the Hong Kong stock market may be a new opportunity for Creality 3D's global growth.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Lieyun Selection". The author is Sun Yuan. It is published by 36Kr with permission.