A Shenzhen dark horse emerges in the smart projector market with a single product crowdfunding exceeding $10 million | Insight Global

Editor's Note: As going global becomes an increasingly core strategy for Chinese companies, how to conquer the global market has become an extremely professional topic. In the evolution of globalization, many Chinese brands have stood at the forefront. In view of this, Yingke has launched the "Insight Global" column to explore the cutting - edge directions and opportunities for Chinese brands to go global from the perspective of brand growth and change, providing thinking and inspiration for companies going global and the industry.

This is the 51st issue of our column. Although Chinese hardware companies have a complete supply chain, they have long been absent from the global high - end market. Haigao Te Technology has quickly broken through in the highly competitive projector market with its unique "American brand + Chinese R & D" model. Its AWOL Vision and Valerion brands accurately grasp the needs of European and American families for convenient operation and immersive experience, and quickly opened up the market with their high - end product positioning. The company's revenue reached hundreds of millions in 2024. Recently, we had a chat with Andy Zhao, the founder of Haigao Te.

Author | Huang Nan

Editor | Yuan Silai

Chinese hardware companies have the world's most complete supply chain, the most hard - working competitors, and the most flexible minds. Paradoxically, products that can stand out in the high - end product field are still quite rare.

Haigao Te Technology, a projector company, has broken the norm in a market flooded with low - cost white - label products.

As the Shenzhen R & D and marketing center for the American brand AWOL Vision, Haigao Te was established in 2020. The company's core product is ultra - short - throw laser projectors, with prices ranging from $1,899 to $5,999. With the "out - of - the - box" convenient experience and cinema - level picture quality, it quickly gained a group of early adopters in the North American market and ranked among the top in the sales of similar products on Amazon. In 2024, the revenue of this brand exceeded 100 million.

In the same year, AWOL Vision targeted high - end users and launched the long - throw projector sub - brand Valerion. The first product in the VisionMaster series of projectors focuses on the immersive audio - visual experience, with a price range of $2,000 to $5,000.

Even though its price is several times that of similar products, VisionMaster raised tens of millions of dollars on Kickstarter within 45 days and became the number one project in its category globally.

The rapid rise of the two brands in the overseas market is due to Haigao Te's team's accurate understanding of the target market, which addresses the core needs of European and American family users for convenient operation and immersive audio - visual experience in limited living spaces.

Meanwhile, as the Chinese R & D center behind the brands, Haigao Te can fully leverage the cluster advantages of Shenzhen in the hardware manufacturing field. It has a mature supply chain system and rapid response capabilities, which are transformed into the core competitiveness of product R & D and iteration, shortening the iteration cycle to two - thirds of the industry average.

Valerion at an overseas exhibition (Source: Company)

More than 70% of the world's projectors are produced in China. However, in recent years, the domestic market demand has gradually reached its peak, and the industry has fallen into a highly competitive situation. Products in the hundred - yuan range dominate the market, and products in the thousand - yuan range are not uncommon. Brands positioned in the mid - to - low - end market find it difficult to break through.

With its unique "American brand + Chinese design center" model, the rise of AWOL Vision and Valerion proves that in an already crowded market, it is still possible to break into a new blue ocean through accurate user insights and technological iteration. The key is not to get involved in price wars but to break away from the domestic market's competitive logic and re - understand innovation and value from a global perspective.

Finding Niche Scenarios

Currently in the overseas market, the demand for home theater setup is closely related to living conditions. Especially in the United States, most families have relatively large living spaces, and home theaters have gradually changed from an optional to a necessary item.

However, although home theater equipment is a long - cycle product with a low replacement frequency, the complex installation processes such as pre - drilling, wiring, assembly, and debugging, as well as the high labor costs, have discouraged many users. According to tests of traditional high - end home theater solutions, the total cost of deploying a home theater system project can reach $50,000 to $60,000.

European and American established brands seem not to care about this pain point. Established giants like Epson and Sony have been slow to respond. Some of their products still use outdated systems and interfaces and do not support wireless screen mirroring or voice control. As for experiences such as convenient installation, intelligent interaction, and system fluency, there has been no improvement for a long time.

However, as a Chinese person who has lived in the United States for a long time and has been immersed in smart products for many years, Andy Zhao, the founder of Haigao Te, saw a market opportunity.

Therefore, at the early stage of product planning, Andy Zhao made the "out - of - the - box" convenience one of the core product features, aiming to completely simplify the entire process from purchase to use for users.

First, in terms of structure, Haigao Te's products use a metal frame and lightweight design, making it easy for users to move them around in different scenarios such as the living room, bedroom, and courtyard. AWOL Vision and Valerion hide all interfaces behind covers or in grooves to maintain the overall appearance and avoid the clutter caused by exposed wires.

Valerion's minimalist design (Source: Company)

During use, traditional projectors require users to manually adjust the focus, keystone correction, and picture parameters repeatedly. Once the position or scenario changes, users have to repeat these operations.

However, Haigao Te's products can sense the environment in real - time, support automatic focusing, automatic keystone correction, automatic picture obstacle avoidance, and screen alignment. Even if users move the device, the picture can always maintain the best quality.

In terms of software interaction, both AWOL and Valerion support voice control. The devices come pre - installed with mainstream streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max, eliminating the need for users to install additional apps or configure parameters. Mobile devices such as phones and tablets can also project content onto the large screen with one click.

In fact, these are standard features of domestic projectors. Haigao Te has used domestic hardware technology to gain an edge over European and American companies.

Andy Zhao admitted that smart projectors are not a category with high technological barriers. Differentiated experience is the key to building core competitiveness.

This has been a long - standing weakness of Chinese hardware companies and is also the key for Haigao Te to break through.

Through this collaborative model of overseas high - end brand positioning supported by Shenzhen's R & D and manufacturing, it ensures the accurate connection between products and the target market and achieves rapid iteration and cost control through the advantages of the Chinese supply chain.

A home theater built with Valerion products (Source: Company)

AWOL Vision focuses on ultra - short - throw technology, which is suitable for the living room in bright environments and supports viewing with the lights on. This is also the most competitive segment. Valerion, on the other hand, is a long - throw projector that focuses on immersive movie - watching in dark environments, serving personalized scenarios such as home theaters and backyards, emphasizing cinema - level picture quality and atmosphere.

In particular, Valerion has established brand recognition by going deep into scenarios that are relatively unfamiliar to Chinese companies. This approach has also been verified in the efforts of Chinese hardware companies to enter the high - end market in recent years.

Consumer - Grade Prices, Professional - Grade Experiences

After accurately positioning Valerion, Haigao Te fully mobilized China's strong hardware R & D and manufacturing capabilities.

In Europe and America, home theaters have become a standard configuration for many family entertainment systems, and their setup methods vary due to differences in living environments and needs.

Some users prefer to create a home theater in a relatively enclosed space, such as a basement or a sound - proof home theater room, to pursue an ultimate audio - visual immersive experience. Other families choose to transform the living room into an open - style audio - visual area, combining daily living and movie - watching functions.

Due to the complex home use environment, users often face two core pain points when using long - throw projectors. One is the color reproduction deviation in different scenarios, resulting in "inaccurate" pictures. The other is the loss of details in dark - field pictures and the murky black - level performance, which affects the immersive experience.

The application of professional cinema technology represented by three - color laser has provided new ideas for the Haigao Te team.

From a technological development perspective, three - color laser technology was originally used in professional cinema - grade equipment. Its color gamut coverage, color purity, and brightness performance are far superior to those of single - color laser and LED solutions.

Moreover, the three - color laser light source has a long lifespan and slow light decay. Combined with anti - speckle technology, it has high stability during long - term use, providing users with a more comfortable and smooth visual experience.

Around 2021, three - color laser technology was still in its early stage of development and had a low degree of commercialization. It was generally used in high - end commercial projectors or laser TVs priced at tens of thousands of dollars.

To lower the technological threshold, Haigao Te spent more than a year on R & D and applied three - color laser technology to its consumer - grade product Valerion.

Valerion used in an outdoor scenario (Source: Company)

They also solved the common picture problems of long - throw projectors.

Affected by the optical path design, ambient light, and projection medium, long - throw projectors are prone to color shift. For example, red may turn orange, blue may turn purple, or the overall color tone may be too cold or too warm. Therefore, Valerion introduced color axis calibration technology in its VisionMaster series of products, which adjusts the color axis coordinates of the three primary colors (red, green, and blue) to ensure that each color falls precisely within the specified range of the standard color gamut.

Finally, in both bright daylight and dark nighttime environments, the color saturation and tone consistency can be maintained, avoiding the sense of distortion caused by color shift.

Another common problem is the "haze" in dark - field pictures, that is, the black areas appear gray, and the details in the dark parts are lost. In dark scenes, the hair of characters and the texture of objects cannot be clearly distinguished.

To improve the dark - field viewing experience, Valerion has equipped its products with advanced black - level control technology. By dynamically adjusting the light output intensity of different areas, when dark - field content appears, the brightness of the dark parts is accurately reduced, thus retaining rich details and avoiding the problems of white - tinged black and grayish pictures in traditional projectors.

For example, in common science - fiction movies, when a large - scale space scene appears, users can feel the deep and pure black of the starry sky background and clearly distinguish the fine texture and shadow levels on the surface of the planets.

High - quality color reproduction effect (Source: Company)

"It's already quite difficult for current innovative products to lead the market by half a year. Hardware parameters are easily homogenized. Ultimately, the core of competition is not price or short - term product performance," Andy Zhao told Yingke.

Shenzhen's hardware companies never miss any blue - ocean market. As the domestic projection industry's technology matures and the market competition becomes more intense, more and more brands are turning their eyes overseas, trying to replicate a similar path to go global.

In today's era when global competition is moving into deeper waters, the window period brought by single - point product innovation is becoming shorter and shorter. The case of Haigao Te verifies the feasibility of the "technological value" path. After all, the foundation of hardware products lies in technological barriers.