An established hardware company in Shenzhen, competing with xTool, created a crowdfunding hit exceeding $5 million.

Author | Zhang Ziyi

Editor | Yuan Silai

Among the products that ranked high in the crowdfunding results on Kickstarter in Q1 this year, there were two laser welding machines, and their results were quite different.

The little - known and fledgling Xlaserlab launched a multi - functional laser welding machine, which ranked fourth with a crowdfunding result of over $5 million. On the other hand, xTool, a leading enterprise in laser engraving machines, launched the MetalFab handheld laser welding machine, and its crowdfunding result was only about $1.43 million.

In September this year, Xlaserlab pre - heated its newly launched UV laser engraver E3 on Kickstarter. The E3 claims to be able to engrave anything and is the lightest professional UV laser engraver on the market.

The consumer - grade laser engraver is still a niche segment, but it can no longer be considered an unpopular field. xTool's annual revenue has exceeded 2 billion, and LaserPecker, which started with handheld laser engravers, has a revenue of over 500 million.

There is no eternal winner in the hardware industry, and new players will continuously emerge in the market. Xlaserlab is one of them.

Before this product came out, almost no one had heard of Xlaserlab, but enterprise - level customers probably knew the name of its parent company, "Xinghan Laser". In the industrial - grade laser field, Xinghan Laser ranks first in the global shipment volume of semiconductor lasers. Among every 10 laser devices in China, 3 have core pump sources developed and manufactured by Xinghan.

However, in the consumer - grade hardware market, Xlaserlab is a complete novice.

Before 2022, Zhou Shaofeng, the chairman of Xinghan Laser, didn't know Anker Innovations or xTool, and cross - border e - commerce really confused him.

"People in our toB market felt out of touch with the world. In the very professional circle of lasers, everyone was competing on parameters and performance. It was not until after 2022 that I found out that people in the world were all making products. What they (Anker, xTool) were doing was so close to what we could do."

When Anker Innovations became a listed company with a revenue of tens of billions, Zhou Shaofeng looked around Xinghan's customers. Companies with an annual revenue of 3 billion only had a profit of tens of millions of yuan. Both customers and Xinghan's profits were getting thinner. Zhou Shaofeng felt that the toB market had reached its limit, and it was necessary to find a new way out.

The idea came in a flash. The C - end market painted a great picture for Zhou Shaofeng, but it was not easy to find a successful methodology.

01 The Infinite Possibilities of Tool Products

On the overseas Reddit forum, someone posted a question two years ago: "Is a laser welding machine worth buying?"

Netizens in the comment section all thought that a welding machine was a versatile tool, but almost no one recommended a laser welding machine brand. One of them replied, "I helped someone install a cheap Chinese laser welding machine for over $9,000. It looked pretty good... American machines cost between $30,000 and $90,000..."

In fact, laser welding machines are a common category in manufacturing factories. 60% of laser devices are used in the industrial field, and workers use high - energy - density laser beams as heat sources for welding.

Taking China as an example, according to the "China Laser Industry Development Report", in 2021, the global sales revenue of laser devices reached $21 billion, of which China's sales revenue of laser devices reached 82.1 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of about 18.64%, accounting for about 60% of the global laser device market.

China's technology in laser cutting and laser marking is more mature. Laser welding is the main direction of the next - stage technological iteration of China's laser processing technology. Its non - standardization attribute is more obvious, and it also has higher requirements for processing accuracy and motion control.

The potential of the C - end market inspired Zhou Shaofeng. Xinghan Laser made the decision to launch a consumer - grade laser welding machine quite quickly. It only took 4 months from the official decision in October 2024 to the product's crowdfunding launch.

"We didn't conduct a very systematic survey on the laser welding machine category. At that time, we only had some data on industrial welding machines. Based on the industrial - level applications of the top ten welding machines, we deduced that there would be potential opportunities in the consumer - grade market." Zhou Shaofeng told Hard Krypton.

Xinghan Laser found that almost every household in the overseas market has a welding machine. The welding machines are small and portable, and can be used by plugging into a household power supply. Welding machines are widely used in overseas households. They can be used to weld stainless - steel products at home, garden railings, broken doors and windows, or to repair vehicles, paint cars, and re - weld car doors.

The wide - range of use scenarios of overseas welding machines also made Xinghan Laser realize the potential market for laser welding machines.

Therefore, the Xlaserlab X1/X1 Pro is quite compact and multi - functional in design.

Taking the X1 Pro as an example, it is a portable high - power laser welding machine designed for novice users and small workshops. The machine weighs only 19 kilograms and supports household power supply. It integrates four functions: welding (including underwater welding), cutting, cleaning, and CNC modification. It can weld materials with a thickness of 0.5–3mm and supports various materials such as stainless steel, carbon steel, and aluminum alloy. Its welding speed is 5 times faster than TIG welding, and its price ranges from $3,999 to $4,299 (including a wire feeder).

Currently, over 2,000 units of the Xlaserlab X1/X1 Pro have been delivered, with a delivery rate of 90%.

When Xinghan Laser designed products for the consumer - grade market for the first time, having enough functions and being simple to operate became the important concepts of the X1/X1 Pro. "ToB customers have a certain operation foundation and can adjust according to their own needs. ToC customers are different. The product should be ready to use as soon as they get it," Zhou Shaofeng said.

02 Product Accumulation but No Market Experience

For an upstream enterprise in the laser field, transitioning from the B - end to the C - end is not easy. Both Xinghan Laser and Zhou Shaofeng have experienced several rounds of market education.

Before 2022, Xinghan Laser focused on the R & D and production of semiconductor lasers, which are the core components of laser device products. They can be applied in downstream fields such as automobile manufacturing, power - generation equipment, 3C electronics, and aerospace.

Zhou Shaofeng recalled that in 2021, the factory was always in a hurry to complete orders, and the enterprise couldn't even finish delivering all the orders.

After 2022, the price war in the laser market was fierce. Zhou Shaofeng clearly felt that although the company's revenue was constantly growing, the profit situation didn't change much. Xinghan Laser once tried to enter the lidar market. In response to the demand for vehicle - grade 1550nm lidar light sources, it specially launched a highly reliable 940nm semiconductor laser with a failure rate of less than 100fit. Based on the mature EDFA technology, this laser became one of the more mature lidar solutions.

In the past three years, Xinghan Laser has been struggling in the transformation field. Between the enterprise - grade and consumer - grade markets, Xinghan Laser chose to focus on the enterprise - grade market first. ToB was a field that they were good at. They wanted to meet the needs of B - end customers before entering the C - end market.

The idea was good, but the reality was quite cruel.

"We used to think that if we became the world's number one in the ToB market, we could make a living and grow big. However, we later overlooked a problem. After the competition became saturated, many ToB orders were related to the ecosystem." Zhou Shaofeng recalled.

For example, BYD - affiliated battery companies won't use batteries from CATL, and vice versa. "I thought our customers would bring in a revenue of 3 billion, but in fact, we could only choose half of them. The market is not big enough, and the competition is so fierce that it can't meet our development needs," Zhou Shaofeng said.

Zhou Shaofeng came to a new understanding: There is no pricing power and no brand in the ToB market, but there is in the ToC market. The consumer - grade market can create differentiated value. "Technology is our strength." In Zhou Shaofeng's view, transitioning from a ToB laser device provider to the ToC market, Xinghan has an advantage.

Although the technological accumulation gives Xinghan enough confidence to develop new products, it cannot be ignored that in the consumer - grade market, the product is the first step, and sales and operation are the second and third steps.

Due to the lack of overseas e - commerce operation experience, when the Xlaserlab X1/X1 Pro was crowdfunded on Kickstarter, no independent website was built, and the first wave of product traffic was missed.

"We didn't know we needed to build an independent website and enter Amazon at that time. We lost nearly tens of millions in traffic," Zhou Shaofeng said.

For Xinghan Laser and Zhou Shaofeng, the door to the consumer - grade market has just opened for them. They need to adapt to the fast - iterating and extremely flexible C - end market and face the cruel competition comparable to that in the ToB market.