The former founder of Zeapo starts a new business, focusing on high-end AI cooking in North America. The revenue in the first year exceeded $20 million, and the gross profit margin was over 60% | Early-stage project

Author | Ou Xue

Editor | Yuan Silai

As Chinese manufacturing goes global, shifting from the mass - distribution model to in - depth brand building, the global small kitchen appliance market, with a scale of over a hundred billion dollars, is becoming a new arena for technology - driven companies.

The traditional market landscape is dominated by two types of players: established European and American brands with brand premiums, and Chinese manufacturing giants with supply - chain advantages.

Beyond them, Hu Yi Technology, a Chinese startup focused on "culinary science," is rapidly rising in the high - end North American market with its differentiated technological approach and user insights. In its first year of commercialization, it achieved revenues exceeding $20 million, and in the second year, it saw a 3 - to 4 - fold growth rate, demonstrating the potential to reshape traditional product categories through technological innovation.

Hu Yi Technology was founded in 2021. Its founding team has a profound background in cross - border e - commerce and hardware R & D. Sun Caijin, the company's founder, was also the founder of Zeapo Group and has been deeply involved in the consumer electronics industry for over a decade. In the first three years after its establishment, the company focused on R & D, with R & D personnel accounting for over 50%. Its core members come from leading intelligent hardware companies such as DJI and Huawei. As of now, the company has applied for over 200 patents in total, including over 100 invention patents.

Actually, Hu Yi Technology's entry point is very clear: precise temperature control. The company believes that modern cooking is essentially a scientific process that can be digitized and standardized, and temperature is the most crucial variable.

Based on this, the team independently developed the core wireless temperature probe technology and launched the world's first intelligent oven equipped with a wireless temperature probe, enabling real - time temperature control and data transmission in a high - temperature sealed environment. It creates a closed - loop from temperature monitoring to intelligent cooking, solving the pain points of inaccurate temperature control and complex operations in traditional cooking.

Related products of Hu Yi Technology's intelligent oven (Source: Official website)

The probe has a transmission distance of up to 900 meters in an open environment, ten times farther than its competitors. When paired with an intelligent base, it can be used independently without a mobile phone, taking into account both user privacy and operational convenience.

Based on this temperature - control technology, Hu Yi Technology has extended its product portfolio to include intelligent air fryers, intelligent ovens, etc.

Among them, the air fryer priced at $499 was recommended as the best product of 2024 by the American authoritative testing institution "America’s Test Kitchen" and ranked first in sales in the high - end category on Amazon. According to Yingke, the company continuously optimizes its products through R & D - driven innovation. For example, the second - generation air fryer reduces the BOM cost by 30% while improving performance, pushing the gross profit margin above 60%.

Notably, Hu Yi Technology's target customer group is highly focused: middle - class and above families in North America. Different from the convenient dining and limited kitchen space in China, North American families have a high frequency of home gatherings, clear preferences for ingredients (such as thick - cut steaks, whole chickens, and pizzas), and are particularly sensitive to the cost of cooking failures (expensive ingredients and time).

It can be seen that Hu Yi Technology's product design and pricing strategy are entirely centered around the pain points of this group - instead of offering a pile of complex functions, it ensures that every cooking experience is simple and successful.

Yingke learned that Hu Yi Technology's ambition goes beyond hardware sales. It is using hardware as an entry point to build an intelligent cooking ecosystem of "devices + APP + cloud platform + content community."

Its APP is not only used for device control but also has an AI Chef function built - in. It can generate customized recipes based on voice or pictures and send them to the devices with one click for execution. Currently, the APP has accumulated hundreds of thousands of registered users, with the total number of cooking times exceeding millions.

Related products of Hu Yi Technology's intelligent oven (Source: Official website)

These real - world cooking data also feed back into product R & D and personalized services. In the future, the company also plans to transform one - time hardware sales into continuous user interaction and revenue through subscription - based recipes, healthy diet advisors, and consumable accessories.

In terms of market expansion, after establishing a foothold online through Amazon, Hu Yi Technology is rapidly deploying in offline high - end retail channels such as Costco and Williams Sonoma. It is expected that offline sales will account for 20% next year.

Hu Yi Technology is building the technological foundation of "culinary science" with R & D personnel accounting for over 50% and full - chain self - research. These software - and - hardware integrated products not only enable device collaboration and monitoring through a unified App but also serve as the "smart brain" connecting ingredients and cooking with an AI - driven intelligent engine.

Based on a large - scale data closed - loop and continuous AI iteration, Hu Yi Technology is starting from a precise and reliable intelligent cooking ecosystem and moving towards its core vision: to become the leader of an AI - driven intelligent cooking ecosystem and ultimately evolve into an intelligent cooking robot serving global families.

At a time when the intelligentization of kitchen appliances is still relatively lagging, Hu Yi Technology, with its focus on technology, accurate understanding of the market, and rapid execution ability, has carved out a new path to a high - end brand in what seems to be a red - ocean market.

Its practice shows that in the second half of China's global expansion, it belongs to those technology brands that can truly solve users' core problems through innovation and build a sustainable ecosystem.