In the melee of intelligent hardware, why does this company precisely "slim down" the edge-side AI algorithms? | Factory visit: "Youjie Zhixin"
Image source: WeChat official account "Workplace Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
In 2025, the AI hardware track exploded. A voice interaction algorithm provider originally in the upstream of the supply chain quietly stood at the forefront of the trend.
According to "Workplace Bonus", Shenzhen-based edge AI voice company "Youjie Zhixin" received support from the state-owned asset fund of Wuxue City in early 2026. This fund will be mainly used for the launch of new business and team expansion.
The Youjie Zhixin team became independent from WaterWorld in 2018 and focused on the R & D of AI voice interaction algorithms. Its target customers include consumer electronics brands, education technology companies, etc. The company's technical capabilities can be summarized by a set of numbers: When the mainstream voice recognition models in the industry occupy 500KB - 1MB of Flash memory, Youjie Zhixin compresses them to less than 200KB; the noise reduction algorithm model is only a few KB, about one-tenth of that of its peers in the industry, but it can clearly recognize voices in a noisy environment.
"We can achieve engineering optimization with extremely low resource consumption," Brian, the algorithm R & D director of Youjie Zhixin, told "Workplace Bonus". "It's not just simple parameter tuning, but a systematic innovation that combines mathematical operators, quantization pruning, and model structure."
This "extremely small model" capability allows Youjie Zhixin to find a unique position in the market of smart products such as earphones, watches, and glasses, where storage space and computing power are highly limited.
On the sales side, the company is shifting from "seeking customers" to "customers coming to us actively", and the algorithm licensing business has entered a growth period. In 2026, Youjie Zhixin has set clear revenue targets (chip + algorithm licensing) internally and plans to recruit more people, focusing on filling core positions in algorithms, software (embedded, Agent, and APP development engineers), and sales.
Founder Yang Handan is used to disassembling problems with an engineering mindset at work; at the same time, he has not implemented traditional company rules such as KPIs and strict attendance in the company. "We are looking for people who can speak with technology." In today's AI track dominated by large models, large computing power, and big data, this 50 - person company has proven another possibility with technology: Making the model extremely small, the efficiency extremely high, and the cost extremely low can also find a living space among giants.
Extremely Small Model: Running Offline AI on a Chip with the Computing Power of 20 Years Ago ╱ 01
One Side is Huaqiangbei, the Other Side is Academic Style ╱ 02
Q & A ╱ 03
Extremely Small Model: Running Offline AI on a Chip with the Computing Power of 20 Years Ago
In the eyes of outsiders, the goals and visions in the mouth of founder Yang Handan are easily seen as overly ambitious.
"I can't convince myself, nor can I convince candidates," a headhunter who once recruited for Youjie Zhixin confessed her confusion. "After all, just looking at the company's unglamorous startup appearance, candidates will think he's just making empty promises."
To understand the future that Yang Handan and the core team believe in, we came to Youjie Zhixin's Shenzhen headquarters. Nine interviewees and nearly 12 hours of interviews awaited us. The "past and present" of Youjie Zhixin seems to be a microcosm of Shenzhen's hardware industry; and the so - called "unrealistic - sounding" sense of belief actually comes from their experience in the previous wave of the hardware industry.
In 2010, Yang Handan joined WaterWorld and led the establishment of the Eighth Division, leading the team to deeply engage in mobile phone solution design. He chose the then - unpopular Mstar platform. When peers were still making flip and bar feature phones, they were the first to launch a "large - screen PDA feature phone" that could play clear videos when turned on. From 2011 to 2016, the cumulative shipment volume of the PDA mobile phone solutions developed by the team reached tens of millions, with a peak monthly shipment of 1.5 million units.
"Since then, we have led the market with technology, not the other way around," recalled Liu Hanqing, the business general manager who has followed Yang Handan for 15 years. "General Manager Yang has a unique vision, understands technology, and can see future trends."
In 2018, Youjie Zhixin was officially founded, betting on the AI voice track. "Translation machines were selling well at that time, and AI + hardware was also a popular direction." The company encountered setbacks in the early stage of trial - and - error. "We tried the translation machine solution, but were hit by the black swan of the pandemic: the Tokyo Olympics were postponed, international events declined sharply, and the demand for translation machines shrank.
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The key turning point occurred in 2022. The team decided to focus on the earphone scenario and challenge "implementing offline voice functions on Bluetooth earphones".
"Most colleagues thought the probability of success was not high at that time," Brian recalled. "We had never worked in this direction before, and the requirements of earphones for power consumption and space are extremely strict." This R & D director, who switched from visual algorithms to voice algorithms, had previously worked on visual algorithms related to industrial inspection at Huawei. After accidentally exploring AI applications in the voice field, he chose to deeply engage in this niche track.
It was this "give - it - a - try" project that allowed Youjie Zhixin to find a technical breakthrough.
They found that the core difficulty of developing voice algorithms on low - resource chips is not the algorithm itself, but engineering optimization.
"How to make the model run smoothly on a chip with 'the computing power of 20 years ago'?" In the consumer electronics field, especially for devices such as earphones, smart glasses, and AI toys that have low - power and small - volume requirements for voice interaction, manufacturers generally face the problems of limited hardware space and cost sensitivity, while users have high - frequency requirements for voice interaction.
"Simply put, we have achieved offline voice control with extremely small memory, providing a'slim - down' local voice interaction brain for smart devices. Customers can use the saved memory space to implement more featured functions." Currently, the algorithms of large - brand manufacturers in the market usually cannot be adapted to small devices due to excessive memory occupation. At the same time, facing the fragmented needs of the vast market, the support from chip original manufacturers is also insufficient; for startups, ensuring the adaptation cycle of a single project is also a huge engineering challenge.
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The technological breakthrough has led to the reconstruction of the business logic. In the early stage, Youjie Zhixin mainly provided "turn - key" solutions (customers put forward requirements, and the company is responsible for the entire process from design to the supply chain). This model is asset - heavy, has low gross profit, and requires advance payment, which puts great pressure on startups.
"Youjie was not large enough at that time, didn't have stable orders, and had little say in the supply chain," an investor commented. "During the pandemic, the prices of components increased, and the company's finances were very tight. At the most difficult time, it even had to cut the salaries of all employees."
An important turning point was the successful implementation of the algorithm licensing model, which is also the basis for Youjie Zhixin to establish cooperation with chip original manufacturers (such as Lanxun, Jieli, Juxin, and Realtek). The chip original manufacturers provide the hardware platform, and Youjie provides the software algorithm. Customers can obtain voice interaction capabilities without changing the hardware design.
"Our algorithm can be adapted to most chips in the market, and customers don't need to change chips to add voice functions," Liu Hanqing explained. "This flexibility is something many large companies can't achieve - they usually require customers to use their chips to run their algorithms."
This model has transformed Youjie Zhixin from a "solution integrator" to an "algorithm licensor", which is asset - light, has high gross profit, and is replicable.
"Now customers come to us actively, instead of us seeking them," Yang Handan said. "This is the natural result after achieving the breakthrough from 0 to 1."
"I almost got crushed by the gambling agreement," Yang Handan admitted the hardships in entrepreneurship. Recalling the pandemic period, the company faced severe cash - flow pressure due to the shrinking demand for translation machines and unexpected events of customers. Now, after going through all the difficulties, the company has verified the survival cycle. The tens of millions of funds from the state - owned asset fund of Wuxue City not only mean external recognition but also provide ammunition for the launch of new business lines.
Regarding the recent layout, Yang Handan revealed that the team is exploring the path of independent productization of AI hardware, but he emphasized that "it will not compete with customers." "We can make a sample first and sell the verified product solutions to customers, allowing them to explore new markets."
"The underlying logic of Youjie is 'altruism'," an early investor of the company commented. "General Manager Yang is the kind of person who will never compete with customers for business. He is more willing to do business that 'gives more benefits and makes more connections'."
One Side is Huaqiangbei, the Other Side is Academic Style
"Youjie Zhixin has a strong 'Huaqiangbei' flavor - being practical, focusing on cost control, and pursuing the rapid verification and implementation of technology." This is the impression label given to Youjie Zhixin by the above - mentioned investor.
What are the 'Huaqiangbei' characteristics?
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Yang Handan prefers to use "0 to 1" to explain his entrepreneurial philosophy. "First, prove that the breakthrough from 0 to 1 can be achieved and profitable, and then we can talk about replicating it to 100 and expanding." In daily work, colleagues often hear him use this methodology. "Many people think they have achieved the breakthrough, or firmly believe they can, but finally find that it is actually a false demand, or has poor replicability and an unstable cycle. These are all signs of not achieving the real '0 to 1'."
In the view of "Workplace Bonus", the process of implementing this philosophy in the company is also a process of cultivating and selecting talents with a partnership spirit.
Image source: WeChat official account "Workplace Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
In July 2025, Youjie Zhixin launched an employee stock - ownership plan. Employees can purchase shares at extremely favorable prices, with different quotas for different positions, and all are real shares rather than options. "We told employees that this is not a mandatory purchase but a choice for you. If you are optimistic about the company, invest; if not, don't," Yang Handan said. "But I want employees to know - if the company does well, everyone can share the results."
"General Manager Yang is not the kind of boss who uses equity to exchange for your unpaid labor," the investor commented. "In the early stage of the company, 30% of the equity was opened for the core team to subscribe, and they are real shares, not options. This seems overly generous even to investors."
As a technology - driven company, the algorithm team of Youjie Zhixin represents the "academic style" side of the company's atmosphere.
Algorithm R & D director Brian introduced a "seminar" mechanism similar to that of Huawei and academia into the team: The algorithm engineers of Youjie Zhixin spend 30 - 40% of their daily time on learning and research, reading papers, replicating projects, and making technical presentations.
"Doing algorithms can't be done in isolation. We need to keep up with the latest technologies in the industry," Brian said. "We have technical presentations every week, and different departments exchange information. The problems you solve and the papers you replicate can all be presented."
Image source: WeChat official account "Workplace Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
"We may not be able to retain people with large - company - level salaries," Brian admitted. "But we will give priority to ensuring that the partners who join here can grow."
Large companies provide employees with stability, while Youjie Zhixin, as a startup, offers possibilities. "Youjie's valuation has the potential to grow ten - fold or even a hundred - fold - this is a return that may not be achieved even after decades of work in a large company with tens of thousands of employees." - The author suddenly realized why some interviewees familiar with the rules of large companies have difficulty believing in the company's vision for the future.
"We are looking for people on the same frequency," Yang Handan still has a strong desire for talent. "It's not about how high your education is or how impressive your background is, but whether you are interested in this matter and willing to work together to make it happen. It's that simple."
Liu Hanqing's selection criteria for the sales team are even simpler: "Be a good person first." He believes that people with too strong a sense of utilitarianism who only focus on short - term returns will not have long - term cooperation, whether internally or externally.
In the eyes of many core members of Youjie Zhixin, Yang Handan - the first - in - command who started with technology - often has a long - term vision of