The internet-famous toothpaste that sells 2.5 billion yuan a year is going to have an IPO.

The internet-famous toothpaste endorsed by Hua Chenyu has come to the front of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Recently, the parent company of the oral care brand "Sambal" - Shenzhen Xiaokuo Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xiaokuo Technology") submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is expected to become the "first oral care stock" in the Hong Kong stock market.

Under the leadership of "small-town youth" Yin Kuo, after more than a decade of development, Xiaokuo Technology has finally grown into a leading player in the industry with its hot-selling toothpaste, mouthwash and other products.

Along the way, Xiaokuo Technology has completed a total of 13 rounds of financing and has won the favor of Meihua Ventures, Yecao Ventures, Sinovation Ventures, Qingliu Capital, ByteDance, Huaxing New Economy Fund, Cornerstone Capital, Century Golden Resources Group, and the family fund Happy Wisdom under Zeng Ming, former executive vice president and chief of staff of Alibaba.

Small-town youth builds a Shenzhen star company

The story of Xiaokuo Technology starts with Yin Kuo, who only has a high school education.

Going back to 2005, after graduating from Lingbi Middle School in Anhui Province, he went to Guangdong to work. He left his mark in factories, restaurants, hotels, etc. However, he was not content with the status quo. Instead, at the invitation of his friends, he came to Shenzhen in 2011 to start his entrepreneurial journey.

For his first venture, Yin Kuo partnered with his friends in the smart hardware business. Although the conditions were difficult in the early days, their company still got on the right track. It not only achieved profitability for many consecutive years, but also reached a scale of nearly 100 million yuan at its peak. This successful experience also laid the groundwork for Yin Kuo's second venture.

In 2015, he founded Xiaokuo Technology in Shenzhen, taking electric toothbrushes as the entry point. Facing powerful competitors such as Procter & Gamble and Philips, coupled with the high cost of inventory, Xiaokuo Technology faced the pressure of capital shortage for a long time. Sometimes, it couldn't even pay the salaries.

Due to the excessive inventory pressure, this company that almost went bankrupt finally adjusted its development direction. In 2018, they established the oral care brand "Sambal" and focused on the toothpaste category. In Yin Kuo's view, most toothpaste formula systems still remain in the last century. A toothpaste that can lead the market in terms of taste aesthetics, brushing experience and formula innovation can be recognized by the market.

Although the idea was good, the early high-end positioning of the products did not boost the sales of their toothpaste. In order to create a hit product, Xiaokuo Technology chose to expand the product categories and also tried to launch cosmetics and personal care products. Unfortunately, the results did not meet the ideal expectations.

Realizing the dispersion of resources, Yin Kuo shrank the company's business scope, concentrated resources in the oral field, and focused on the mouthwash track. His judgment was that mild, non-irritating and fragrant portable mouthwashes were more likely to be loved by consumers. In 2020, when the company only had 14 million yuan left in its account, they invested all the funds in the market.

Facts have proved that Xiaokuo Technology made the right bet this time. Riding on the wave of short videos and meeting the consumers' demand for trying new things, the Sambal probiotic mouthwash launched in October of that year exceeded 100 million yuan in sales within 80 days of its launch and finally topped the mouthwash category on Tmall and Pinduoduo.

This also attracted a lot of attention and paved the way for the company to refocus on the toothpaste category. The company is aware that compared with the toothpaste market worth tens of billions of yuan in China, the ceiling of the mouthwash market is relatively lower. In 2022, Xiaokuo Technology began to focus on the toothpaste category again and quickly turned the probiotic toothpaste series into a hit product.

The success of toothpaste and mouthwash products has put them on the fast track of development. After years of development, in addition to the oral care brand "Sambal", the personal care brand "Little Arrow", and the daily chemical and household brand "Focus" jointly founded with Hua Chenyu, Xiaokuo Technology's products also cover toothpaste, mouthwash, toothbrushes, oral sprays, etc.

Endorsed by Hua Chenyu, annual revenue approaches 2.5 billion yuan

Although it has a wide range of products, toothpaste remains the main source of income for Xiaokuo Technology.

Looking through the prospectus, from 2023 to 2025, the company's revenues reached 1.096 billion yuan, 1.369 billion yuan and 2.499 billion yuan respectively. Among them, the basic oral care segment, including toothpaste and toothbrushes, contributed more than 80% of the annual revenue.

According to Frost & Sullivan, if calculated by the retail sales in 2025, Xiaokuo Technology's oral care products and toothpaste accounted for 8% and 9.2% respectively in the online oral care product market in China, ranking first in both categories.

After the full-channel layout in 2023, in addition to online channels such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Tmall, JD.com, Pinduoduo and Xiaohongshu, the company's offline business also covers more than 110,000 retail outlets.

The vigorous expansion of the offline market has provided important support for the rapid growth of Xiaokuo Technology. Yin Kuo believes that entering the offline physical market is a crucial step for the company to layout the national market. "To let consumers recognize the brand, the products have to truly enter people's lives, not just appear in short videos."

According to the different needs of consumers in online and offline markets, as well as in rural and urban areas, they will design the products differently in terms of price, capacity, packaging and efficacy, and maintain a high frequency of iteration and update. As a result, Xiaokuo Technology not only offers more than 500 SKUs, but also has a reserve product line of more than 300 SKUs.

The company's toothpaste products are a very typical example. Through long-term practice, they have a wide variety of toothpastes. These toothpastes are priced between 9.9 and 49.9 yuan, including flavors such as jasmine, mint and grape, as well as series such as probiotics, lysozyme, hydroxyapatite and zeolite.

In order to quickly occupy the market, Xiaokuo Technology chose methods such as celebrity endorsement, KOL promotion and live streaming sales. In May 2025, their co-branded event with Hua Chenyu had a total online exposure of more than 900 million times. The total transaction volume of products across all platforms on the first day of the event exceeded 13 million yuan, ranking first in the comprehensive retail sales on major e-commerce platforms.

While the performance soars, their marketing costs are also continuously increasing. Since 2023, the company's cumulative sales and distribution expenses in three years have exceeded 3 billion yuan. Although they have made huge investments in marketing, Xiaokuo Technology has now achieved large-scale and continuous profitability.

During the same period, the company's net profits were 42 million yuan, 34 million yuan and -18 million yuan respectively. Among them, an equity-settled share-based payment expense of more than 110 million yuan was the main reason for their loss in 2025. After adjustment, Xiaokuo Technology's net profits were approximately 54 million yuan, 66 million yuan and 155 million yuan respectively.

The key to winning the recognition of many consumers lies in the fact that all their thinking is centered around consumers. Yin Kuo once revealed in a media interview that each product corresponds to the real needs of consumers of different ages and in different scenarios. The differences behind are all the real pain points of consumers.

13 rounds of financing, ByteDance is a shareholder

The rapid expansion of Xiaokuo Technology cannot be separated from the support of many investors.

Along the way, the company has completed a total of 13 rounds of capital increases. After getting the support of individual investors in the early stage, they received 10 million yuan from Mingjian Investment in May 2018 and obtained investment from Tianjin Qisheng four months later.

In 2019, Meihua Ventures stepped in. In addition to directly investing 10 million yuan in the company, this investment institution also spent 5 million yuan to buy the old shares of Xiaokuo Technology. The following year, the company received support from Yecao Ventures and Meihua Ventures again.

Although Yin Kuo has a relatively low educational background, Wu Shichun, the founding partner of Meihua Ventures, judged that he was the "small-town youth" he was looking for. In the eyes of Wu Shichun from a rural area in Jiangxi, "small-town youth" have a strong motivation to change their fates. People like Yin Kuo, who are like "indestructible cockroaches", have no way out and know better how to survive in difficult situations.

Before long, Yin Kuo successfully proved himself. With the hot sales of the Sambal mouthwash series, Yin Kuo led Xiaokuo Technology to quickly make a name for itself in the industry as a dark horse and further won the recognition of more investors.

In 2021, the company completed 4 rounds of financing in a row. The investors included Sinovation Ventures, Qingliu Capital, ByteDance, Huaxing New Economy Fund, Jinding Capital, Cornerstone Capital, Asia Business Nuohui, Asia Business Capital, and Happy Wisdom.

At that time, in the view of Qingliu Capital, consumers' demand for oral health has gradually shifted from treatment-oriented to prevention-driven, and mouthwash is a strong incremental category under the trend of fast-moving consumerization of medical products. Sinovation Ventures judged that they re-entered the oral market through the mouthwash category and successfully surpassed new and old competitors on mainstream e-commerce platforms.

After receiving an investment of 30 million yuan from Happy Wisdom in September 2021, the valuation of Xiaokuo Technology exceeded 1.8 billion yuan. This means that its valuation increased by more than 1.3 billion yuan in about 8 months.

With the completion of a series of financings and the joining of a large number of talents, Xiaokuo Technology successfully shifted its development focus from mouthwash to toothpaste, and finally came to the front of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

For Yin Kuo, a bigger goal is to become "the Procter & Gamble of China". "I also have this dream. It's an incentive for my entrepreneurship, and I should try to challenge it."

References:

1. "A small-town youth from Anhui starts a business selling toothpaste, with annual sales exceeding 2 billion yuan", China Entrepreneur Magazine

2. "Yin Kuo, the founder of Sambal: How can domestic toothpaste break through in the face of international giants?", CCTV News

This article is from the WeChat official account "Dongshisi Tiao Capital" (ID: DsstCapital), author: Lu Zhigao, published by 36Kr with authorization.