The tens of billions of IPOs invested by Li Bin are about to double.
On December 10, 2025, Seyond Holdings Ltd. was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with its market value reaching HK$18 billion at one point.
Seyond's 2025 financial report shows that the revenue share from its major customer, NIO, has decreased, and the customer structure has been significantly optimized. As of March 2026, the cumulative global delivery volume of Seyond's Falcon lidar has exceeded 700,000 units.
Regarding the market growth rate in 2026, founder Bao Junwei has a clear judgment: "It will almost double this year."
"We delivered 332,500 lidars last year. Among them, 138,000 units of the Sparrow series were sold, with a year - on - year increase of over 10 times."
Bao Junwei, the founder and CEO of Seyond, said in an interview with EqualOcean Auto in California that the large - scale release of the Sparrow series marks the company's official expansion from the high - end market to the broader mainstream passenger car market.
As a global provider of image - level lidar solutions, Seyond presented a performance report of great turning significance in 2025:
The annual revenue was approximately 1.102 billion yuan. The gross profit margin increased from - 8.7% in 2024 to + 7.9%. The adjusted net loss narrowed by 24%, and the cash and cash equivalents increased by 146% year - on - year.
Currently, Seyond is also the only lidar enterprise in the industry that has achieved mature mass production of both the 1550nm and 905nm/940nm technology routes. With the continuous improvement of the financial situation and abundant cash reserves, the company's gross profit margin has officially crossed the critical break - even line.
As of March 2026, the cumulative global delivery volume of Seyond's Falcon lidar has exceeded 700,000 units.
Bao Junwei is more confident about the upcoming "one - million - unit" milestone.
16 Years in Silicon Valley, Re - starting a Business at 45
"I started my first business during my Ph.D. studies at Berkeley," Bao Junwei recalled to EqualOcean Auto.
In the mid - 1990s, after graduating from the Department of Physics at Peking University, Bao Junwei went to the United States for further studies and pursued a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. His research direction is closely related to semiconductor equipment and production lines, which gives him a natural advantage in in - depth integration with the industry.
"That's why we seized some opportunities," Bao Junwei recalled. He founded a company with two senior classmates and promoted the research results from the laboratory to industrialization. During the two - or three - year operation of the project, the company successfully completed financing and achieved revenue, and was finally acquired by the largest semiconductor equipment enterprise in Japan.
At that time, he hadn't graduated yet. As a co - founder, he earned his first pot of gold and got a clear understanding of the startup logic and industrial context in Silicon Valley. After graduating with a Ph.D., Bao Junwei joined this Japanese enterprise and stayed there for more than a decade.
Comfortable is the word to describe that period of his life.
But comfort is not what he wanted.
"I want to change the industry, switch to a new track, and try something new."
In 2014, Bao Junwei joined Baidu's US R & D Center, responsible for the autonomous driving hardware platform. At that time, Baidu was building an autonomous driving team in Silicon Valley, looking for the pulse of the technological frontier.
"Baidu was willing to try and explore and make mistakes at that time." In Baidu's Silicon Valley team, Bao Junwei led the R & D of the autonomous driving hardware platform and thus had in - depth contact with lidar.
"I sorted out all kinds of sensors required for autonomous driving, including computing systems, cameras, millimeter - wave radars, GPS, IMU, etc. Among them, the only immature and even obviously short - supplied one is lidar, which is an indispensable core component for autonomous driving."
At this moment, he truly realized that the Google autonomous vehicles tested on the roads within two or three kilometers near his home might really enter ordinary people's lives in the future.
"Autonomous driving is never a fantasy, and lidar is the key to large - scale implementation."
In 2016, General Motors acquired Cruise at a valuation of more than $500 million, and Uber spared no expense to poach the core team of Google's autonomous driving. Silicon Valley capital quickly smelled the opportunity, and the autonomous driving track was on the verge of explosion.
"I joined Baidu at the age of 42 and officially started my own business at 45," Bao Junwei said. "It can't be called a risk, and there's no need to boast."
However, building a team from scratch and developing a business from the beginning is completely different from Bao Junwei's previous routine career.
In 2016, Seyond was established in Silicon Valley. In the early days, the company had only a few people, and Bao Junwei led them to polish the products little by little in the Silicon Valley laboratory.
At that time, the global lidar industry was still in its chaotic early stage: the American manufacturer Velodyne started earlier, but its product technology was in its infancy and the pricing was high; domestic players had just started, and companies like Hesai and RoboSense mainly focused on the domestic market.
From the very beginning, Bao Junwei set his sights on the global market.
"After years of in - depth development in Silicon Valley, I know well the vast scale of the global market and the manufacturing and supply - chain advantages of Chinese enterprises. We shouldn't be limited to the domestic market. If we want to do it, we should do business on a global scale."
"Velodyne and other manufacturers like Doppler entered the market earlier, but their product forms were relatively primitive, and the market demand had not really exploded," Bao Junwei said. "By 2015 and 2016, when the industry demand rose, hundreds of lidar enterprises emerged globally in just two or three years, with various technical routes and business models emerging one after another."
Before the Series A financing, Seyond had almost no contact with the domestic market. After completing the Series A financing, Bao Junwei firmly decided to set up a subsidiary in China and officially landed in Suzhou in 2019.
The real turning point for the company came at the end of 2020.
"NIO sent us a fixed - point project cooperation invitation," Bao Junwei said. "Where the customers are, we should be closer to them."
NIO became Seyond's first core customer for large - scale mass production.
As NIO models equipped with Seyond's Falcon lidar were launched one after another, Bao Junwei finally achieved the leap from laboratory technology to vehicle - grade mass - produced products, and let the self - developed lidar truly enter the path of large - scale application.
From "Niche Luxury" to "Universal Popularity"
"We are the only enterprise with the mass - production ability of dual - technology routes," Bao Junwei said.
Seyond adopts a "dual - technology - route parallel" strategy and has built a product matrix covering diverse scenarios.
The 1550nm high - performance ultra - long - range technology route focuses on L3+ full - scenario autonomous driving. The Falcon platform has cumulatively delivered more than 700,000 units and is currently the only enterprise capable of mass - delivering image - level ultra - long - range lidars.
In addition, the 905nm/940nm route balances performance and cost. The Sparrow platform is suitable for L2+ assisted driving. In 2025, 138,000 units were delivered, with a year - on - year increase of over 10 times.
The all - solid - state technology Hummingbird platform combines the advantages of high performance and low cost and has received fixed - point orders from leading automakers.
When talking about the market performance of the 905 - nanometer products, Bao Junwei said: "Last year, we delivered more than 100,000 units of 905 - nanometer products, supplying not only NIO but also other manufacturers."
He doesn't avoid the doubts in the industry and said frankly: "Some people may question whether we can optimize the cost structure while achieving ultra - high performance. We have proved with actual results that we can not only quickly develop products and achieve large - scale shipments but also successfully obtain fixed - point orders for all - solid - state lidars. We are on the same starting line as our competitors, and even have our own advantages in some technical details."
As of the end of 2025, Seyond has cumulatively received fixed - point orders from 18 automakers and ADAS/ADS companies, covering more than 60 models.
The revenue share from NIO decreased from 97.3% to 86.2%, and the customer structure was significantly optimized. The new customers include traditional automakers such as SAIC Volkswagen and GAC Group, as well as leading commercial vehicle and autonomous driving enterprises such as Shaanxi Automobile Heavy Duty Truck, Foton Motor, and Pony.ai.
"We don't rely on a single customer. This is the fundamental reason for our stable development," Bao Junwei said. "In the automotive industry's supply chain, no one can dominate. What we need to do is to become an indispensable part of the global intelligent vehicle supply chain."
During the interview, Bao Junwei also responded to Elon Musk's view of "not using lidar." "We always believe that lidar is necessary," he said bluntly. "It's not that lidar is bad. It's just that Musk didn't have good lidars to use at that time and had to make do with other options."
In Bao Junwei's view, when humans build systems, they aim not to be the same as humans but to be better and safer. The airbags and seat belts in cars are not used in normal times but can save lives in critical moments. The same is true for lidar. It is the safety redundancy for autonomous driving. "Spending a few hundred dollars can bring several times of safety improvement. It's worth it."
Now, at the age of 54, Bao Junwei still maintains the rigor of an engineer and the drive of an entrepreneur. He has witnessed and promoted the process of lidar from "niche luxury" to "universal popularity" and led Seyond from a small office in Silicon Valley to become a leader in the global lidar industry.
In 2025, Seyond's cost of sales was $142 million, a year - on - year decrease of 18.2% compared with $173 million in 2024. The gross profit margin turned positive to 7.9%. Bao Junwei attributes this to the optimization of engineering design, the improvement of operational efficiency, the economies of scale, the local procurement of core components, and the continuous progress of self - developed modules.
"The positive gross profit margin is the core signal of the improvement of the company's operational quality and efficiency," Bao Junwei said. "It means that we already have the ability of self - financing."
In the first quarter of 2026, Seyond delivered approximately 170,000 lidars, a year - on - year increase of about 310%, and the revenue was approximately $55 million. This breaks the rule that Q1 is the traditional off - season for sales in the industry. Among them, more than 60,000 units of the Falcon series were delivered, and about 110,000 units of the Sparrow series.
"We expect the delivery volume to reach about one million units this year," Bao Junwei said frankly. As of March 31, 2026, Seyond's annual design capacity is about 1.2 million units, and it plans to add 1 million units of production capacity in 2026, including a production line dedicated to the Hummingbird series.
Global Layout, Lidar Will Be Everywhere
"We've always wanted to target the global market," Bao Junwei revealed Seyond's development ambition.
This global ambition is not just empty talk.
Currently, Seyond is the only domestic lidar manufacturer with a production line in the United States. From the R & D center in Silicon Valley to the production base in Suzhou and then to the market layout in Europe, Bao Junwei has gradually built a global R & D, production, and sales system.
"Each country has the need for local industrial protection and considerations of trust. By setting up a production line in the United States, we want to truly integrate into the local area and gain the recognition of the local market; in the European market, we are the first Chinese lidar enterprise to enter, and we discovered their potential demand for intelligent transportation early on," Bao Junwei said frankly. This first - mover advantage is the key confidence for Seyond's global layout.
In 2025, Seyond's overseas layout achieved a substantial breakthrough:
Seyond reached a strategic cooperation with the Swedish ITS infrastructure provider Aventi Sweden and won an order of nearly $2.6 million, and implemented its self - developed intelligent transportation system management platform at key traffic intersections in Europe.
"This is not a coincidence but the result of our early layout," Bao Junwei said. "Europe has high requirements for intelligent transportation and strict requirements for product reliability and safety. We were able to win this order because our technology and products can truly meet their needs. This is our first - mover advantage."
In China, Seyond's lidars have been deployed and operated on more than 15 fully automated subway lines, and more than 1,000 sets have been delivered in the port and ship - lock field. In addition, the pan - robot track has also witnessed explosive growth.
In 2025, Seyond's revenue in the robot and other product fields reached $18.91 million, a year - on - year increase of 130%. The revenue share increased from 5.1% in 2024 to 12.3%, successfully launching the company's second growth curve.
Among them, for just one customer, Jiushi Technology, Seyond delivered more than 21,000 products; the robot and other businesses in non - Chinese regions also achieved a year - on - year growth of about 80%, and at the same time won large - scale orders from enterprises such as Zhongli Co., Ltd. and Kusa Technology. The application scenarios have extended from logistics warehousing and industrial automation to multiple fields such as monitoring of the elderly living alone.
In Bao Junwei's view, the future of lidar is far beyond the automotive field.
"Lidar is not just the 'eyes' of cars. In the future, it will be as ubiquitous as cameras," he imagined. "In the office, it can monitor the occupancy of workstations and automatically adjust the air - conditioning and lights; in the mine, it can assist in automated operations and avoid collision risks; even in the agricultural field, it can help achieve precise planting and improve production efficiency."
On December 10, 2025, 54 - year - old Bao Junwei led Seyond to successfully list on the Hong Kong stock market. He said, "Listing is a new milestone, which is a real explanation to the investors, colleagues, customers, and supply - chain partners at that time."
Almost Doubling Growth Rate This Year
"2025 was a turning point for Seyond," Bao Junwei summarized.
This turning point is hidden in three real breakthroughs.
First, the customer pattern has been completely opened up. From initially serving only NIO to simultaneously promoting projects with multiple automakers, the company has got rid of the dependence on a single customer.
Second, the product matrix has blossomed in an all - round way. The 905 - nanometer route products have achieved large - scale shipments, the mid - to - high - end product lines have been successfully recognized by the market, and the all - solid - state lidar has also successfully obtained fixed - point orders. The wide product layout has already ranked among the top in the industry.
Third, the global layout has achieved a key leap. The European and American markets have officially entered the stage of large - scale growth from the previous incubation and cultivation period.
When talking about revenue, Bao Jun