36Kr Exclusive Interview | After Receiving Investments from DJI and Meituan, Intellipai Chases After Toolocity to Turn the Tables as the "Second Runner-up"

Author | Zhang Ziyi

Editor | Yuan Silai

Chen Bo, the co-founder and deputy general manager of Smart Pie, has changed a lot.

Three years ago, if you met him, you would think he was extremely flamboyant and even a bit arrogant. Chen Bo had absolute confidence in Smart Pie's products and capabilities. As for the competitors, he thought "they are nothing special".

Three years later, he told us: He will do his best in some things. If he can't achieve the desired results in a few years, he will let more capable people take over the business - he might even introduce professional managers.

In the venture capital circle where "founder worship" prevails, this is a shocking decision, but there are traces to follow.

36Kr exclusively learned that Smart Pie has completed a Series B+ financing of hundreds of millions of yuan. Meituan led the investment, and Shenzhen Capital Group, Hillhouse Capital, Intime Group, Guoce Capital, Minghui Zhiyuan, and GaoXin Investment Group jointly participated. This round of financing is less than half a year after the previous round in which DJI participated.

In the past decade or so, people have been infatuated with and chased after genius founders, regarding them as a kind of religious leaders. They don't necessarily have good eloquence or be likable, but they must have extremely strong personalities and talents in a certain aspect. Even if their style is high - pressure, autocratic, and inhumane, they will still be worshiped by countless people.

From Silicon Valley to China, from Steve Jobs and Elon Musk to Sam Altman, the trend has never faded. And these dreamers have indeed created a number of star companies that will go down in history.

Smart Pie obviously doesn't belong to this category. They started their business in Huaqiangbei and are common grassroots "bosses" in Shenzhen. The headquarters of Smart Pie is in Longhua, an area full of factories. They like "doing business" rather than being obsessed with changing the world - Chen Bo has never romanticized the act of starting a business.

In the founding team of Smart Pie, you can see the entrepreneurial spirit that flows in the blood of many Cantonese people: like water, they adapt to the changes of the times, the market, regions, and even cultures. They are flexible, practical, and down - to - earth. When they find they can't achieve their goals, they can admit their own shortcomings and quickly switch paths.

From the matter of attracting investment, we can see the change in Smart Pie's way of doing things. For a long time, the three founders of Smart Pie didn't accept external investment or media interviews. "Making money quietly" has always been a characteristic of Chaoshan bosses.

During those years, they invested a lot of money and manpower in R & D and even abandoned a product, but they found that the gap between their products and those of their competitors was still getting bigger and bigger. "At that moment, I realized that our efforts couldn't keep up with the intensity of the market," Chen Bo recalled.

(Image source/Enterprise)

And the solution is clear: "If the three of us can't do it well, it means there is a problem with our own abilities. If we can't do it well, let more suitable people do it."

They actively looked for an intermediary to contact DJI and finalized the financing in three months. Chen Bo, who used to not even want to make his personal photos public, also began to force himself to contact the media.

As "bosses", Hong Yingsheng and Chen Bo of course have ambitions. They believe that the 3D printing market still has several times of growth potential, and the market is far from the end. Smart Pie must stay in the game, reap the dividends, and even become the number one. For this purpose, they are willing to cut off the natural control desire, pride, and emotions of the founding team. As Chen Bo said: "Doing business is not playing house."

We talked with Chen Bo for nearly three hours, discussing their experiences in the past three years and their plans for the future.

People are easily attracted by founders with a savior - like temperament. Smart Pie is not good at telling fascinating stories, but there is no doubt that these grassroots "bosses" are also formidable opponents.

"Be water, My friend."

01 "Revolutionize Yourself"

36Kr: Actually, you didn't want to show up and speak before.

Chen Bo: Actually, the cultural style of a company is set by its founders. Why didn't we often come out and talk before? Our founders are not the overly lively type. Even two years ago, we didn't want to be known by the media, not even a single word.

This is related to the style of Chaoshan people. One of our founders is from Chaoshan, and I'm from Hakka. In fact, our personalities are the same. We believe that it's best to be like Ma Huateng, making money quietly.

36Kr: Why did you choose to speak up at this stage?

Chen Bo: Essentially, it's a need for development. What I've observed is that the world has entered a new cycle. In the past, we called it "cross - border e - commerce going global", and now it's called "brand going global". This is a stage where Chinese brands are directly challenging old - world brands (such as Sony and Apple). Who can become a global brand in the future? Besides those top - notch hardcore companies, there are also variables for small and medium - sized companies like ours. So we can't be "narrow - minded" and stay in our own circle anymore.

36Kr: What do you think is the biggest shortcoming of Smart Pie now?

Chen Bo: Actually, our current shortcoming is in software. We need to be clear that the software here is not the kind of software in the Internet field that focuses on mass customer acquisition, large - scale effects, and closed - loop business models. Instead, it needs to be strongly combined with hardware. It includes two levels: one is the firmware and slicing software of the machine itself to drive the hardware to work; the other is the ecological software that matches the machine, such as the model library and mobile phone apps.

So although we only mention "software", ultimately it refers to the ability to integrate and close - loop the entire 3D printing software and hardware ecosystem. At present, only a few companies, including us, have such capabilities. The best one is definitely TuoZhu, and we still haven't done well enough.

36Kr: People used to think that 3D printing was about competing in hardware parameters. After TuoZhu entered the market, where is its software advantage reflected? Is it in printing efficiency or simple completion rate?

Chen Bo: TuoZhu's entry has raised the standard to the current level. In fact, from the perspective of industry breakdown, its hardware is not the best, but its software is indeed a moat. For other companies, including us, it's very difficult to catch up in a short time.

The core problem that software solves is actually "stability". Before TuoZhu emerged, the software of most companies was basically at the "barely usable" level and played a supporting role, while hardware was the main focus of innovation. But looking at the later development, with ordinary hardware, as long as the software is well - tuned, the user experience can also be very smooth.

36Kr: What is the most intuitive difference of this "stability" at the user end?

Chen Bo: The most core point lies in the success rate, both for single - print and continuous - print success rates.

Let me put it in an intuitive way. If a family user buys and uses a brand in the T2 echelon of 3D printers, the machine may need to be reset and self - leveled every half - month before it can continue to be used. This wasn't a big problem before because users didn't need to adjust it manually. But TuoZhu can maintain stable operation for more than a month continuously.

This is the difference in consistency. It's not a hardware problem. The hardware can restore its accuracy after resetting, but it's about software control. Can the algorithm remember the accuracy deviation generated by the hardware after each print? Can it be restored every time? This is the accumulation of algorithms, and we are still working hard to catch up.

36Kr: So that's why you are using DJI's methodology now?

Chen Bo: We are indeed learning DJI's methodology for product development. We need its software and algorithms, and also its methodology for firmware development combined with hardware. It's not about looking at the firmware it develops, but about the entire system. This situation occurs in the entire industry, including TuoZhu: the hardware product is well - made, but the software optimization can't keep up. If we adopt this methodology, we can correct the process of constantly making mistakes before.

36Kr: Did you think about doing it on your own before?

Chen Bo: We used to try to form our own team to do it. In the previous few years, we also recruited a group of people to break through. Did it have any effect? Definitely, but it was all about trial - and - error, and the efficiency was extremely low. We found that hardware can be gradually accumulated and iterated, and people have mastered the rules, but software is a binary relationship of 0 and 1. Our previous team lacked software thinking. When you form a team, it takes time for it to grow, and your competitors are also making progress. So now we are changing our approach.

36Kr: If after introducing this system, it is still proven that we can't produce good products, will you make more radical adjustments?

Chen Bo: Our stance is very clear, which is to "revolutionize ourselves". If the products in 2024 and 2025 still can't meet the market's expectations or reach the level of competing with rivals, it means that our management ability has really reached the ceiling.

Our attitude is open: if we can't do it well, let more suitable people do it. We may even consider introducing professional managers. To be honest, if the three of us can't do it well, it means there is a problem with our own abilities. I have the same attitude towards my management department. If it can't lead the team forward, I will step down and give way to more capable people.

36Kr: Then how can you ensure your control in such in - depth cooperation or even takeover?

Chen Bo: It's still the same logic: if you terminate the cooperation, do you have other ways out? No. Although your profit margin may decrease, in terms of total profit, if you used to earn 100 million yuan and in the future you can earn 3 - 5 billion yuan, why not? Doing business is not playing house.

We started our business in Huaqiangbei, which is a very grassroots - style startup in Shenzhen. Later, we transformed from a cross - border e - commerce model to product development. At that time, there was just such an opportunity, and the industry had a high ceiling, so we could pursue it. But if we still can't succeed after our efforts, we definitely need to make adjustments.

Saturn+4+Ultra (Image source/Enterprise)

Let me give you an example. If I give you 200,000 yuan, you can buy a very good car and drive it right away. But if you use this 200,000 yuan to develop a car on your own, you may not even be able to make a wheel in the end. So which one is more cost - effective? When you can't do it on your own, you need to have the determination. As long as you can stay in the game, it's better than being eliminated.

36Kr: When did this change specifically happen? I remember you were very high - spirited when I saw you in 2023.

Chen Bo: The change happened from the end of 2024 to the beginning of 2025. Theoretically, we should have launched a product at the end of 2024 to capture the incremental market. At that time, some of our competitors hadn't launched new products for two years, and we needed to beat them to the punch.

However, the product developed by the team we formed in 2023 was constantly delayed. At that moment, I realized that our efforts couldn't keep up with the intensity of the market. It was very painful at that time. You were clearly going all - in. All resources were allocated to the product R & D, but the result we delivered couldn't keep up with the products already launched by our competitors.

36Kr: Haven't you experienced such a setback before? Will you doubt yourself?

Chen Bo: Things went smoothly before. There is no self - doubt. We've been in business for ten years.

We immediately looked for a way out. Looking back and analyzing the success patterns of these "top students", we found an interesting phenomenon: in the field of hardware innovation going global, leading brands like TuoZhu, Insta360, and EcoFlow, their core teams largely originate from DJI. This shows that DJI not only outputs products but also a set of systematic hardware engineering capabilities that have been repeatedly verified by the market.

This commonality in genes made us realize that DJI is the technological parent that can help us break through the bottleneck. Since we've seen the optimal solution right in front of us, we just went directly to DJI. This is the way out we're looking for.

At that time, through a familiar intermediary, the speed from the initial communication to the confirmation of cooperation between the two sides was extremely fast.

36Kr: What was the main reason for the delay of that generation of products at that time?

Chen Bo: It was still the ability of engineering mass - production. You pre - researched a lot of technologies, but when you put them together on one machine, single - point bugs would affect the whole. At that time, it was shown that the multi - color printing efficiency did not meet the standard, so we were forced to only launch a single - color machine overseas. And I didn't even sell this generation of products in China. You can imagine how painful I was.

02 It's Meaningless to Be the Second

36Kr: Actually, I remember that you've had several products with good crowdfunding results over the years.

Chen Bo: The later machine shipped more than 200,000 units overseas last year. From an industry perspective, more than 200,000 units is already a hit product. However, in front of the first - place brand, you're nothing. Even if your single - model sales rank second, but if the first - place brand sells one million units, 200,000 units means a five - fold gap.

So in such a gap, what's the meaning of being the second? Is there any difference between the second, third, and fourth? Is there any difference between the fifth and the tenth? No. It's meaningless to alternate the rankings.

So although you've actually achieved something, when the outside world observes you, you're just not significant enough.

36Kr: In 2023, your scale was already one billion yuan, and last year it was 2.3 billion yuan. Although it has been increasing in these three years, it doesn't seem to have the previous high - speed doubling growth.

Chen Bo: If we look at it on an annualized basis, we actually still maintained a growth rate of 30% to