36Kr Exclusive | A former Apple engineer ventures into bone-conduction headphones, creating a unique technological approach and breaking the patent monopoly of leading companies.

Author | Zhang Ziyi

Editor | Yuan Silai

Yingke learned that Suzhou Soll Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. (the parent company of the bone-conduction sports headphone brand Mojawa, hereinafter referred to as "Soll Electronics") recently completed a Series A+ financing of tens of millions of RMB. This round of financing was led by Zhenghai Capital.

It is reported that the funds from this round will be mainly used to expand overseas offline channels and promote the AI intelligent R & D of products.

In the audio product market, due to the increasing demand for wireless and open-ear listening technologies, the bone-conduction headphone market has shown significant growth.

Data statistics from the research institution Market Growth show that the market size of bone-conduction headphones was $1.28 billion in 2024. It is expected to grow to $1.611 billion in 2025 and exceed $8.15 billion by 2033, with a compound annual growth rate of 22.8%.

However, the market concentration is relatively high. A few leading brands (such as AfterShokz) occupy the main market share and have established a relatively complete acoustic patent layout, which has raised the entry threshold for new brands.

Soll Electronics entered this market through a different technical path. The company was founded in 2020. Its early business focused on haptic feedback technology (Haptics) for the B2B market, providing broadband vibration motors for VR handles, intelligent cockpits, etc. In 2021, the team applied its original "broadband vibration technology" to the acoustic field to improve the low-frequency response performance of bone-conduction headphones.

Based on the transfer of this underlying technology, Soll Electronics founded its own brand, Mojawa. This new generation of sound production architecture extended from the haptic motor not only enhances the low and mid-frequency performance at the physical level but also provides a new technical solution for bone-conduction headphones, to a certain extent avoiding patent overlap with traditional acoustic routes.

In terms of product positioning, Mojawa avoids price competition in the mid - and low - end markets and mainly targets professional sports enthusiasts with mid - to high - end products. In terms of product lines, Mojawa has launched several segmented products, including the lightweight (26 grams) Run Air, the Run Plus supporting both "Bluetooth + MP3" modes, and the Terra integrated with a heart rate monitoring function. In terms of channels, in the domestic market, Mojawa has currently entered the supply chain system of Sam's Club in China.

The overseas market is an important part of Mojawa's revenue. In the second half of 2025, Mojawa entered mainstream online KA platforms in the United States such as BestBuy, Walmart.com, Target, and Office Depot. In 2026, the team plans to further expand offline channels in the core markets of North America, Europe, and the Asia - Pacific region.

After the completion of this round of financing, Mojawa plans to develop from a sports headphone brand to an AI sports intelligent platform. Since bone-conduction headphones fit closely to the human head when worn, they have the physical conditions to integrate multi - dimensional sensors such as heart rate and environmental perception.

Based on this, Mojawa is developing sports assistance functions combined with AI algorithms, aiming to cover the complete experience of users before training (program recommendation), during training (heart rate monitoring and early warning), and after training (data review).

Robin Cao, the founder and CEO of Soll Electronics, told Yingke: "In the AI era, the real barrier is the in - depth understanding of users and the ability to provide continuous services. Mojawa's accumulation in sensor data and bone - conduction technology enables us to build a sports AI experience that others cannot replicate in the short term."

In terms of the team background, Robin Cao, the founder of Soll Electronics, has experience in the hardware and supply chain industries. Before founding Soll, he worked at Apple for eight years and participated in the development and commercialization of the tactile product lines of iPhone and Apple Watch. The relevant technical and supply chain experience has provided a foundation for Soll's R & D and production.

Q&A with the Founder:

Yingke: In high - end product lines (such as Terra), Mojawa added functions like heart rate monitoring. What was the consideration behind the decision to explore the "smart wearables" direction?

Robin Cao: This stems from real sports pain points. Professional sports enthusiasts usually wear smart watches and headphones, but in many specific scenarios, the interaction with the watch is not convenient. For example, when running outdoors in winter while wearing a thick down jacket and gloves, or when wearing wristbands in the gym while lifting weights, it is difficult for users to look down at the watch face data. If the headphones can broadcast the heart rate in real - time through voice and provide sports guidance, it can perfectly fill this scenario gap.

From a technical implementation perspective, bone - conduction headphones fit in front of the ears and are close to the aorta inside, which is much more accurate for measuring heart rate than the capillaries on the wrist. It took us more than a year to conduct R & D and a large amount of R & D expenses to implant the heart rate sensor and algorithm into the headphones.

We hope that bone - conduction headphones will not only be an audio player but also a smart wearable device that can actively understand the user's physiological state and provide scientific guidance. This is also the core direction for us to build a product moat.

Yingke: As a growing startup, facing leading brands with an absolute volume advantage, how did Mojawa plan its competition strategy?

Robin Cao: Our core value is to pursue original technological innovation and obtain reasonable commercial profits through technological premium. Therefore, from the very beginning, we refused to participate in the low - price competition and did not produce "cheap alternatives" priced at a few hundred yuan. We target mid - to high - end professional sports enthusiasts, the so - called "equipment enthusiasts" who value the professional attributes and real experience of products.

In terms of competition, we are essentially a cross - border player. Leading brands rely more on traditional acoustic accumulation, while we started from haptic and broadband vibration technology. This underlying technical difference gives us a physical advantage in low - frequency sound quality and naturally avoids the patent blockade of the other side. In the future, we will continue to deepen our exploration in the directions of AI interaction and health data monitoring and develop our own path in intelligent hardware.