Benmo Power submitted its post-hearing prospectus on June 29, 2026. Under normal procedures, analyst roadshows typically begin within one to two weeks, followed by the official launch of the global offering. However, nearly two months have passed without the company initiating its global sale. Instead, on August 19, it resubmitted an application version with updated first-half 2026 data.

Despite the halo of being China's number one direct-drive power module maker, the company faces slowing revenue growth, high customer concentration, and a limited contribution from its robotics second curve. What exactly is this company waiting for?

The 'Hidden Champion' of Direct-Drive Technology Stands at the IPO Gate

Benmo Power is a robotics technology company with direct-drive technology at its core. Unlike traditional drives that rely on reducers to amplify torque, direct-drive technology eliminates intermediate transmission components such as reducers, achieving high precision, low noise, and low maintenance. This makes it especially suitable for near-human operating scenarios like home cleaning robots. This technological path has given Benmo Power an absolute leading position in its niche.

By 2025 revenue, the company ranks first in China's consumer robot direct-drive power module market with a 61.1% share. In the global wheeled-foot robot market's two-wheeled-foot segment, it ranks second with an 18.6% share. The company has launched four wheeled-foot robot models: Xingtian, TITA, TITATIT, and D1. Xingtian is the world's first commercially available direct-drive two-wheeled-foot robot, while D1 is the world's first fully modular two-wheeled-foot robot.

The company's growth rate is remarkable. Revenue surged from RMB 17.54 million in 2023 to RMB 280 million in 2025—a 15-fold increase in three years. This explosive growth is driven by the dividend of the direct-drive power module industry transitioning from a "blank slate" to "explosion." From 2021 to 2025, China's direct-drive power module market expanded from RMB 100 million to RMB 1.9 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 115.7%.

Yet, a closer look reveals that this "first direct-drive stock" story is not without its challenges.

Unusual Delay in Listing Progress: Can the Updated Half-Year Report Ease Market Concerns?

Benmo Power's Hong Kong IPO pace signals something unusual. The company had already confidentially submitted its prospectus, received regulatory approval from the CSRC on June 26, 2026, and filed its post-hearing prospectus on June 29. Under standard Hong Kong IPO procedures, after filing the post-hearing prospectus, underwriter analysts conduct roadshows within one to two weeks, followed by the official launch of the global offering. But to date, nearly two months have passed without the company starting its offering. Instead, on August 19, it filed an updated application version with first-half 2026 data.

Two possibilities may explain this abnormal pace. First, the company may be encountering difficulties in building orders, with cornerstone and anchor investor subscription interest falling short of expectations. It may need to update with better performance data to bolster market confidence. Second, the Hong Kong IPO market underperformed overall in July, prompting the company to voluntarily postpone its timeline to wait for a more favorable issuance window.

From the updated prospectus, the company achieved revenue of RMB 200 million in the first half of 2026, up 39.7% year-on-year. On the surface, the growth rate seems acceptable, but compared to the 253.0% year-on-year growth in full-year 2025, it has slowed significantly. If 2025's surge relied on the penetration dividend of the direct-drive sector moving from zero to one, the first-half 2026 growth rate more accurately reflects the reality that this dividend has entered a phase of normalized release.

At the same time, highly concentrated revenue structure and unstable downstream customer dynamics have become key metrics for the market to assess the company's value. In the first half of 2026, the top five customers accounted for 81.4% of total revenue, with the largest customer, Customer C, contributing 53.6%. Apart from the deeply cooperative Customer C, the composition of the remaining top four customers has been continually shifting, indicating the company must persistently invest resources to maintain existing relationships and expand new ones. However, customer acquisition results have not been impressive. In 2025, the company added only 19 net new customers compared to 2024, reflecting a slow pace of new client development.

Although the prospectus states that the company's relationship with core Customer C is a joint development and deeply binding partnership, the extremely high customer concentration still plants hidden risks for business stability. Should the core customer adjust its procurement strategy, it would directly impact revenue.

Under the Glow of High Market Share, the Niche's Size Ceiling Cannot Be Ignored

Benmo Power's core business is robot direct-drive power modules, contributing 92.8% of total revenue in the first half of 2026. The company's 61.1% share in China's consumer robot direct-drive power module market makes it an undisputed leader on the surface. But placed in a larger context, the value of this "number one" position warrants scrutiny.

First, the direct-drive power module market itself remains small. In 2025, China's direct-drive power module market was only RMB 1.9 billion, representing less than 5% of the total power module market of RMB 39.2 billion. By 2030, penetration is expected to rise to 17.7%, with the market expanding to RMB 12.9 billion—a compound growth rate of 48.6%, but the absolute scale within the overall power module market remains relatively small.

Second, the company's core market—consumer applications—is the smallest segment within direct-drive modules. In 2025, China's consumer-scenario direct-drive power module market was approximately RMB 400 million, with the company holding a 61.1% share. This looks substantial, but within this RMB 400 million market, the ceiling is clearly visible. Although the consumer segment is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 81.3% from 2026 to 2030, reaching RMB 6.4 billion and nearly 50% of the total direct-drive module market by 2030, more market participants will inevitably enter.

Consider unit pricing. In 2025, the company shipped approximately 8.5 million robot direct-drive power modules, generating around RMB 250 million in revenue, implying an average selling price of just RMB 32. This is a classic "high volume, thin margin" business, creating a significant gap between its fundamentals and the market's high-valuation expectations for "robot concept stocks."

Second Curve Still Nascent: Robotics Business Can't Yet Shoulder Growth

Benmo Power's official positioning is "a robotics technology company with direct-drive technology at its core." However, the reality is that its actual robotics business contributed only 5.5% of total revenue in the first half of 2026, amounting to approximately RMB 11.07 million. While this exceeds the RMB 7.31 million generated in all of 2025, it remains a considerable distance from becoming a true second growth curve.

The company's embodied joint module business is also in its early stages, generating RMB 3.3 million in the first half of 2026, just 1.7% of total revenue. This product line targets the embodied intelligent robot sector, but as of June 30, 2026, it only supplies one of China's top five embodied intelligent robot providers, indicating minimal commercial progress.

Competition in the wheeled-foot robot market is equally intense. The top eight global providers collectively hold an 82.2% share, while China's top five account for 80.6%. Benmo Power ranks sixth globally (3.3%) and fourth in China (4.7%). In the niche two-wheeled-foot segment, it ranks second (18.6%), but this is an even smaller sub-market.

Consequently, from a valuation perspective, Benmo Power cannot simply be classified as a "robotics company" entitled to the premium valuations of the robotics sector. Its core value should remain anchored to the direct-drive power module business—a "high volume, thin margin" manufacturing operation.

Profit Pressures and High Debt: Weak Financial Safety Margin Under Cash-Burning Model

The company has yet to achieve profitability. From 2023 to 2025 and in the first half of 2026, it recorded losses of RMB 75.59 million, RMB 93.74 million, RMB 880 million, and RMB 390 million, respectively. However, the substantial expansion in book losses primarily stems from non-operating items such as share-based payments and changes in the book value of redemption liabilities. Excluding these effects, adjusted net losses have been relatively stable: RMB 61.22 million, RMB 61.59 million, RMB 43.25 million, and RMB 27.50 million over the same periods.

From this perspective, the core business's loss position is steadily narrowing, though it has not yet crossed the breakeven threshold. The company's prospectus mentions a "gross margin-driven pricing model," but actual data suggests this strategy has not produced sustained significant gross margin improvement. From 2023 to 2025 and in the first half of 2026, gross margins were 13.5%, 19.3%, 21.5%, and 20.7%, respectively. Gross margin appears to have hit a "bottleneck" around the 20% level.

The core reason lies in product mix. Over 90% of revenue comes from direct-drive power modules, the vast majority of which are consumer application products. Downstream customers (sweeping robot manufacturers) are extremely cost-sensitive, which naturally compresses gross margins to lower levels. Consumer application direct-drive module gross margins climbed from 3.4% in 2023 to 19.2% in 2025, but retreated to 17.2% in the first half of 2026. Industrial and commercial applications offer higher margins, but their revenue scale is insufficient to lift overall gross margin.

Regarding cash flow, operating cash flow remains in a net outflow state. In the first half of 2026, net operating cash outflow was RMB 64.8 million, widening from RMB 29.4 million in the same period of 2025. Despite rapid revenue growth, cash flow has not achieved a positive cycle, indicating the company remains in a growth-for-cash phase.

Balance sheet risks are equally concerning. As of the end of June 2026, the company's debt-to-asset ratio stood at a staggering 305.4%. Operations are heavily dependent on external financing for survival, with book cash of RMB 290 million providing only short-term operational buffer.

Benmo Power has secured a leading position in the narrow consumer direct-drive module niche, but simultaneously faces multiple practical challenges: constrained market size, downstream cost pressures, high customer concentration, nascent new businesses, and continuous cash burn. The prolonged delay in opening its IPO book may also reflect the Hong Kong market's cautious assessment of this robot component maker's growth certainty.