Zhejiang Yifei Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (Yifei Technology) has officially submitted its IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, seeking to list on the main board and potentially become Hong Kong's first comprehensive light industry robotics stock. Despite impressive revenue growth over the reporting period, the company has remained unprofitable, accumulating total losses of 238 million yuan over three years.

**From Jinan Startup to National "Little Giant"**

Founded in June 2012 in Jinan, Yifei Technology specializes in industrial robot R&D, manufacturing, control system development, vision system development, and intelligent manufacturing solutions. The company focuses on light industry robotics applications across food, electronics, logistics, and other sectors, earning recognition as a national "specialized and sophisticated" little giant enterprise.

The company was established by Zhang Sai, Zhang Jian, Zhang Li, Jin Zhe, and Yang Xu. As of the prospectus signing date, Zhang Sai controls approximately 25.07% of voting rights through direct and indirect holdings, making him the largest shareholder.

Founder and CEO Zhang Sai brings impressive credentials with a bachelor's degree in precision instruments from Tsinghua University, a master's from Columbia University, and a PhD in mechanical engineering from Tsinghua. After returning from overseas studies, he joined Chen Hsong Holdings (00057.HK) as a senior engineer in the CPS promotion department, focusing on injection molding machine design and lean production management. After five years, he left to establish Yifei Technology.

"At that time, Jinan lacked industrial support, so we could only rent office space in urban villages and secretly use cutting machines to make parts at night," Zhang Sai recalled. The team completed their first parallel robot prototype in 2014, but market development proved challenging, with only three units sold in the first year.

The turning point came in 2016 when the company faced a cash flow crisis. Zhang Sai sold his Beijing apartment to buy back shares and secured 9.3 million yuan in investment from institutions including Fengrui Capital. This funding supported a crucial breakthrough: the Bat series parallel robots launched in 2018 passed 20,000-hour failure-free testing with repeat positioning accuracy of 0.08 millimeters, exceeding international comparable products.

In June this year, Yifei Technology relocated its headquarters from Jinan to Yuhuan City, Zhejiang Province, changing its name accordingly. The company subsequently announced the official launch of the "Yifei Robot" project in Shangyu District, Shaoxing City, representing a substantial headquarters relocation. The project involves a planned total investment of 520 million yuan to build an industrial robot manufacturing base and embodied intelligence robot R&D center, accounting for 9.5% of annual revenue.

Based on 2024 revenue, Yifei Technology ranks fifth among Chinese industrial robot and related solution providers focused on light industry. The company is among the few Chinese enterprises with comprehensive scaled industrial robot and related solution coverage capabilities, with products applied across electronics, automotive parts, food and beverage, medical health, semiconductor, and other industries.

Prior to this IPO, Yifei Technology completed over 10 financing rounds, attracting numerous star investment institutions including Jasic Technology, Ivy Capital, Primavera Capital, Guoke Yingfeng, Qisheng Capital, Fengrui Capital, and TusStar. Following the final pre-IPO financing round, the company's valuation reached 3.604 billion yuan.

**Significant Stock Transfer Price Discrepancies Pre-IPO**

Notable irregularities emerged before the Hong Kong IPO filing, with multiple shareholders choosing to cash out. The acquiring parties, Yuhuan State Investment and Yuhuan Investment, share the same ultimate controlling party, yet their acquisition costs for Yifei Technology shares differed by nearly 100%.

On May 28, 2025, Yifei Technology conducted both capital increases and share transfers. Capital increase pricing ranged from 62-66 yuan per share, while share transfer prices varied dramatically from 14.95-33.65 yuan per share, showing significant disparities compared to concurrent capital increase subscription prices.

**Persistent Losses Despite Revenue Growth**

The company continues to struggle with profitability. According to the prospectus, Yifei Technology's revenue for 2022-2024 was 162 million yuan, 201 million yuan, and 268 million yuan respectively, representing a compound annual growth rate of 28.5%. However, the company posted losses of 57.553 million yuan, 110 million yuan, and 71.495 million yuan respectively, totaling cumulative losses of 238 million yuan.

During the reporting period, robot hardware revenue increased from 5% to 20.8% of total revenue, while robot solution revenue decreased from 95% to 79.2%. Losses primarily stemmed from R&D investments and market expansion expenses. R&D spending was 34.2 million yuan, 33.1 million yuan, and 38.7 million yuan respectively, representing 21.1%, 16.5%, and 14.4% of annual revenue, showing declining R&D expense ratios.

Robot solutions remain the core revenue source, accounting for 95%, 87.2%, and 79.2% of business revenue in respective periods. The company's robot solutions primarily support automation functions for loading/unloading, sorting, pick-and-place, packaging, assembly, and gluing systems.

Revenue growth has been driven by customer base expansion. From end-2022 to end-2024, direct sales customers increased from 69 to 158 to 275, with direct sales revenue accounting for 100%, 98.9%, and 96.8% respectively.

Despite customer growth, over half of Yifei Technology's revenue still comes from the top five customers. During 2022-2024, the top five customers contributed 83.3%, 60.7%, and 50.1% of revenue respectively, while the largest customer contributed 71.2%, 40.3%, and 23.7% respectively.

Customer A remained the largest customer throughout all periods, though purchase amounts declined annually from 116 million yuan to 81 million yuan to 63.6 million yuan. Meanwhile, sales and marketing expenses increased from 14.789 million yuan in 2022 to 53.149 million yuan, with sales expense ratios rising from 9.1% to 19.8%.

This trend shows decreasing R&D expense ratios alongside increasing sales expenses, indicating a "light R&D, heavy sales" approach.

**Cash Flow Pressures Mount**

Beyond losses, Yifei Technology faces more pressing liquidity issues. Cash and cash equivalents at end-2022, 2023, and 2024 were 25.777 million yuan, 19.092 million yuan, and 22.895 million yuan respectively, while interest-bearing bank borrowings in current liabilities were 0 yuan, 45.619 million yuan, and 134.68 million yuan respectively.

Since 2023, cash and cash equivalents have been completely insufficient to cover interest-bearing bank borrowings. Due to substantial growth in interest-bearing borrowings in 2024, year-end current liabilities reached 341.851 million yuan, nearly matching current assets of 341.904 million yuan, significantly elevating short-term debt pressure.

Notably, accounts receivable and notes increased from 28.1 million yuan at end-2022 to 52.3 million yuan and 138 million yuan at end-2023 and 2024 respectively, representing approximately 392% growth from 2022 to 2024. Additionally, accounts receivable and notes turnover days extended from 46 to 65 to 120 days, indicating declining collection efficiency.

**Market Outlook and IPO Proceeds**

According to the prospectus, IPO net proceeds will primarily fund robot technology R&D, production line upgrades and capacity expansion, overseas business network development, supply chain investment, and working capital supplementation.

Driven by automation upgrades and intelligent manufacturing policy support, China's light industry robotics market is rapidly expanding from 12.3 billion yuan in 2020 at a 14.2% CAGR to 20.9 billion yuan in 2024, with projections to reach 43.8 billion yuan by 2029 at a 16.3% CAGR.

Correspondingly, China's light industry robot solutions market has grown from 36.9 billion yuan in 2020 at a 17.8% CAGR to 71.1 billion yuan in 2024, with projections to reach 171 billion yuan by 2029 at a 19.5% CAGR.

With dual drivers of market demand and industry momentum, whether Yifei Technology can successfully leverage Hong Kong's "Chapter 18C" framework to complete its listing and advance to a higher capital market stage while leading the competitive landscape in this sector remains to be seen.