Bao Chunjian, a former TENCENT entrepreneur, is leading Xiaoe Inc. in its charge toward a Hong Kong stock market IPO.

On the evening of August 22, private domain operations SaaS solution provider Xiaoe Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "Xiaoe") officially submitted its main board listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, appointing China International Capital Corporation as the overall coordinator.

This company, which started in Shenzhen in 2015, has finally taken the crucial step toward entering the capital market.

**From TENCENT "Expert" to Entrepreneur**

Now 45 years old, Bao Chunjian graduated with an undergraduate degree in foundry engineering from Hefei University of Technology and later earned a master's degree in computer application technology from the University of Science and Technology of China.

After completing his master's degree in 2006, he joined TENCENT, working successively in the billing platform and data center, eventually rising to Director of the Data Platform Department and joining the ranks of TENCENT's extremely scarce T4 expert engineers.

During his nine years at TENCENT, he witnessed the era of internet traffic dividends. Inspired by the "mass entrepreneurship and innovation" trend and TENCENT CEO Pony Ma's "Internet+" concept, he chose to leave TENCENT in spring 2015, embarking on the entrepreneurial path with several colleagues including Wang Lianghu, Yu Qianli, and Zeng Yongjun. Currently, these three individuals all serve as Vice Presidents of Product Research and Development at Xiaoe.

Initially, they tried a blue-collar recruitment platform called "Work Helper," burning through 5 million yuan they had saved at TENCENT in seven months. They then survived on outsourcing projects and even created bizarre applications like "shared hotel housekeeping."

It wasn't until 2016 that a chance encounter led Bao Chunjian to meet Wu Xiaobo, a financial media influencer who wrote "The TENCENT Biography."

At that time, during the first year of knowledge payment, Wu Xiaobo urgently needed to build a stable audio payment system and membership system within his WeChat public account "Wu Xiaobo Channel."

Bao Chunjian's team took only one month to reconstruct a system that two previous external teams had spent most of a year developing but still had bugs, completely eliminating user complaints.

This technical rescue mission unexpectedly gave birth to Xiaoe's prototype.

Wu Xiaobo became Xiaoe's first flagship customer, followed by leading knowledge influencers like Zhang Defen Space and Ten O'Clock Reading.

At the end of 2016, Xiaoe version 1.0 was officially launched in Hangzhou, providing SaaS services around knowledge payment within the WeChat ecosystem.

**TENCENT Also Invested**

It was Wu Xiaobo who encouraged Bao Chunjian to generalize the product, which truly put Xiaoe on the right track.

Due to optimism about Xiaoe, in October 2016, Hangzhou Datou Investment Management Co., Ltd., in which Wu Xiaobo holds shares, completed a 6 million yuan Pre-A round investment.

In 2017, Xiaoe secured 30 million yuan in Series A financing from Himalaya, with valuations once reaching 300 million yuan.

However, trends come and go quickly. Starting in 2018, the knowledge payment industry's popularity plummeted, forcing Xiaoe to seek new directions.

Bao Chunjian keenly discovered that training institutions and educational enterprise customers began using Xiaoe as a student management and online teaching tool.

He quickly seized this opportunity, entering the online education field and iterating and enriching products and services based on customer needs.

In December 2019, Xiaoe announced completion of a 100 million yuan Series B financing round strategically led by TAL Education Group. After completing this round, the company's valuation exceeded 1 billion yuan.

When the pandemic struck in 2020, demand for online education, training, and live streaming surged, leading to rapid growth in Xiaoe's user base.

In October 2020, Xiaoe announced securing hundreds of millions of yuan in Series C financing from TENCENT and officially upgraded its brand to "digital tools for knowledge products and user services."

Throughout its development, Xiaoe continuously adjusted its positioning from knowledge payment to online education, then pivoting to the digital tools track, covering increasingly diverse application scenarios.

In June 2021, Xiaoe announced completion of a $120 million Series D financing round led by IDG Capital, with participation from Qiming Venture Partners, GGV Capital, GL Ventures, and others.

By this point, Xiaoe's shareholder roster included first-tier capital firms like TENCENT, Himalaya, IDG Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and Hillhouse Capital.

Before the IPO, TENCENT holds a 16.82% stake, making it the largest external shareholder.

According to the prospectus, Xiaoe plans to use IPO proceeds primarily for enhancing R&D capabilities, strengthening sales and marketing capabilities, global expansion, and potential investment and M&A activities.

**Business and Market**

Xiaoe's core positioning is as a private domain operations solution provider, helping enterprises build e-commerce systems, manage customers, and conduct digital marketing in private domain scenarios like WeChat ecosystem, apps, and mini-programs.

Its one-stop solution is based on three core modules:

1. E-commerce Module: Helps enterprises quickly build mini-program malls, supporting product listing and order processing; 2. Digital Marketing Module: Provides interactive tools like live streaming, coupons, and lottery draws to enhance user stickiness; 3. CRM Module: Tags and grades customers for precise targeting and improved repurchase rates.

According to a report by CIC, based on 2024 revenue, Xiaoe ranks first among China's interactive private domain operations solution providers, top three among overall private domain operations solution providers, and is the fastest-growing among the top five vendors.

However, in November 2023, Xiaoe's Shenzhen subsidiary was fined 50,000 yuan by the Shenzhen Market Supervision Administration for failing to fulfill platform management obligations. Although the amount is small, it reveals that compliance and governance still need improvement.

As of June 30, 2025, the company has 1,838 key customers. Xiaoe's average annual revenue per key customer increased from 77,700 yuan in 2022 to 111,600 yuan in 2024, and further to 128,200 yuan in the first half of 2025, accounting for over 38% of company revenue.

From 2022 to 2024, the total transaction value of goods facilitated through Xiaoe was 10.118 billion yuan, 15.232 billion yuan, and 20.974 billion yuan respectively. In the first half of this year, this figure reached 10.441 billion yuan.

**Narrowing Losses**

Xiaoe states in its prospectus that the vast majority of the company's revenue comes from providing one-stop SaaS solutions.

Financial data shows that from 2022 to 2024, company revenue grew from 299 million yuan to 521 million yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 32%.

In the first half of 2025, Xiaoe recorded revenue of 306 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.3%.

Gross profit margins also improved, from 54.3% in 2022 to 74.8% in 2024, and further to 75.5% in the first half of 2025.

In terms of profitability, the company recorded a net loss of 33.999 million yuan in 2022, which narrowed to 15.083 million yuan in 2024, with losses further reducing to 5.824 million yuan in the first half of this year.

This indicates that the company's losses are continuously narrowing, moving closer to profitability targets.

Under non-IFRS measures, Xiaoe achieved an adjusted net profit of 66.31 million yuan in 2024, with an adjusted net profit margin of 12.7%.

In the first half of 2025, Xiaoe's adjusted net profit surged 78.7% year-on-year to 58.833 million yuan, with an adjusted net profit margin of 19.3%.

**"Executive Emperor" CFO**

The prospectus lists five company executives: CEO Bao Chunjian, CTO Wang Tiebo, CPO Hu Yabei, CFO Zhou Shikun, and COO Fan Xiaoxing.

Among them, founder Bao Chunjian holds 44.92% of Xiaoe's shares, making him the controlling shareholder.

Within the management team, CFO Zhou Shikun is particularly notable. He has been appointed as Xiaoe's CFO since December 2021, specifically responsible for listing matters.

Zhou Shikun, now 45 years old, has approximately 22 years of comprehensive B2B enterprise management experience and rich early-stage tech investment experience.

From January 2015 to November 2021, Zhou Shikun served as CEO of Beijing LKK Technology, responsible for strategic investment and overall management.

Notably, in May 2016, when Xiaoe was in difficulty, it received undisclosed seed round financing from Beijing LKK Investment Management Co., Ltd.

Zhou Shikun was then the legal representative of Beijing LKK Investment until April 2022, when Sun Yuze took over.

Over the past three years, his total annual compensation increased from 11.917 million yuan in 2022 to 20.216 million yuan in 2024, approximately 12 times founder Bao Chunjian's total 2024 compensation of 1.675 million yuan.

However, regarding Zhou Shikun's 2024 total compensation, 17.531 million yuan was paid in equity form, meaning approximately 86.7% of his income came from equity incentives.

In other words, the company uses "golden handcuffs" to align his interests with the listing process, ensuring the stability of the core financial operator.

This high compensation structure is not uncommon among pre-IPO technology companies, but the prominence of Zhou Shikun's compensation also reflects Xiaoe's high dependence on going public.

**Conclusion**

Xiaoe's story epitomizes a TENCENT engineer's journey from leaving to start a business, experiencing setbacks, catching industry trends, and ultimately growing into an industry leader driven by both capital and market forces.

Now, as the company stands at the threshold of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, hopes are high that this little goose that flew out from the "goose factory" can spread its wings and truly enter the broader capital market.

Whether it can fly further depends on its ability to continuously prove its value in the highly competitive SaaS arena.