Written by Pencil News | Dream of the Sea

During the 2025 Spring Festival Gala, a mesmerizing performance by humanoid robots captivated the nation, making robotics the hottest topic of the year.

Behind this technological spectacle, another significant capital move unfolded quietly: Just a short distance from the Hangzhou venue of the Gala, Hikvision Robotics is poised to enter ChiNext with a fundraising plan of 6 billion yuan.

In January of this year, Hikvision Robotics completed its response to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Review Center's implementation letter, marking a crucial milestone in its IPO journey.

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In 2001, three classmates from Huazhong University of Science and Technology – Chen Zongnian, Hu Yangzhong, and Gong Hongjia – founded Hikvision in a modest office of a Hangzhou research institute, aiming to break the Japanese monopoly in the security market.

A decade later, in 2016, Hikvision spun off its well-nurtured machine vision business, giving birth to Hikvision Robotics. This venture deeply integrates the parent company's advanced visual algorithms, IoT technology, and mobile robotics expertise accumulated in the security field.

Hangzhou Hikvision Robotics Co., Ltd. (Hikvision Robotics) specializes in smart manufacturing and intelligent logistics. Centered around machine vision and mobile robots, its product portfolio offers industry solutions through a seamless integration of hardware and software. Specifically:

1. Machine vision products encompass three key hardware directions:

2D vision products, including industrial cameras and smart code readers, facilitate high-precision image acquisition and recognition; 3D vision products, such as 3D vision guidance systems, are applied in scenarios like random grasping and palletizing/depalletizing, exemplified by automated loading and unloading in automobile manufacturing; Smart ID products, like the SC6000 series of smart cameras, enhance recognition efficiency in industrial settings through AI algorithms.

2. Mobile robot products are divided into four hardware series, catering to a wide range of logistics needs:

The Latent series (LMR) is used for shelf handling, supporting visual/laser hybrid navigation with a speed of up to 4 meters per second; The Mobile/Heavy-Duty series (CMR/HMR) is designed for production line docking, offering ±5mm positioning accuracy, ideal for handling large items in the automotive and new energy industries; The Forklift series (FMR) boasts a maximum stacking height of 5 meters and operates in extremely narrow aisles (1.5 meters); The Material Handling series (CTU), exemplified by the STU material box robot, increases storage density by over 30% and is compatible with diverse material box storage solutions.

In terms of revenue, machine vision, as a core technology, accounts for more than half of Hikvision Robotics' earnings. During the first nine months of 2022, machine vision revenue amounted to 1.703 billion yuan, representing over 60% of total revenue.

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Hikvision Robotics' extensive customer base spans multiple industries, including automotive, photovoltaic, home appliances, and 3C electronics.

In the automotive industry, NIO stands out as a key customer. In 2024, NIO introduced over 400 latent and material handling robots, covering stamping, welding, painting, assembly, and the entire battery, electric drive, and electronic control scenarios, significantly boosting production automation and efficiency.

Additionally, automakers such as Changan Automobile, Geely Automobile, FAW Group, and SAIC Motor are also long-standing partners of Hikvision Robotics.

In the fields of photovoltaics and new energy, companies like Jingsheng Machinery & Electronics, Lead Intelligent, and Tongwei Solar maintain close collaborations with Hikvision Robotics. For instance, Tongwei Solar and Hikvision Robotics have jointly created benchmark smart factories across multiple locations, deploying over 100 forklift robots in the Yancheng project to streamline the entire photovoltaic module distribution process.

As of 2024, Hikvision Robotics has served over 17,000 customers across more than 200 sub-sectors.

Financially, from 2021 to the first nine months of 2024, Hikvision Robotics' operating revenues were 2.768 billion yuan, 3.942 billion yuan, 4.963 billion yuan, and 4.214 billion yuan, respectively. During the same period, net profits attributable to shareholders of the parent company were 482 million yuan, 641 million yuan, 798 million yuan, and 417 million yuan, respectively.

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Hikvision Robotics operates within the burgeoning intelligent robotics industry, specifically in the domains of machine vision and mobile robots. Over the past five years, this industry has witnessed rapid growth accompanied by intensifying competition.

In terms of market size, according to GGII data, China's machine vision market reached 13.816 billion yuan in 2021, while the mobile robot market stood at approximately 9.6 billion yuan in 2022.

In 2023, Hikvision Robotics led the Chinese market in both machine vision and mobile robots, holding shares of 14.02% and 19.29%, respectively.

Within the machine vision segment, Hikvision Robotics leverages its parent company's extensive experience in image processing and AI algorithms, developing optical detection technology integrated with deep learning that achieves a defect recognition accuracy rate of 99.9%.

In the mobile robot sector, particularly in the AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) submarket, Hikvision Robotics maintains its top position. In 2023, the AGV equipment market totaled around 11.4 billion yuan, with Hikvision Robotics holding a market share of approximately 14.7%, more than double that of the second-place competitor.

As of May 2024, Hikvision Robotics' full range of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) had a cumulative output of 100,000 units, with over 80,000 units delivered, serving more than 2,000 customers across industries like automotive, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals.

Moreover, leveraging Hikvision's supply chain advantages, self-developed controllers and sensors have reduced hardware costs by 30% compared to foreign brands, enhancing cost-effectiveness.

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Despite its market-leading position, Hikvision Robotics faces competition from international giants like Keyence and Cognex, as well as domestic enterprises such as Geek+ and Lightintell.

Furthermore, industry price wars have compressed gross profit margins. The mobile robot business's gross profit margin declined from 42.89% in 2020 to 34.84% in 2023, with the machine vision business also experiencing a slight dip.

To mitigate the risk of slowing downstream industry growth in China, Hikvision Robotics continuously invests in R&D (accumulating R&D expenses of 1.84 billion yuan from 2020 to 2023, with an expense ratio exceeding 16%) and expands into overseas markets (establishing subsidiaries in Europe and Singapore).

The machine vision and mobile robot industries are poised for technological innovation-driven performance enhancements, expanding application scenarios, and growing market sizes.

Data indicates that the global market size for machine vision and vision-guided robots reached 18.88 billion USD in 2024 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.2% from 2024 to 2029, with the global market size anticipated to exceed 120 billion yuan in 2025.

China's machine vision market is experiencing significant growth, with a market size of 31.15 billion yuan in 2023 (another data source estimates 22.556 billion yuan) and is projected to increase to 25.184 billion yuan in 2024, with an average annual compound growth rate of 13.8%. By 2025, the market size could reach tens of billions of yuan, solidifying China's position as a global core growth pole.

The content of this article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. This article also draws on content from AI Chip World, Yuanjian Vista, Modern Logistics Material Flow, ECNS, Xiaopeng Tech World, Dashitong Intelligent Technology, Gewuzhisheng Intelligence, and others, to whom we extend our gratitude. Images are sourced from the company's official website.