Lixiang Innovation Submits Prospectus to HKEX

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Another company from the Wang Laichun family is set to go public.

On July 31, precision optics company Lixiang Innovation officially submitted its prospectus to the HKEX, aiming to list on the Hong Kong main board, with CITIC Securities and CICC as joint sponsors.

Source: Lixiang Innovation Prospectus

Founded in 2018, Lixiang Innovation has completed multiple rounds of financing in just eight years, attracting over 50 shareholders, with its latest valuation reaching approximately 22.5 billion yuan.

What draws even more attention is the 'Apple Supply Chain Queen' behind Lixiang Innovation. The chairman of Lixiang Innovation is Wang Laichun, who is also the founder of Luxshare Precision. According to the 2025 Hurun China Rich List, Wang Laichun ranks 55th with a wealth of 85.5 billion yuan, making her the richest woman in Chaoshan. Her younger brother, Wang Laixi, is the founder and executive director of Lixiang Innovation.

Just over 20 days ago, Luxshare Precision went public on the HKEX. With one ringing the bell and the other submitting the prospectus, the Wang Laichun family may soon welcome two listed companies.

The Sibling Duo from the Apple Supply Chain Builds a Billion-Dollar Optical Giant

Founded in 2018, Lixiang Innovation has rapidly grown under Wang Laichun's leadership.

Wang Laichun, the 'Apple Supply Chain Queen,' serves as the chairman of Lixiang Innovation; her brother, Wang Laixi, is the founder and executive director. The duo brings manufacturing and supply chain experience, with one driving the new platform's entrepreneurial progress, forming the family foundation of Lixiang Innovation.

Lixiang Innovation is a provider of precision optical solutions, focusing on global consumer electronics, automotive electronics, smart office applications, as well as other emerging fields like intelligent robots, XR smart terminals, and smart glasses. It offers mid-to-high-end optical modules and system integration products. This marks another bet by the Wang family on the upstream supply chain of consumer electronics, beyond Luxshare Precision's main business.

In just a few years, Lixiang Innovation has become a company with annual revenues in the tens of billions of yuan. From 2023 to 2025, its revenue grew from 15.248 billion yuan to 34.755 billion yuan; net profit increased from 588 million yuan to 1.69 billion yuan.

In the first five months of 2026, the company's revenue reached 13.624 billion yuan, a 14.7% year-on-year increase; net profit was 776 million yuan, a 48.5% year-on-year increase.

Source: Lixiang Innovation Prospectus

According to Frost & Sullivan, based on 2025 revenue, Lixiang Innovation ranks second globally and first among Chinese manufacturers in the consumer electronics camera module sector; second globally and first in China in the mid-to-high-end smartphone camera module sector; and first globally in the laptop and tablet camera module sector.

Lixiang Innovation's rapid growth is also supported by external capital and family platforms.

In 2022, the company completed Series A, A+, and A2 financing rounds, raising approximately 3.24 billion yuan in total. In the Series A round, the controlling shareholder, Lixiang Limited, subscribed for 1.6 billion yuan; subsequently, institutions like IDG Capital, Sequoia China, Legend Capital, CPE Source Peak, Harvest Capital, Hillhouse, and others joined the shareholder list.

That same year, Guangzhou state-owned assets also entered the scene. In August, Development Zone Chuangjing, Kaide Tongjing, and Suikai Zhijing jointly invested 214 million yuan to complete the Series A+ round; two months later, in the Series A2 round, investors included CITIC Securities Investment, CICC funds, Qingdao Tiefar, Forebright Sparkle, and multiple Guangzhou industrial funds. By March 2023, China Mobile's Zhongyi Fund invested 500 million yuan in the Series A2+ round.

In June 2024, Lixiang Innovation completed a 1.5 billion yuan Series B financing. Participants included Wuxi Guoshou, Goldstone Manufacturing, Goldstone Hanjing, Cornerstone Capital, Zhongyi Investment, Forebright Sparkle, CITIC Securities Investment, and others. Based on the Series B cost per share, the company's valuation reached approximately 22.5 billion yuan.

In terms of financing sequence, Lixiang Innovation's early funding came from family-controlled platforms, followed by market-oriented institutions like IDG Capital and Sequoia China. Guangzhou state-owned assets, industrial funds, and financial institutions joined in subsequent rounds.

While the external capital lineup continues to expand, the Wang Laichun family maintains control through the equity structure.

According to the prospectus, Lixiang Limited holds 48.06% of Lixiang Innovation's equity; Lixiang Limited is 56.34% owned by Wang Laixi, with the remaining 43.66% held by Jingshan Limited; behind Jingshan Limited are the three siblings Wang Laichun, Wang Laisheng, and Wang Laijiao.

'Snake Swallows Elephant' M&A Secures Market Share

Under Wang Laichun's strategic layout (layout), Lixiang Innovation rapidly expanded capacity, acquired core technologies, and smoothly entered the supply chains of leading clients through multiple precise industrial mergers and acquisitions.

Compared to building production lines from scratch, waiting for certifications, and accumulating clients, acquiring mature businesses is significantly faster. Luxshare Precision also relied on M&A to continuously enhance its product and supply chain capabilities when entering new businesses in its early years.

In 2018, the newly established Lixiang Innovation made waves in the industry with a 'snake swallows elephant' acquisition. It purchased Lite-On Technology's camera module division for $360 million, entering the consumer electronics camera module market.

Through this acquisition, Lixiang Innovation instantly gained mature production lines, international client resources, and key technology patents, swiftly completing the critical leap from 0 to 1.

If acquiring Lite-On was about leveraging external forces, Lixiang Innovation's subsequent growth path clearly replicated the 'Luxshare Precision-style' approach.

In 2021, Lixiang Innovation completed the acquisition of Cowell Electronics, a supplier of Apple's front-facing cameras. The prospectus disclosed that after the transaction, the company strategically entered Client A's camera module business. Given Cowell Electronics' past client relationships, the market widely believes Client A refers to Apple Inc.

In 2022, the company integrated Lite-On Group's imaging division, extending its business to smart office applications like printers and scanners. In 2025, it completed the acquisition of related equity in Konica Minolta's Shanghai factory, gaining mass production capabilities for high-end optical lenses and automotive lenses.

This series of capital operations enabled it to build a complete optical product matrix covering consumer electronics, automotive electronics, smart offices, XR, robots, and other emerging sectors.

From smartphone cameras to office optics, then to automotive lenses and emerging terminals, Lixiang Innovation's business scope continues to widen. The Wang Laichun family clearly aims to create more than just a single consumer electronics module supplier but a more comprehensive precision optics platform.

In 2025, Lixiang Innovation and Zhiyuan Robotics jointly established Guangzhou Lizhi Sensing. Zhiyuan Robotics' partner Yao Maoqing revealed that Wang Laichun hopes to quickly introduce humanoid robots into 3C assembly processes, with significant demand.

Relying on consecutive mergers and acquisitions, Lixiang Innovation rapidly established a precision optics business system covering multiple fields. However, the birth and growth of this billion-dollar optical enterprise are not merely the result of capital operations but a family industrial extension led by Wang Laichun and executed by Wang Laixi.

From Factory Worker to Chaoshan's Richest Woman

Lixiang Innovation's prospectus submission first drew outside attention not just for its optical business but also for the Wang Laichun family behind it.

Wang Laichun is the founder of Luxshare Precision. According to the 2025 Hurun China Rich List, she ranks 55th with a wealth of 85.5 billion yuan, making her the richest woman in Chaoshan. Under her leadership, Luxshare Precision started with connectors, entered the Apple supply chain, grew into a manufacturing giant with a market cap of hundreds of billions of yuan, and went public on the HKEX this July.

However, over three decades ago, this now-glamorous 'Apple Supply Chain Queen' was just an ordinary worker.

In 1988, at 21, Wang Laichun moved from Shantou to Shenzhen to work on a Foxconn assembly line. Over the next decade, she rose from an ordinary worker to a management position.

In 2004, she and her brother Wang Laisheng founded Luxshare Precision. In 2011, Luxshare Precision acquired Kunshan Liantao Electronics, entering the Apple supply chain and securing MacBook cable orders.

Subsequently, Luxshare Precision's M&A expansion began: acquiring a stake in acoustics in 2016 to secure AirPods orders; becoming the primary AirPods assembler in 2017; acquiring Jiangsu Wistron in 2020 to become the first iPhone assembler in mainland China; Luxshare Precision went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2010, later growing into a manufacturing giant with a market cap of hundreds of billions of yuan.

Compared to her sister, Wang Laixi has been much more low-key. From 2004 to 2018, he served as the general affairs manager at Luxshare Precision, primarily responsible for administrative management and government relations coordination. Before founding Lixiang Innovation, he had already experienced the entire process of company entrepreneurship, listing, and entering core supply chains within the Luxshare Precision system.

In 2018, Wang Laixi stepped from behind the scenes to the forefront, founding Lixiang Innovation. While Wang Laixi pushed the new company forward, Wang Laichun and the entire family provided strategic, resource, and industrial experience support. The family's well-established supply chain logic, manufacturing experience, and capital integration capabilities became crucial backgrounds for Lixiang Innovation's rapid expansion.

In just eight years since its founding, the company has achieved annual revenues exceeding 34.7 billion yuan. Such rapid growth relies on the family's mature manufacturing and supply chain systems.

Lixiang Innovation's HKEX sprint ( sprint means ' sprint 上市' or 'push for listing') is not just the listing process of an optical module company but a key step in the Wang family's industrial layout (layout). While leveraging Wang family resources for rapid growth is a shortcut, risks like client concentration, progress in scaling emerging businesses, and pressure from goodwill and receivables from large M&A deals are challenges Lixiang Innovation must continuously address.

In the future, whether Lixiang Innovation can reduce its reliance on a single consumer electronics client, transform family industrial resources into its own irreplaceable optical technology barriers, and convert the scale advantages gained through M&A into long-term stable profitability will be the criteria for capital markets to evaluate this 'Luxshare-affiliated' company.

References:

'Chaoshan's Richest Woman is Ringing the Bell Again,' Investment Interface;

'Lixiang Innovation Submits Prospectus to HKEX, Nearly 70% of Revenue Relies on a Single Client,' Shenzhen Economic Daily;

'Behind the 'Strongest Brother-Supporting Sister': How 'Apple Supply Chain Queen' Wang Laichun Replicates an IPO | Deep Dive,' Tencent News Deep Dive;

'Revenue Doubles in Three Years! This Optical Company Pushes for HKEX Listing Again,' OFweek Optical;

''Lixiang Innovation' Submits Prospectus to HKEX for the Second Time, the World's Second-Largest Camera Module Leader Pushes for HKEX Listing!' Live Report;

'Annual Revenue of 28 Billion, the 'Strongest Factory Worker' from Foxconn is Going Public Again,' Cyzone;

''Luxshare-affiliated' IPO Adds Another Player, Backed by Sequoia and Hillhouse! Valuation Reaches 22.5 Billion Yuan!' Securities Market Weekly Market Account.

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