Written by | Xingxing

Source | Beiduo Commercial & Beiduo Finance

Insta360 Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. (688775.SH, hereinafter referred to as "Insta360 Innovation" or "Insta360"), a domestic intelligent imaging equipment provider, recently released its 2026 third-quarter report. The financial report shows that Insta360 Innovation's revenue in the first three quarters has already approached its full-year revenue for 2025, underscoring the continued resilience of its top line.

More noteworthy is Insta360 Innovation's long-term strength-building logic. Under external pressure from rising memory chip prices and intensifying industry competition, the company chose to trade short-term profits for R&D barriers and supply chain security. Strategic stockpiling of core components has increased in tandem, and investment intensity has kept pace with business expansion.

It is not difficult to see that the gradual release of Insta360 Innovation's scale effects and expense control results has constituted the underlying logic of profit improvement—a trajectory whose pace and intensity deserve continued tracking.

I. Revenue Expands Steadily, Performance Resilience Remains

In the first three quarters of 2026, Insta360 Innovation's revenue rose 42.73% year-on-year to 9.436 billion yuan, approaching the full-year figure of 9.741 billion yuan in 2025. Revenue in the third quarter alone reached 3.919 billion yuan, up 33.30% year-on-year, confirming the demand resilience of the panoramic and action imaging track.

On the profit side, however, Insta360 Innovation is undergoing phased adjustment. In the first three quarters, net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 47.8356 million yuan, and net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was 5.1344 million yuan, both declining compared with the same period last year; net cash flow from operating activities also recorded an outflow of 4.264 billion yuan.

Insta360 Innovation explained in its financial report that the company proactively increased strategic R&D investment and market development at the operating level, with related expenses rising accordingly; combined with external factors such as memory component price increases and intensified competition in the imaging industry, the company's gross margin in the third quarter was 33.70%, slightly decreased.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, however, Insta360 Innovation's profitability has in fact entered a repair channel. The company achieved net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 17.4282 million yuan in the third quarter of 2026, turning positive from -54.2129 million yuan in the previous quarter, and the net profit margin also rebounded to 0.4%, with single-quarter operating quality significantly improved compared with the first half of the year.

What is more noteworthy is that Insta360 Innovation's revenue quality has not been discounted due to profit pressure. In the first three quarters of 2026, cash received from sales of goods and provision of services reached 10.010 billion yuan, equivalent to 106.09% of revenue in the same period, meaning that the company's current-period collections not only covered all recognized revenue but also absorbed part of earlier receivables.

In analyzing the expense structure, a Sinolink Securities research report also pointed out that Insta360 Innovation's expense ratios for sales, management and R&D in the third quarter were 15.32%, 3.36% and 15.17%, respectively, optimized by 1.78, 0.04 and 2.64 percentage points year-on-year, with scale effects and expense control providing buffer space for it to withstand external market shocks.

In other words, Insta360 Innovation's current profit more reflects the pace of strategic investment, and its operating fundamentals have not materially deteriorated. At present, the "high growth + emotional consumption" space of the intelligent imaging track remains considerable, the company's revenue quality remains solid, and its subsequent performance repair momentum deserves attention.

II. R&D and Stockpiling Advance Together, New Product Launch Speeds Up

Tianyancha shows that Insta360 Innovation was founded in 2015.

To reach broader market demand, Insta360 Innovation has continued to expand its product matrix in recent years, extending its product line from panoramic cameras and action cameras to new categories such as gimbal cameras and wireless microphones. This year it also added panoramic drones to its product portfolio, advancing from "a segment leader in panoramic cameras" to "an all-scenario intelligent imaging platform."

Behind the strategic expansion, rigid investment in R&D expenses is indispensable. In the first three quarters of 2026, Insta360 Innovation's cumulative R&D investment reached 1.675 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 54.29%, with funds focused on new product iteration and AI imaging ecosystem construction, providing solid support for new product launches and ecosystem improvement.

Focusing on the pace of new product launches, it can be seen that Insta360 Innovation's product iteration is clearly accelerating, and each new product points to a clear segmented scenario. Insta360's flagship panoramic camera X6 was released in August 2026, positioned as an ultra-flagship 8K panoramic camera, continuing to consolidate the company's technological high ground in the panoramic camera track.

In terms of gimbal cameras, Insta360 launched the flagship dual-camera gimbal camera Luna Ultra in June. With high-spec configurations such as 8K panoramic video, dual 1/1.1-inch sensors and self-developed AI automatic video generation, it captured a 23% share on Amazon in the United States in its launch month, breaking the long-term dominance of a single brand in this category; in August it released Luna Pro, an industry-first with 4K vertical shooting, further refining product segmentation.

Product reserves for emerging categories are also being actively advanced. Insta360 Innovation CEO Liu Jingkang in July released a new product teaser that "the panoramic drone will be redefined again in the next month"; the following month Insta360 officially also made clear it would release a new-generation product. Specific parameters have not yet been disclosed, but the market has already paid close attention to its new product launch.

However, Insta360 Innovation still maintains a prudent tone regarding the impact of new products on short-term performance, noting that because panoramic drones are a new category expansion, they are still in the market education period and scale effects have not yet emerged. For this reason, this business segment will find it difficult to contribute positive returns in the short term, and phased investment will put certain pressure on its overall profit.

To ensure the stability and security of the supply chain for mass production of new products, Insta360 Innovation adopted a forward-looking procurement strategy, increasing strategic reserves of core components and stockpiling for new products. As of the end of September 2026, the company's inventory scale reached 7.154 billion yuan, an increase of 145.10% from 2.919 billion yuan at the end of 2025, with stockpiling clearly intensified.

Proactively locking in core components and increasing reserves of key materials is a strategic choice by Insta360 Innovation to voluntarily bear short-term capital occupation and impairment risks in exchange for long-term cost controllability and supply stability. Its costs and benefits will gradually appear in inventory turnover and provision rhythm in the coming quarters.

III. Conclusion

Overall, Insta360 Innovation is in a strategic investment period of exchanging short-term profit flexibility for long-term technological barriers and supply chain resilience. If the company's new product volume ramp-up and demand resilience continue, prior investment will further translate into profit support; otherwise, the performance pressure brought by capital occupation and impairment will also amplify accordingly.

It can thus be seen that what Insta360 Innovation truly needs to prove now is no longer the imagination of new categories and new stories, but the sustained profitability of translating product technology and supply chain foundations into synergies of the AI imaging ecosystem. The pace and efficiency of this process are precisely the main line most worth tracking in its subsequent financial reports.