Hong Kong Stock IPO: Why Top Capital is Heavily Investing in the Global ACR Unicorn Hairuo Innovation

Since 2026, the Hong Kong stock robotics sector has continued to heat up, with multiple unicorn companies emerging in the industrial and warehousing robot tracks. “High growth, high investment, not yet profitable” has almost become the typical profile of hard-tech companies entering the Hong Kong market, prompting intense scrutiny of their prospectuses. Recently, the global box-type warehouse robot leader, Haierou Innovation, which has filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, is also facing external financial review.

Contrasting with external doubts based on accounting data, a group of institutions with deep roots in the primary market—Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Wuyuan Capital, Source Code Capital, Today Capital, and Pan-Atlantic Capital—have continued to increase their investments in Haierou’s multiple funding rounds. The banking system, known for risk control, has also extended large-scale credit lines to Haierou.

These investors, who have previously invested in billion-dollar companies like ByteDance, Xiaomi, JD.com, and Meituan, may have valuation logic worth noting: what real operational quality and long-term value have they seen that are temporarily masked by accounting rules?

1. Dual Endorsement of Capital: Venture Capital and Banking Support

In the hard-tech investment circle, there is a consensus: securing VC funding indicates the company has potential; securing bank funding indicates financial stability. Haierou Innovation’s uniqueness lies in receiving both risk capital and banking support simultaneously.

Since its founding, Haierou Innovation has completed 14 funding rounds, raising over 4 billion yuan in total. Its core shareholders include top institutions like Wuyuan Capital, Source Code Capital, Sequoia China, Today Capital, and IDG, which have continued to increase their stakes. During the pre-IPO stage, international investors such as Pan-Atlantic Capital and Fong Yuan Capital were also introduced. These investors have previously participated in the growth of benchmark companies like Xiaomi, ByteDance, JD.com, Meituan, CATL, Pinduoduo, and Shein, providing a certain industry perspective.

The banking system, more sensitive to risk, has also provided credit support. As of January 5, 2026, the company had not utilized 1.9 billion yuan of bank credit lines, with less than 5% of the total drawn.

Banks value the stability and sustainability of operational funds. The prospectus shows Haierou’s cash conversion cycle is -103 days, meaning the company receives prepayments from customers before paying suppliers.

This “sales-driven production + customer prepayment” model means inventory is mainly covered by customer funds. As of January 5, 2026, customer prepayments covered 102% of inventory. In other words, for every yuan of inventory, there is 1.02 yuan of customer prepayment backing it. Additionally, the company’s cash balance is about 2.1 billion yuan, plus 1.9 billion yuan of unused bank credit, bringing liquidity reserves close to 4 billion yuan.

2. Financial Perspective: What Are Structural Factors Behind Losses and Liabilities?

External doubts about Haierou Innovation mainly focus on its accounting losses and net liabilities. The company has accumulated a net loss of 2.853 billion yuan over two years and nine months, with net liabilities reaching 3.879 billion yuan. These figures are indeed in the prospectus.

However, understanding the company’s quality requires a deeper analysis of the prospectus: how much of the losses come from core operations? how much of the liabilities pose real liquidity pressure?

Looking at profits first: after excluding non-operational accounting items, Haierou’s actual operating loss is about 1.569 billion yuan. In other words, nearly half of the 2.853 billion yuan loss is due to accounting treatments, not operational cash outflows.

Hard-tech companies generally follow a “initial investment, scale-up, and eventual profitability” development path. The warehouse robot industry mainly relies on project delivery, with new projects often involving design, on-site deployment, personnel debugging, and other additional costs, combined with ongoing R&D investments. Early losses are normal in the industry. The key is whether losses are accompanied by operational improvements. In other words, companies need to leverage larger scale effects to reduce marginal costs and achieve profitability.

The prospectus shows that in 2024, the company achieved revenue of 1.36 billion yuan, a 68.6% increase year-over-year, making it the largest ACR solution provider globally and the fastest-growing among the top three ACR companies worldwide. By the first three quarters of 2025, adjusted net loss rate was 25.4%, narrowing 60 percentage points from 85.6% at the end of 2023; during the same period, gross profit margin increased from 16.0% in 2023 to 28.9%. The trend indicates that scale expansion and gross margin improvement are occurring simultaneously.

On the liabilities side, the 3.879 billion yuan net liabilities include 3.961 billion yuan related to the IPO investor redemption rights, which are recorded as liabilities but will convert directly into equity after listing, not constituting operational debt. Excluding this redemption liability, the remaining main liabilities are 1.084 billion yuan of contract liabilities, representing customer prepayments. This “advance payment before delivery” model reflects a certain level of customer trust.

3. Capital Perspective: Underlying Logic of Sector Space and Competitive Barriers

Top-tier capital is not swayed by stories alone; it bets on growth certainty. The underlying logic of heavy capital allocation often lies in the sector’s market potential and the company’s competitive barriers.

The warehouse automation industry has undergone multiple technological shifts. Early fixed automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) were costly and inflexible; later, ground-based autonomous mobile robots (AMR) addressed material handling automation but still faced issues like labor intensity and picking accuracy with “shelf-to-person” models.

In 2017, Haierou Innovation launched its box-type warehouse robot ACR solution, capable of autonomous retrieval and transportation at the box level, achieving end-to-end automation in picking. Compared to traditional manual methods, ACR can increase warehouse space utilization by six times, shorten deployment cycles, and reduce operating costs, with picking accuracy over 99.99%. According to Zhuoshi Consulting, the global ACR market is expected to surpass 90 billion yuan by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 66% from 2024 to 2030, making it one of the fastest-growing segments in robotics. As the pioneer in the ACR track, Haierou holds over 30% market share worldwide.

Technologically, Haierou possesses full-stack capabilities covering hardware, software, algorithms, and system integration. Its R&D investment in 2023-2024 exceeds 300 million yuan annually, with the largest R&D team in the global ACR market, holding over 2,000 patents. In 2025, it launched HaiPick Climb, the world’s first large-scale commercial single-sided climbing ACR system, capable of climbing over 10 meters along shelves. In Li Ning’s Shanghai Jiading warehouse, the system was deployed in 30 days, increasing manual efficiency by 70-80%, with a daily throughput of 9,120 items.

On the customer side, the products are deployed in over 40 countries and regions, serving more than 800 clients, including nearly 70 Fortune 500 companies. Seven of the top ten global footwear and apparel brands and six of the top ten third-party logistics companies are clients. The company reports a customer repurchase rate exceeding 80%, indicating strong customer stickiness.

In overseas markets, 2024 revenue reached 518 million yuan, a 165.74% increase, accounting for 38.1% of total revenue; by the first three quarters of 2025, overseas orders accounted for over 50%, with overseas revenue up 57.1% year-over-year to 500 million yuan, approaching the full-year 2024 level. Notably, overseas gross profit margin in the first three quarters of 2025 was 43.9%, more than double the domestic market, suggesting that overseas expansion could further improve overall gross margins.

4. Challenges and Market Outlook

Based on the prospectus, Haierou Innovation faces some real challenges: increasing revenue concentration among top five clients; intensifying industry competition as warehouse robots heat up; and the need for further scale effects to realize profitability.

For top-tier capital, evaluating hard-tech companies’ investment value involves more than short-term profits or losses; it requires penetrating financial appearances to assess long-term growth potential. Sequoia, IDG, Pan-Atlantic, and other leading investors focus on Haierou’s industry position, cash flow model, profitability trajectory, and technological barriers.

Haierou’s growth trajectory exemplifies how Chinese hard-tech firms are going global—by continuous R&D investment to pioneer new tracks, solid product offerings to capture market share, and healthy business models to earn capital trust. For growth-stage hard-tech companies, phased high investments and strategic losses are common paths to securing market position. When scale effects fully develop and profit curves turn upward, the market will reprice this global ACR leader.

Those top-tier investors who have already made early bets have long secured their tickets to the future.