First day opened 93% higher! SF Express launched an IPO and made 1.4 billion yuan.

Overseas Returnee PhD Starts Business, Zhong Wangwei Xinba.

Text | Zhitong IPO ID: zhitongIPO

Author | Sun Yuan

Just now, Hong Kong stocks’ “First in Comprehensive Intelligent On-site Logistics Robots” was born.

On March 24, Zhejiang Kaile Shi Technology Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as Kaile Shi) successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with an issue price of HKD 16.66, an opening price of HKD 32 per share, a 93% surge at the open, then the stock price rose to a high of HKD 34.98 per share before falling back. As of 10:43 AM, the stock was trading at HKD 30.22 per share, with a market capitalization of HKD 12.931 billion (about 11.4 billion RMB).

Source: Baidu Stock Market Pass

As a comprehensive intelligent on-site logistics robot company, Kaile Shi is committed to reshaping supply chain operations through cutting-edge embodied intelligent robot technology.

For over a decade, the company has been dedicated to innovation in on-site logistics automation. Its robot product portfolio features core functions such as access, sorting, and handling, covering the entire scope of on-site logistics operations.

Focusing on the three key on-site logistics segments—access, sorting, and handling—Kaile Shi has built an intelligent product matrix centered around multi-directional shuttle robots (MSR), autonomous mobile robots (AMR), and conveyor sorting robots (CSR).

Based on 2024 revenue, Kaile Shi ranks fifth among China’s top five comprehensive intelligent on-site logistics robot companies, with a market share of 1.6%.

Behind this successful IPO, the influence of SF Express is not to be underestimated.

Kaile Shi’s story dates back to 2014, founded by Tsinghua University and MIT graduate Gu Chunguang and his wife Yang Yan. That same year, they launched their first-generation four-way container MSR.

At that time, China’s logistics industry was on the brink of “machine replacement.” Wang Wei of SF Express was also contemplating how to improve warehouse space utilization through technology, making Kaile Shi’s emergence timely.

According to Gu Chunguang, when first engaging with SF Express, they faced warehouse pressure. Kaile Shi’s intelligent warehousing solution—“warehouse utilization can be increased to 70%, labor costs reduced by 40%”—successfully impressed them and led to project cooperation.

Since then, SF Express’s role in Kaile Shi has grown increasingly important.

SF Express invested through SF Technology and Suzhou Huidao M&A Investment Fund, injecting capital.

In December 2017, Suzhou Huidao acquired a registered capital of 1,900,678 RMB from Yueda Taihe for 4.6 million RMB. In October 2018, SF Technology subscribed for 2,851,017.15 RMB of registered capital for 12 million RMB.

Alongside investment, SF Express also became a core customer of Kaile Shi, providing a “ticket” into key logistics scenarios.

Gu Chunguang previously stated that SF Express’s complex warehousing scenarios—from large items to small, from e-commerce bestsellers to pharmaceutical cold chain—have allowed their technology to continuously iterate and upgrade.

The prospectus shows that Kaile Shi provides comprehensive intelligent logistics robot solutions to SF Express. In 2022 and 2023, SF Group was among Kaile Shi’s top five customers, accounting for 12.2% and 13.3% of revenue respectively. After 2024, SF Express exited Kaile Shi’s top five customers.

With the dual backing of SF Express, Kaile Shi has entered a rapid growth phase.

In the primary market, Kaile Shi has raised over 1.1 billion RMB across E and subsequent rounds, with investors including Yangtze River Pharmaceutical, Jiuzhoutong, China Merchants Capital, Huagai Capital, Industrial Bank, and CICC Capital.

In 2022, 2023, 2024, and the first three quarters of 2025, Kaile Shi’s revenue was 657 million RMB, 551 million RMB, 721 million RMB, and 552 million RMB respectively.

Among these, sales of robot systems—including single-function robots and multi-function systems—are the main revenue source, accounting for as much as 95.7%, 98%, 97.4%, and 98.1% respectively.

Source: Kaile Shi IPO Prospectus

Post-IPO, Gu Chunguang directly holds 5.3%, with SF Group as the largest institutional shareholder, holding 7.73% through SF Technology and 5.15% via Suzhou Huidao.

Based on an opening market cap of HKD 13.7 billion (about 12.05 billion RMB), SF Group’s stake is worth HKD 1.765 billion (about 1.55 billion RMB). Considering their investment of 166 million RMB, this represents a return of approximately 1.384 billion RMB.

However, it is worth noting that Kaile Shi still faces challenges.

To date, the company has not yet turned a profit.

In 2022, 2023, 2024, and the first three quarters of 2025, it recorded operating losses of about 123 million RMB, 131 million RMB, 55 million RMB, and 35 million RMB; net losses were 210 million RMB, 242 million RMB, 178 million RMB, and 135 million RMB, totaling nearly 764 million RMB in losses.

Meanwhile, Kaile Shi’s gross profit margin is also not very optimistic.

During the reporting periods, gross profits were 103 million RMB, 91.67 million RMB, 114 million RMB, and 90 million RMB, with gross margins of 15.7%, 16.6%, 15.7%, and 16.6%.

The multi-functional integrated system business, which is the main revenue pillar, accounted for 79.0% of revenue in 2024 but faced continuous margin pressure, declining from 13.7% in 2022 to 10.8% in 2024, and 12.1% in the first nine months of 2025.

Compared to domestic peers, leading AMR companies like Geek+ had a gross margin of 34.75% in 2024, and Stander Robotics had 38.8%. Kaile Shi’s gross margin remains relatively low.

This means that even with the halo of SF Express after IPO, Kaile Shi still has tough battles ahead.

(First image source: Tuchong)