[IPO Outlook] Camsense, the Giant of LiDAR for Robotic Vacuums: Cheap Labor for Tech Giants?

Amid the accelerating wave of intelligent robots and embodied intelligence deployment, spatial perception has become a core capability. From robotic vacuums to lawn mowing robots, and even humanoid robots, their 'eyes' determine how far they can go and how complex tasks they can perform.

In this field, $ROBOSENSE (02498.HK)$ 、 $HESAI-W (02525.HK)$ (HSAI.US) and $SEYOND (02665.HK)$ , which focus on automotive LiDAR, are now turning their attention to the more promising incremental market of robotics, aiming to capture a share. Data shows that RoboSense’s robot business sales surpassed its automotive segment for the first time in Q1 2026, while Hesai's robot LiDAR shipments in 2025 grew by more than four times.

However, in the niche sector of robotic vacuum LiDAR, a Shenzhen-based company has quietly captured half of the global market.

Recently, Shenzhen Camsense Technology updated its prospectus on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, planning to go public on the main board. The company attempted to list on China's A-share market in December 2023 but eventually terminated the process. As the world’s largest supplier of LiDAR for robotic vacuum cleaners, the company has reached the top of its industry through a strategy of 'self-developed chips + AI algorithms + scaled delivery,' yet it remains trapped in a typical growth dilemma marked by high growth, low profit margins, and concentrated customers. It doesn’t struggle with product quality but seems stuck in a 'low-margin, high-volume' business model.

The hidden champion in the 'eyes' of robotic vacuum cleaners

According to official information, Camsense was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Shenzhen. Its core business is providing spatial perception solutions for smart devices like robotic vacuum cleaners. In simple terms, it equips robots with 'eyes'—LiDAR.

The company’s founder and executive director, Zhou Kun, graduated from Tsinghua University with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees under the tutelage of Academician Dai Qionghai of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and previously worked at Bell Labs. Co-founder and chairman Wang Jian graduated from Xi’an Jiaotong University and has over 20 years of experience in the electronics manufacturing industry. These two founders, with impressive backgrounds, have injected the company with strong technological DNA.

A turning point for Camsense came in 2018 when the company independently developed and launched its first chip, the C1 ASIC, replacing traditional industrial-grade linear image sensors with consumer-grade CMOS array sensors, significantly reducing the core cost of LiDAR. This combination of 'self-developed chips + core algorithms' enabled the company to break the industry rule that 'high precision = high cost,' becoming a key driver in the large-scale adoption of LiDAR for robotic vacuum cleaners.

According to data from CIC, Camsense held over 50% of the global market share for LiDAR in robotic vacuum cleaners by shipment volume in 2024, shipping approximately 8 million units annually. By revenue, the company accounted for 17% of the global market share for spatial perception solutions in robotic vacuum cleaners in the same year.

On the capital front, Camsense has also attracted significant attention. Since its founding, the company has completed multiple rounds of financing, raising over RMB 400 million (all amounts in RMB unless otherwise stated), with investors including prominent institutions such as OFC, Shenzhen Qianhai, and Cornerstone Capital. In 2023, Roborock (688169.SH), the global leader in robotic vacuum cleaners, quietly acquired shares in the company. After completing its Series D round in September 2025, Camsense achieved a post-money valuation of RMB 3.04 billion, with a per-share price of RMB 36.10.

However, behind the impressive data lies a more thought-provoking reality.

Why is the gross margin significantly lower than Hesai and RoboSense?

Huan Chuang Technology's revenue performance over the past three years has been remarkable: In 2023 to 2025, revenue reached 332 million yuan, 433 million yuan, and 614 million yuan respectively, with a compound annual growth rate as high as 35.9%. The company turned profitable in 2025, with a net profit of 2.201 million yuan.

However, the stark contrast between 'scale leadership' and 'thin margins' is the most scrutinized reality for this company.

From 2023 to 2025, Huan Chuang Technology’s gross margins were 21.5%, 16.3%, and 16.5% respectively, showing an overall downward trend. A cross-sectional comparison highlights the issue further. For instance, taking other companies in the LiDAR sector: Hesai's full-year gross margin in 2025 was 41.8%, while RoboSense's gross margin increased to 26.5%, with its LiDAR products in the robotics field reaching a gross margin of 39.7%. Huan Chuang Technology’s 16.5% gross margin is less than two-thirds of RoboSense’s overall level and lags behind Hesai by more than 25 percentage points.

Why does Huan Chuang Technology, which dominates the LiDAR market for robotic vacuum cleaners, have a gross margin far lower than its peers?

Reason One: It focuses on the business of 'high-volume, low-cost' accessories rather than high-barrier core components.

Hesai and RoboSense’s core battleground lies in automotive-grade ADAS LiDAR, a market defined by vehicle regulations, high reliability, and high technical barriers, where product unit prices and added value are both high. On the other hand, Huan Chuang Technology focuses on consumer-grade robotic vacuum cleaner LiDAR, which is essentially a cost-driven accessory business. The core logic of the consumer market is 'extreme cost-effectiveness,' achieving the lowest possible cost while ensuring basic performance.

Huan Chuang Technology’s technological innovations precisely serve this logic. Its pioneering 'self-developed ASIC chip + consumer-grade CIS' solution significantly reduces the core costs of LiDAR. Ironically, this cost-reduction technology, which helped the company capture over half of the global market, also became the 'original sin' behind today’s thin margins: when you can reduce costs to levels unreachable by competitors, your customers will similarly demand that you continuously push prices down to near cost levels. Especially under the backdrop of increasingly fierce price wars in the robotic vacuum cleaner industry, upstream suppliers’ profit margins are being continuously squeezed.

Reason Two: Highly concentrated customer base, resulting in weak pricing power.

This is the most easily overlooked structural risk for Huan Chuang Technology. The company's client list includes nearly all leading robotic vacuum brands, such as Xiaomi Group (01810.HK), Roborock, Dreame Technology, ECOVACS, Midea Group (000333.SZ) (00300.HK), and Huawei, making it a core supplier to the world’s top five robotic vacuum companies. In terms of revenue sources, income from the top five clients accounted for as high as 80.4% of the company’s total revenue in 2025, reflecting an extremely high customer concentration.

This also implies that the company's pricing power is prone to continuous “dilution.” According to the prospectus, the average selling price of Huan Chuang Technology’s entire product line continued to decline in 2024 and 2025. While this can be partially attributed to downward industry costs, the deeper reason lies in its constrained client structure. Facing fierce competition in the downstream robotic vacuum market, leading brands are aggressively squeezing profits upstream to gain market share. As a supplier deeply tied to major clients, Huan Chuang Technology has little bargaining power in this game and can only passively accept price cuts, resulting in sustained pressure on gross margins.

This is precisely the origin of the criticism labeling Huan Chuang Technology as “cheap labor for tech giants.” Despite having self-developed chips and algorithms, the company essentially provides low-cost standardized components to downstream manufacturers, with most of the profits taken by downstream brands, leaving itself with only meager processing fees.

Huan Chuang Technology is not oblivious to these issues. The company is expanding into new application scenarios such as lawn mowing robots, pool cleaning robots, and even humanoid robots, attempting to transfer its core spatial perception capabilities to higher value-added fields. Products in these emerging markets have larger pricing flexibility and higher technological barriers; if successful, this pivot could improve the company’s gross margin structure.

Summary

There is no denying that Huan Chuang Technology is an undisputed leader in the LiDAR segment for robotic vacuums, driving down costs through technological innovation and facilitating the widespread adoption of the entire industry, showcasing the strength of Chinese enterprises in consumer-grade sensors.

Looking ahead, the key to determining its future value will be how the company reduces its reliance on the single robotic vacuum market, increases the proportion of high-margin products, strengthens its position in the supply chain, and sheds the label of being a “cheap component supplier.” Without transitioning from a “scale-driven” model to one based on “technology premium,” even securing the top spot in global shipment volume would still leave it as a replaceable “screw” in the supply chains of tech giants.

Author: Yuan

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