HyT Capital Captures AIoT Opportunity to Back Smart Retail Leader Hanshow Technology, Which Lands on ChiNext with Top-3 Global Market Share
Hua Capital's Third Successful IPO in Eight Months
On March 11, China's A-share market welcomed its first listed company focused on digital store solutions. Hanshow Technology successfully debuted on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's ChiNext market, with its share price opening 187.93% higher on the first day, giving it a market value exceeding RMB 30 billion.
As a leader in IoT-powered smart retail, Hanshow Technology is built around IoT wireless communication technology. Its self-developed HiLPC protocol has reached a world-leading level. The company's core product, electronic shelf labels (ESL), has ranked among the global top three in market share for three consecutive years. In 2024, Hanshow's annual revenue reached RMB 4.486 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 41% between 2021 and 2024.
Hanshow's successful listing not only marks a leap in global competitiveness for China's AIoT smart retail sector, but also demonstrates how the company is leading the industry's evolution — from standalone hardware upgrades to a full-scenario intelligent IoT platform — through its "hardware + software + data" ecosystem, thereby accelerating both the pace of global retail intelligence and the penetration rate of smart retail solutions.
Hua Capital has strategically positioned itself at multiple turning points in Hanshow's growth. After leading its Series B round in 2017, Hua Capital made additional investments in two subsequent rounds, accompanying and witnessing the rise of yet another leader in a niche sector. Hanshow's IPO also marks Hua Capital's third successful listing case within eight months.
(Photo / From left to right: Sun Yelin, Founding Partner of Hua Capital; Hou Shiguo, Chairman and General Manager of Hanshow Technology; Yang Huajun, Founding Partner of Hua Capital; Wang Chongru, Executive Director of Hua Capital)
Technology-Driven + Global Expansion
Hanshow's Core Growth Engine
As a global leading provider of intelligent IoT hardware and industry digital solutions, Hanshow Technology has built a strong technological moat. Its self-developed HiLPC protocol supports high-density concurrent communication. A single store can carry hundreds of cellular network base station devices, each base station supports up to 100,000 terminal connections, and can update 60,000 electronic shelf label units per hour. Power consumption is reduced by 60% compared to traditional solutions, and its concurrency capacity has reached an advanced industry level.
Hanshow's product line covers more than 40 ESL series, including Nebular and Lumina, as well as smart shopping carts, AI digital humans, and more. These products support AIoT functions such as dynamic pricing, intelligent ad placement, and personalized recommendations, significantly improving retail store operational efficiency.
Hanshow has accumulated 265 technology assets, of which invention patents account for 35%, covering hardware design, embedded systems, and cloud computing architecture. The company has also led the development of the national standard "General Specification for Retail Electronic Shelf Label Systems," creating a differentiated competitive path against international giant SES-Imagotag.
As a leading AIoT company going global, Hanshow now serves more than 50 countries and regions and over 400 clients, including international retail giants such as Walmart, Carrefour, Metro, TESCO, and Lotte Mart, covering core markets including Europe, the US, and Asia-Pacific. In 2024, the company added new branches in Poland and Spain, accelerating its global expansion, with overseas revenue accounting for over 90% of total revenue.
The company operates a dual-track customer acquisition model consisting of "strategic client account teams + regional distributors." It has established partnerships with 18% of the world's top 100 retailers and has reached 60% of China's top 100 retailers.
Between 2021 and 2023, Hanshow's revenue jumped from RMB 1.613 billion to RMB 3.775 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate of 52.99%. Its recurring net profit compound annual growth rate reached 584.23%, demonstrating strong growth momentum. Its core product, electronic shelf labels (ESL), holds a 28% global market share and a 62% domestic market share. Of the funds raised through its IPO, approximately RMB 540 million are planned to be invested in the industrialization project for digital store solutions, which will further strengthen its global supply chain control and market penetration.
Capturing Technological Breakthroughs and the First Move in Going Global
Hua Capital Positions Itself Across Multiple Turning Points
Around 2017, with the maturation of technologies such as low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN) and cloud computing, the industry entered a period of large-scale smart retail implementation and early ecosystem development. As an early domestic IoT retail hardware supplier, Hanshow Technology had already completed its technological exploration and initial application at that time, and began iterating toward breakthroughs while targeting overseas markets. In 2017, the company established a European subsidiary in France, followed by a German subsidiary, forming a go-global strategy that shifted from "Made in China" to "Global Service." Hua Capital saw the potential in Hanshow's "global expansion + localization" dual-track strategy driven by the industry cycle. Judging from the high labor costs in the European market (where, for example, electronic shelf label penetration in France had already reached 30%), Hua Capital determined that overseas expansion was the ideal scenario for Hanshow's product implementation, which would help the company reach a critical commercialization turning point. Accordingly, Hua Capital made its first investment in Hanshow Technology in 2017.
Between 2020 and 2021, Hanshow's overseas business revenue share rapidly climbed to 76%, and the company established deep partnerships with international retail giants such as Aldi and Carrefour. On the product front, it continuously iterated and launched the Nebular series, the world's first ESL product with ultra-long battery life. Equipped with self-developed SiP chips and flexible batteries, supporting full-scenario coverage including both refrigerated and room-temperature environments, it greatly reduced supermarket operating and maintenance costs while also significantly boosting Hanshow's sales revenue and gross profit margin. At the same time, Hanshow innovatively built the All-Star IoT digital solution platform under a "hardware + software + data" framework, with these combined elements forming a strong commercial and technological moat.
Throughout the advancement of its overall strategy, the founder of Hanshow Technology demonstrated strong traits oriented toward end-state vision and goal orientation. By building talent and organizational resources, he rapidly drove the breakthrough of commercialization processes, essentially completing a closed loop across technology, product, and organizational capabilities, enabling the company's industry competitiveness to continuously rise. Hua Capital judged that Hanshow was entering a phase of strong growth, and made two additional investments around 2021, once again locking in a turning point toward large-scale breakout. In Hua Capital's view, Hanshow is a model of commercialization among tech startups, possessing the ability to efficiently transform cutting-edge technologies into products and services, and to precisely target markets to achieve large-scale commercialization. This has been one of the core reasons supporting Hanshow's steady strengthening of its global moat and securing its leadership position in the industry.
Industry Penetration and AIoT Innovation Spiral Up
Rebuilding an Intelligent Growth Network
According to eMarketer data, the global physical retail market is projected to reach $25.81 trillion in 2025. However, the penetration rate of digital stores in global retail was only 0.004% in 2020. Demand for electronic shelf labels has since grown rapidly. As of February 2025, global ESL market penetration has reached 15%, indicating a steady upward trend in smart retail. With a 62% domestic market share and a 28% global share, along with a highly competitive portfolio of smart store hardware, software, and services, Hanshow Technology is well-positioned to further expand its advantage amid industry consolidation.
Following its IPO, Hanshow also plans to invest 24.7% of its raised funds into an AIoT R&D center and an IT construction project. With the rapid development of the AI wave, AI and IoT are undergoing significant convergence. Hybrid 5G cellular / non-terrestrial networks (NTN) will promote ultra-large-scale connectivity, and the IoT market will benefit from broader connectivity and hardware options.
Hanshow has long been making strategic arrangements in AIoT. At a major global retail exhibition in January 2025, Hanshow unveiled an AI digital human — the "Hanshow Retail Expert Avatar" — built in collaboration with Microsoft, featuring a solid data foundation and superior natural language understanding capabilities. It also showcased smart shopping carts integrated with precise in-store navigation, diverse personalized recommendations, and an intelligent AI assistant, as well as an iPad + Mac Studio smart shopping cart solution co-developed with Apple that incorporates Apple's Edge AI technology. Additionally, leveraging Microsoft Azure OpenAI (AOAI) large model capabilities, Hanshow has developed innovative AI application solutions for both retail B-end and C-end customers. It has officially become the first independent software vendor (ISV) partner in Microsoft China to receive the "Certified Software Designation for Retail AI."
Hanshow's advanced technical strength and innovation capabilities in AI solutions for the industry, coupled with the ongoing integration of AI and IoT, will fully unleash the potential of AI technology, enabling continuous innovation and iteration of a multi-dimensional growth network that spans hardware manufacturing, data services, and smart scenarios.
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