When taking notes on an iPad, your hand can rest naturally on the screen; when answering questions on a learning tablet, your handwriting is captured in real time; a quick sketch on a laptop screen instantly transforms into a neat graphic. These increasingly "natural" handwriting interactions likely rely on a smart pen.
That pen may well come from Shenzhen Qianfenyi Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Qianfenyi"). Recently, Qianfenyi submitted an application for listing on the Growth Enterprise Market to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, aiming for an IPO.
The prospectus reveals that from 2023 to 2025, Qianfenyi's revenue surged from 331 million yuan to 1.026 billion yuan, more than tripling in three years. Net profit increased from 36 million yuan to 140 million yuan. The company is a leading player in the smart pen sector, with data from market research firm QYResearch indicating that in 2024, Qianfenyi held approximately 8.5% of the global market share for capacitive styluses, second only to Apple.
However, as revenue growth slowed from 92% in 2024 to 61% in 2025, and further to only about 20% in the first quarter of 2026, coupled with consecutive reductions in procurement from major clients, the question arises: can this "little giant" in smart pens with annual revenue of 1 billion yuan successfully complete its IPO?
The $1 Billion Smart Pen Business
Qianfenyi's core business is highly focused: making pens. More precisely, making smart pens. These are active capacitive styluses that utilize pressure sensitivity, tilt angle recognition, and wireless connectivity for precise writing and drawing. The prospectus shows the company's products cover four main scenarios: business office work, design and creation, education and learning, and daily life applications, compatible with devices like tablet computers, learning tablets, laptops, and smartphones.
Breaking down the business model: Qianfenyi is a typical ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) and also operates four self-owned brands: idrawgear, metapen, Penoval, and MAXEYE. Smart pens are the absolute core, contributing an average of over 97% of revenue from 2023 to 2025. The company is expanding into smart lifestyle products, but the scale remains small.
The prospectus discloses that from 2023 to 2025, Qianfenyi's operating revenues were 331 million yuan, 636 million yuan, and 1.026 billion yuan, respectively. The year-on-year growth was a high 92% in 2024 and 61.3% in 2025. Net profits were 36 million yuan, 102 million yuan, and 140 million yuan, respectively, with growth of 178.29% in 2024, sharply dropping to 38.17% in 2025.
In the first quarter of 2026, Qianfenyi's revenue was 257 million yuan (213 million yuan in the same period of 2025), representing a year-on-year increase of only about 20.61%. Net profit was 34.38 million yuan (32.10 million yuan in the same period of 2025), with the growth rate falling to approximately 7.09%.
This is partly due to a continuous decline in the average unit price of the company's products. According to the prospectus, after rising from 76.33 yuan per unit in 2022 to 97.56 yuan per unit in 2023, the average price of Qianfenyi's smart pens began a consecutive decline: dropping to 82.76 yuan per unit in 2024 and further to 73.9 yuan per unit in the first half of 2025. The company attributes this to increased market competition and product mix adjustments leading to price reductions for some products.
From 2023 to 2025, the net cash flow from operating activities was -35.09 million yuan, -27.73 million yuan, and -1.52 million yuan, respectively, remaining negative for three consecutive years. The company explains this as due to the expansion of business scale, where growth in accounts receivable and inventory has tied up significant working capital.
Corresponding to the tight cash flow, accounts receivable have risen rapidly. The ending book balance of Qianfenyi's accounts receivable increased from 64.32 million yuan at the end of 2023 to 208 million yuan by mid-2025. As a proportion of current assets, it rose from 20.79% to 41.33%, and as a proportion of operating revenue for the period, it increased from 12.21% to 22.54%. The company cautions in the prospectus that adverse changes in clients' operational or credit conditions could impact asset quality and operating performance.
Inventory is also under pressure. Data from the prospectus shows the ending inventory balance grew from 70 million yuan at the end of 2023 to 147 million yuan by mid-2025. The company explains this is partly due to advance stockpiling to support sales growth on Amazon's online platform.
Furthermore, the company has experienced a loss of major clients. The prospectus shows that in 2025, revenue from the top five clients was 427 million yuan, accounting for 42.53% of total revenue. However, in 2025, core clients including Lenovo Group Ltd., Moleji, iFLYTEK, and Zuoyebang simultaneously reduced their procurement shares. The most typical case is iFLYTEK—in 2023, it was Qianfenyi's largest client, contributing 52.82 million yuan in sales, but by 2025 it had fallen out of the top five client list, with sales dropping to 39.46 million yuan.
Meanwhile, in 2024 and 2025, Qianfenyi's R&D expense ratios were 5.14% and 5.5%, respectively. In contrast, the average for comparable companies in the same industry was 7.94% and 8.43% for those years, respectively. The company's sales expense ratio remained around 12.45%, with commissions and promotion fees on platforms like Amazon alone costing approximately 108 million yuan in 2025.
The company explains in the prospectus that the increase in sales expenses is mainly due to higher online platform promotion fees and employee compensation. The lower R&D expense ratio compared to the industry average is attributed to differences in revenue scale and product mix among comparable companies.
Founder's Background and Shareholding History
The founder behind the company is Deng Jian, born in 1986, now 40 years old, a graduate of Central South University. In July 2010, he joined TP-Link Technologies Co., Ltd., working as a procurement engineer. During his three and a half years at TP-Link, he accumulated experience in supply chain management, technology R&D, and industry resources, laying the foundation for entrepreneurship.
In 2014, spotting the opportunity in the smart handwriting device sector, Deng Jian officially entered the market and founded Qianfenyi Intelligent. In its early stages, the company focused on ODM manufacturing of smart pens, precisely targeting the tablet and educational learning tablet accessory markets. With robust products, it quickly entered the supply chains of mainstream companies like Lenovo Group Ltd., iFLYTEK, OPPO, and vivo, with orders following one after another.
In 2015, as the capacitive stylus market grew rapidly, Qianfenyi leveraged technological innovation to launch smart pen products compatible with various smart terminals, successfully attracting top clients like Amazon, Lenovo Group Ltd., ASUS, OPPO, and vivo. Starting in 2018, Qianfenyi began building its own brands, selling globally through e-commerce platforms like Amazon.
Today, Qianfenyi has completed multiple rounds of financing, introducing investment institutions like Matrix Partners and Vision Knight Capital, with its valuation growing from 836 million yuan to 1.5 billion yuan.
Currently, Deng Jian directly holds 3.99% of the shares and indirectly controls approximately 27.96% of the shares through Qianfenyi Investment, plus about 5.79% through Qianfenyi Youwei Yihao, giving him combined control over 37.75% of the company's voting rights, making him the actual controller.
Behind this glossy capital growth story, a history of dense shareholding entrustments spanning several years and involving multiple parties has also surfaced.
In April 2014, at the company's establishment, Deng Jian did not hold shares directly. Instead, he entrusted natural person Zhan Ziyu to hold 50% of Qianfenyi's equity on his behalf, corresponding to a registered capital of 250,000 yuan.
Subsequently, the company's shareholding entrustment operations intensified. In March 2015, Deng Jian transferred part of the equity to four individuals—Zhan Ziyu, Deng Hongtao, Liu Yang, and Chen Tianping—who were registered as nominal shareholders, while the actual rights and control of the corresponding equity remained with Deng Jian. In April 2016, the company granted 5% equity to employee Zhong Hongyao as an equity incentive, and this portion was also registered using an entrustment model.
In July of the same year, investor Fu Xiangxiao invested 2 million yuan to acquire a 20% equity stake, with the reason given as "simplifying industrial and commercial registration procedures," and the shares were registered under Deng Jian's name as the entrusted holder. In 2017, external investor Mo Xiaocheng acquired a 20% stake through debt-to-equity conversion, and Gao Junguo and Tong Hua successively increased capital to obtain 10% and 1% stakes, respectively, all of which were entrusted to Deng Jian for holding. In 2019, Mo Xiaocheng and Gao Junguo increased their capital again, and the newly acquired equity was still entrusted to Deng Jian for holding.
This network, spread out from 2014, continued until 2019, spanning five years and involving external investors, internal employees, and new and old shareholders, comprising multiple arrangements.
The company's explanations mostly归结为 "simplifying industrial and commercial registration procedures." In response, regulatory authorities have inquired, requiring the company to verify whether the entry and exit mechanisms of employee持股 platforms, the accounting treatment for equity changes, and share-based payment accounting are standardized, and to delve into whether there are undisclosed hidden利益 exchanges behind the years of entrustment.
The inquiry letter shows that currently, employees hold 4.2% of the company's shares through Qianfenyi Jühe Management. Starting from July 2020, the actual controller began cleaning up the historical遗留 issues of shareholding entrustments. By August 2021, the entrustment relationships for various shareholders of Qianfenyi Limited had been解除. The company also states that all entrustment relationships have been cleared, and there are no equity disputes or conflicts.
A professor from Peking University's Financial and Securities Research Center stated that clear equity ownership is the cornerstone of an IPO. Concentrated "one-size-fits-all清理 of entrustments" before listing is essentially a compliance patch for the上市 process.
While historical equity compliance issues face scrutiny, Qianfenyi's dividend operations on the eve of its IPO have also sparked market discussion.
From 2024 to 2025, the company implemented consecutive cash dividends, with cumulative dividends over the two years reaching 40 million yuan. The actual controller Deng Jian, holding a high proportion of voting rights, became the biggest beneficiary of these dividends.
After pocketing the substantial dividends, Qianfenyi turned to the capital market to launch a fundraising plan. This冲刺 for the Growth Enterprise Market aims to raise 993 million yuan. Apart from directing funds towards product capacity expansion and R&D upgrades, 250 million yuan is earmarked directly for补充流动资金.
A single smart pen supports 1 billion yuan in revenue. But as revenue growth slides from 92% to 20%, operating cash flow remains negative for three consecutive years, and major clients successively reduce procurement... The capital market will eventually strip away the sector光环 and value this smart pen leader based on its most真实的 fundamentals.
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