Action camera firm Insta360 goes big in massive China IPO
From dorm room to largest STAR listing this year in just a decade
Welcome back,
I clearly remember using Insta360’s unique ‘action cameras’ for the first time. I was in China for a TechCrunch event in Shenzhen in 2017 and, as part of the trip, we met local hardware firms including one with a very distinctive camera that it claimed would rival GoPro and even drone companies. We took some cool pics, used their editing software and chatted to the young founder and his American head of marketing.
Fast forward to today, and Insta360 just went public. Its valuation nearly touched $10 billion. And that founder is worth nearly $3 billion… and he is still young. Insta360 raised $270 million in the STAR Market’s largest listing this year—and it has a very interesting and global future ahead.
Elsewhere this week, we look at the battle for crucial rare earth exports, why Huawei is playing down its AI chip progress and how China’s under-the-radar smartphone giant is now moving into EVs in Africa. All that and the rest of the news including Tencent’s rumoured $15 billion deal, Meesho’s huge IPO plans and how Airwallex lived on after rejecting a billion-dollar Stripe acquisition offer.
Have a great week,
Jon
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News in Focus
Insta360 founder becomes a billionaire as shares rocket after IPO
Insta360, a Chinese firm that makes action cameras that compete with GoPro and drones, lit up China’s STAR Market as its share price nearly-quadrupled after listing last week.
The Shenzhen-based company raised around $270 million from the float, which was the largest IPO on STAR this year, but the market pushed its valuation to nearly $10 billion as shares soared from an initial 47.27 CNY to peak at 178.93 CNY.
There’s a lot happening around the business, which was founded by Nanjing University students a decade ago, which makes predicting its future challenging.
On the positive side, Insta360 has done an incredible job marketing and selling its products outside of China. It was one of the first hardware companies from China to really look like a global brand—and it has offices in North America, Europe and Asia. The company generated over $750 million in sales last year but less than 25% come from China, with the US and Europe each accounting for under 25%. That’s a strong base to kick on from.
On the challenges, though, the Trump administration has gone after rival DJI, and it would seem like only a matter of time before Insta360 is added to the list. Notably, beyond hardware it also offers editing software which again would fit into Washington’s push around safeguarding US user data.
There’s also a question mark around an alleged patent infringement claim that DJI filed against Insta360 to the U.S. International Trade Commission last year. There’s been no further update.
Still, the IPO shows the success hardware firms can find—and it put 33-year-old founder Liu Jingkang on the media radar as his net worth jumped to $2.7 billion, according to Forbes.
Huawei plays down chip progress as Nvidia excludes China from financials
China’s push for self-sufficiency on chipsets is a major talking point most weeks here, but there’s a long way to go for it to rival US firms like Nvidia.
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, of all people, made that clear when he struck a modest tone in a rare interview. He told state-run outlet People’s Daily that Huawei’s Ascend AI chip still trails US rivals by a generation. Even the output that Huawei does produce will be limited. A senior Trump official forecast the Chinese giant would produce 200,000 units in 2025, almost all of which would be for domestic use.
That means Chinese firms must get creative to stay in the race. A Wall Street Journal article revealed that many Chinese AI developers are physically moving to countries like Malaysia, where they can access US chips to build models before bringing the completed ones back to China.
As for those who remain in China, they can expect delays if they can even get their hands on local alternatives. Using local China-made chips instead of Nvidia will delay development of AI technology by around 3 months, according to iFlytek—but the Chinese firm is still prepared to make the sacrifice for long-term benefits.
Meanwhile, Nvidia will exclude the Chinese market from its revenue and profit forecasts following the imposition of tough US restrictions on chip sales to China, CEO Jensen Huang said. He claimed Huawei is well-positioned to cover domestic needs if the US maintains its chip ban on China. His rival backed his stance on US chip action, as Arm CEO Rene Haas said export controls on China will slow technological advances, hurt consumers and companies, and make the market smaller.
Rare earth exports join the US-China political chess
China is tightening control over rare earth exports, which are essential for EVs, electronics, auto and more. It will grant only six-month licenses to US automakers and manufacturers as part of a broader trade negotiation. In return, the US has eased some restrictions on high-tech exports like jet engine parts. But Western firms warn that China is demanding sensitive business data, raising concerns over IP risks and forced tech transfer.
The sector is dominated by China, which controls 60% of global rare earth production and 90% of refining. The April export curbs, a response to US tariffs, are already disrupting global supply chains, including in India, which was the fifth-largest importer of Chinese rare earth alloys last year.
India is now acting to secure its own resources, reportedly suspending a long-standing export deal with Japan and directing state-run IREL to prioritize local supply. These developments mark a new era of tech impacted by US-Sino geopolitical tension.
Transsion expands its African smartphone empire into EVs
Chinese hardware firm Transsion dominates Africa’s smartphone handset market with an estimated 50% market share—now it is rapidly expanding its focus on a new area: roads.
Rest Of World reports it is now among Africa’s top three EV firms based on sales. It first launched ebikes in Uganda, and has since expanded to Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. The focus isn’t just consumer sales, though, Transsion goes after government contracts and private fleet partnerships to move the needle.
“The Shenzhen-based company has bet on its distribution muscle to dominate the continent’s EV sector, riding on its understanding of African consumer preferences, combined with its manufacturing scale and distribution networks,” ROW writes.
The big questions are whether it can successfully jump between two very different products, and how it tackles the challenge of charging infrastructure across the continent.
China
Tencent is being linked with a $15B deal to acquire Nexon, the Korean gaming giant—although Chinese language media reports have poured cold water on the initial Bloomberg report link
With 1/5 new cars now including autonomous driving features, China’s regulator has paused and will reassess safety and liability concerns link
China’s top AI chatbot disabled image recognition features during the national college entrance exams to prevent cheating link
Foreign buyers are facing steep price hikes for Chinese drone parts as Beijing tightens export controls amid its trade war with the US link
VC fund Eight Roads plans to exit its Chinese tech investments, potentially offloading stakes in around 40 startups—the fund has invested over $1B in more than 130 Chinese startups to date link
Tencent Music will acquire podcasting startup Ximalaya for $1.3B in cash and stock—the acquisition was strongly speculated in April after years of rumours, you can read more on the detailed context here link
Digital platforms in China now account for 20% of the global ad market, according to WPP Media link
The US embassy in Panama said it will replace Huawei telecom towers with American technology as part of a $8M project funded by the US link
Alibaba engineers worked through the Lunar New Year to catch up after DeepSeek’s powerful, low-cost AI model exposed how far behind they had fallen, according to chairman Joe Tsai link
China's antitrust regulator is delaying approval of Synopsys’s $35B takeover of Ansys, following new US chip export restrictions link
Beijing released draft rules on exporting auto data, potentially clearing a path for Tesla to expand its advanced driver-assistance features in the country link
Huawei has shipped over 103M smartphones and 21M tablets running its HarmonyOS, with nearly half delivered in 2024, according to Canalys link
India
E-commerce platform Meesho plans to confidentially file for a Mumbai IPO in the coming weeks, targeting a $700M-$800M raise link
Reliance is among the potential investors speaking to OpenAI about joining its $40B round that will be led by SoftBank link
Apple’s increased focus on producing devices in India is aimed at reducing its reliance on China, and that came in handy when the US ramped up import tariffs on China—data shows that 97% of iPhones produced in India between March and May went to the US. That’s a huge jump on the 50% average from last year, and it accounted for over $3B in devices over that three month period, according to a Reuters report link
Shein and Reliance Retail plan to scale up their Indian supplier base from 150 to 1,000 within a year and begin exporting India-made Shein products within 12 months, according to a report from Reuters link
Byju's sold two of its US assets for significantly less than their acquisition costs link
Coding platform Tynker was acquired by CodeHS for $2.2M—Byju's paid $200M in 2021
Kids learning platform Epic was sold to China's TAL Education Group for $95M—Byju's acquired it for $500M in 2022
Wealthtech platform PowerUp Money raised $7.1M in its first institutional round link
First Google, now Meta has lost its public policy head for India link
Southeast Asia
Bloomberg profiled Jack Zhang, the Chinese-born founder of global banking and payment platform Airwallex, which rejected a $1.2B acquisition offer from Stripe 7 years ago—the now Singapore-based startup is worth $6.2B after raising more than $1B from investors that include DST Global, Visa, PIF and more link
Atome, Southeast Asia’s largest BNPL provider, secured a $75M asset-backed loan to expand credit access in the Philippines link
Thai power firm B.Grimm Power and Digital Edge DC will invest $1B in a 100MW data center in Chon Buri, set to launch in late 2026—the project is aimed at meeting the rising demand for cloud and AI in Southeast Asia, and the company is exploring more than $1.6B in additional launches link
Sleek, which helps companies set up and run corporate businesses in Asia, closed a $23M Series B link
5 men plead guilty to laundering nearly $37M that was stolen through Cambodian cyber scam centers link
Qualcomm launched AI R&D centre in Vietnam that will be focused on advancing generative and agentic AI products across multiple devices link
A global law enforcement crackdown on info-stealing malware led to 32 arrests and the takedown of over 20,000 malicious IPs and domains, mostly in Vietnam and other parts of Asia link
Seven Asian law enforcement agencies coordinated a crackdown on scam centers, arresting over 1,800 people link
South Korea
South Korea’s new President, Lee Jae-myung, is moving quickly to deliver on his campaign pledge to allow local companies to issue stablecoins link
Samsung and Nvidia are investing in Skild AI to support their consumer robotics efforts, with Samsung putting in $10M and Nvidia $25M, Bloomberg reports link
Hong Kong
Hong Kong has used national security laws to ban a video game for the first time, targeting the Taiwanese-made Reversed Front: Bonfire for allegedly promoting armed revolution link
Meta sued Hong Kong-based Joy Timeline for allegedly promoting AI-powered “nudify” apps on its platforms link
Taiwan
Taiwan blacklisted Huawei, SMIC and their subsidiaries as it tightens restrictions on China’s AI chip ambitions link
TSMC opened its first overseas joint research lab with the University of Tokyo, underscoring its commitment to Japan amid US pressure for more domestic chip investment link