Qiming Venture Partners' Ted Ye: Insta360's Decade of Dedication Unlocks Huge Potential for 'Imaging + AI'
Qiming Venture Partners firmly believes that hard tech is the true driver of industrial transformation, and places great trust in young entrepreneurs.
Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company Insta360 (影石创新科技股份有限公司) officially listed on the STAR Market on June 11, 2025, under the ticker symbol "688775."
Founded in 2015, Insta360 is committed to becoming a "world-class intelligent imaging company," revolutionizing the global market through panoramic imaging technology under the "Insta360" brand.
According to Frost & Sullivan data, in the panoramic camera sector, the "Insta360" brand held a 67.2% global market share in 2023, ranking first; in the action camera sector, the "Insta360" brand ranked second in the global market in 2023.
Since its founding, Insta360 has received investments from prominent institutions including Qiming Venture Partners, and introduced five strategic investors in this IPO.
Notably, Qiming Venture Partners led Insta360's Series B round as early as the beginning of 2015 and continued to invest in its Series C round. Prior to the IPO, Qiming Venture Partners held a 9.4% stake in Insta360, making it one of the largest institutional investors. Qiming Venture Partners partner Alex Ye also serves on Insta360's board of directors.
Duane Kuang (left), Founding Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners; JK (center), Founder and Chairman of Insta360; and Alex Ye (right), Partner at Qiming Venture Partners
On Insta360's successful STAR Market listing, Alex Ye commented: "When Qiming Venture Partners decided to invest in JK and Insta360 in early 2015, we focused on two key dimensions. On one hand, JK's exceptional original product thinking and technical capabilities; on the other, our firm belief that the 360-degree smart camera space held enormous market potential. Today, Insta360 has grown into a global leader in its niche. We believe the company has vast room for imagination at the intersection of imaging and AI technology, particularly in 3D imaging, spatial computing, and intelligent AI-generated imagery. A decade ago, Qiming Venture Partners firmly believed that hard tech was the true driver of industrial transformation, while also placing deep trust in young entrepreneurs. Today, Qiming Venture Partners will continue to focus on and actively deploy in the hard tech space, with particular emphasis on entrepreneurial teams with original spirit, technical depth, and global vision. We also pay special attention to areas that haven't yet reached broad consensus but have the potential for disruptive breakthroughs."
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Qiming Venture Partners Accompanied Insta360 for 10 Years
Witnessing JK's Continuous Self-Improvement and Leap Forward
Alex Ye recalled that when Qiming Venture Partners decided to invest in Insta360, the firm focused on two main dimensions — JK's (editor's note: Founder and Chairman of Insta360) exceptional original product thinking and technical capabilities, and Qiming's firm conviction that the 360-degree smart camera field held massive market potential.
"At the time, JK was only 24 years old and still an undergraduate at Nanjing University, but he already had entrepreneurial experience and was somewhat well-known on campus. When he first met with us, he brought a simple prototype made from 3D-printed parts and GoPros, along with stitching software he had developed himself. Although the video quality was still relatively primitive, it fully demonstrated his creativity and unique insight into user needs. This precise grasp of future product trends, combined with his ability to define original products, solidified our confidence in him," Alex Ye added.
Alex Ye revealed that JK is extremely hardworking, rigorous, and persistent.
"JK sets extremely high standards for himself, often working late into the night, and is equally demanding of his team. Through years of effort, he has gradually evolved from a hands-on product manager who managed every detail, into a mature leader capable of steering complex product lines and managing a global brand. His pursuit of product quality and user experience is relentless; every product launch undergoes rigorous refinement and repeated validation. I believe that with Insta360's successful IPO, he will continue to achieve even greater self-improvement and leap forward."
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Insta360 Has Built Competitive Moats on Three Levels
The Convergence of Imaging and AI Technology Holds Immense Potential
Qiming Venture Partners believes that Insta360 has become a leading global intelligent imaging company primarily due to three key strategies:
First, user experience above all: Insta360 always puts users at the center, committed to simplifying complex technology so that users can easily capture professional-grade footage without any learning curve.
Second, differentiated competitive strategy: Facing industry giants, Insta360 proactively identifies personalized demand scenarios, delves deeply into niche markets, and focuses on needs that giants have not yet entered or fully satisfied.
Third, global layout and high-margin strategy: From its inception, Insta360 positioned itself for the global market, avoiding domestic price competition. By maintaining high margins, it ensures ample R&D funding to continuously innovate products and form a virtuous cycle of sustainable development.
Currently, Insta360 has established significant competitive moats on three levels: For one, its products feature high reliability. After all, 360-degree cameras are widely used in extreme environments such as flying, diving, mountaineering, and racing, which places extremely high demands on product stability and quality. Additionally, Insta360 has developed mature video scene templates and AI auto-editing technology, achieving precise and efficient image processing capabilities built on years of accumulated user video data. Furthermore, through years of accumulation, Insta360 has successfully built a strong international brand image and a global sales and service network, forming a solid market position.
Speaking of expectations for Insta360 after its listing, Alex Ye stated: "Qiming Venture Partners has high hopes for Insta360's future. We believe the company has vast room for imagination at the intersection of imaging and AI technology, particularly in 3D imaging, spatial computing, and intelligent AI-generated imagery. We look forward to the company further realizing its vision of giving everyone a 'personal AI photographer,' more deeply freeing users' hands, and creating even more new usage scenarios."
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Consecutive "First Shares" in Multiple Hard Tech Sectors
Qiming Venture Partners Firmly Believes Hard Tech Is the True Driver of Industrial Transformation
Notably, in less than two and a half years, Qiming Venture Partners has successively celebrated IPOs of several hard tech companies: "the world's first humanoid robot stock" UBTECH (09880.HK), "the world's first general autonomous driving stock" WeRide (NASDAQ: WRD), and "the A-share first intelligent imaging stock" Insta360. Qiming Venture Partners was either the earliest institutional investor in these companies or has accompanied them for over 10 years.
Alex Ye believes that the key to Qiming Venture Partners' ability to accompany companies for so long and achieve success lies in its long-standing philosophy of "co-founding, co-learning, and co-growing."
"We are not merely investors; we see ourselves as part of the company, sharing its fortunes and facing challenges together," Alex Ye said. "For example, during our decade with Insta360, we went through industry ups and downs, technological shifts, and market challenges together, growing alongside the team and accumulating invaluable experience."
From another perspective, when Qiming Venture Partners invested in these hard tech companies around 2014 and 2015, the internet, O2O, and gaming sectors were actually at their hottest. This stemmed from Qiming Venture Partners' long-term, unwavering strategic conviction — the firm firmly believes that hard tech is what truly drives industrial transformation, while also placing deep trust in young entrepreneurs. "Management and the investment committee give investment teams ample autonomy and support, encouraging them to deeply discover and long-term accompany promising hard tech companies."
Of course, compared to 2014 and 2015, tech entrepreneurship today is more challenging and more "hardcore." To succeed, entrepreneurs need to maintain an open mindset, continuously learn, bravely face changes, and actively embrace challenges and risks. This resilience and flexibility are essential conditions for entrepreneurial success in the current environment.
"Today, Qiming Venture Partners will continue to focus on and actively deploy in the hard tech space, with particular emphasis on entrepreneurial teams with original spirit, technical depth, and global vision. We also pay special attention to areas that haven't yet reached broad consensus but have the potential for disruptive breakthroughs, just as we did with our previous successful investments in UBTECH, WeRide, and Insta360," Alex Ye stated. "Looking ahead, we believe the AI field will harbor the greatest opportunities, and we look forward to capturing and investing in the next generation of exceptional companies in this space."
Source | IPO Zaozhidao
Previous Highlights
Qiming Venture Partners was founded in 2006. The firm currently manages 11 USD funds and 7 RMB funds, with total assets under management reaching $9.5 billion. Since its inception, Qiming Venture Partners has focused on investing in outstanding early and growth-stage companies in the Technology and Consumer (T&C) and Healthcare sectors.
To date, Qiming Venture Partners has invested in over 580 high-growth innovative companies, of which more than 210 have listed on the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or exited through M&A and other means. Over 80 portfolio companies have become recognized unicorns or super-unicorns in their industries.
Many of Qiming Venture Partners' portfolio companies have grown into the most influential companies in their respective fields, including Xiaomi (01810.HK), Meituan (03690.HK), Bilibili (NASDAQ: BILI, 09626.HK), Zhihu (NYSE: ZH, 02390.HK), Roborock (688169.SH), UBTECH (09880.HK), WeRide (NASDAQ: WRD), Insta360 (688775.SH), Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals (603087.SH), Tigermed (300347.SZ, 03347.HK), Zai Lab (NASDAQ: ZLAB, 09688.HK), CanSino Biologics (688185.SH, 06185.HK), Schrödinger (NASDAQ: SDGR), MicroPort EP MedTech (688617.SH), Sanyou Medical (688085.SH), Amoy Diagnostics (300685.SZ), Berry Genomics (000710.SZ), SinoCellTech (688520.SH), Yuanxin Technology, Insilico Medicine, MediLink Therapeutics, LaNova Medicines, Zhipu AI, StepFun, Biren Technology, and others.