China’s action camera brand Insta 360 began mentoring Citic Securities in early June to list its A-shares, according to JRJ. As early as March 2019, Bloomberg reported that the company would launch an IPO no later than 2020.
Insta 360, owned by Arashi Vision Inc, was founded in 2015 and quickly opened up the market with low-cost, high-quality panoramic cameras. The company’s sales in overseas markets are much higher than those in China. According to official figures released by the company after D-round ‘s financing, Insta 360 have shipped more than 1m units a year, of which overseas sales account for 70 per cent. 75 per cent.
The company has previously completed five rounds of financing, and its earliest angel round investment was led by IDG. Subsequently, QimingVC, Xunlei Network, Suning and other well-known Chinese investment companies joined.
It is worth noting that setting up servers to store user data overseas is not mentioned in the company’s privacy agreement, which may violate the relevant rules of GDPR.
In addition to panoramic cameras, Insta 360 also entered the motion camera market in 2017, making it a direct competitor to GoPro and DJI. Insta One R, which launched in January 2020, innovatively combines panoramic cameras with action camera.
Unlike the general usage of Action Camera, a large customer base of Insta 360in China is real estate agents. Real estate agents in China use Insta 360 to take panoramic photos of houses for sale and rent. During the outbreak, they even used the live streaming function of the Insta 360 panoramic camera to show buyers around the house online.
In addition to the consumer market, Insta 360 also sells professional panoramic cameras for documentary and film production.
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