Is the “first consumer-grade 3D printing stock” coming to the Hong Kong market?

The consumer-grade 3D printing industry is about to usher in an important capital event.

On May 8, according to market sources, Shenzhen Creality Technology Co., Ltd. has passed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange hearing and is expected to be listed within May. The company plans to launch PDIE on May 12, with CICC as the sole sponsor. If successfully listed, Creality will become the first listed company on the Hong Kong stock market with consumer-grade 3D printing as its core business.

This company, founded by four "post-85s" in Shenzhen in 2014, has grown in ten years into a key player in the global consumer-grade 3D printing track.

However, the financial data disclosed in the prospectus also reveals multiple challenges behind the company’s rapid revenue growth: persistent declines in profitability, core product shipments being surpassed by competitors, and a shift in operating cash flow from positive to negative.

Currently, consumer-grade 3D printing is in a critical window period, transitioning from "geek toys" to "mass consumer goods," and this track is about to welcome concentrated scrutiny by capital.

The Story of Creality’s Strongest Rival

Creality’s entrepreneurial story bears a distinct Shenzhen imprint.

In 2014, Chen Chun, Ao Danjun, Liu Huilin, and Tang Jingke, four young people, pooled together 300,000 yuan to start in a 20-square-meter office in Longhua, Shenzhen, targeting the virtually blank consumer-grade 3D printing market at the time.

The company entered the overseas C-end with a price strategy. In 2016, the CR-10, priced at $500, broke the pattern of European and American prices in the thousands of dollars, with monthly sales once exceeding 20,000 units.

On the capital side, Creality completed a round A financing of 508 million yuan in 2021, with a post-investment valuation of about 4 billion yuan. Investors include Qianhai Fund of Funds, Shenzhen Capital Group, Tencent Investment, and other institutions.

In July 2025, the company was recognized by Great Wall Strategic Consulting as an emerging unicorn, with a valuation of $1 billion. Before the IPO, Qianhai Fund of Funds was the largest institutional investor holding 5.81%, Shenzhen Capital and Tencent holding 4.32% and 2.16%, respectively.

From the business map, Creality has developed from a single 3D printer manufacturer to a multi-category consumer-grade 3D creative product provider, covering 3D printers, 3D scanners, laser engravers, consumables, and accessories, as well as operating the "Creality Cloud" online community and the overseas e-commerce platform Nexbie.

According to data from China Insights Consultancy, counting the cumulative shipments of consumer-grade 3D printers from 2020 to 2024, Creality ranked first globally with 27.9% market share. In 2024 alone, its consumer-grade 3D scanner market share was 37.7%, ranking first globally, and its consumer-grade laser engraver market share ranked third globally.

In terms of revenue, the prospectus data is impressive. From 2023 to 2025, the company’s main business income increased from 1.883 billion yuan to 3.127 billion yuan, rising over 66%, with an annual compound growth rate of nearly 30%. Gross profit margin remained relatively stable, at 31.8%, 30.9%, and 31.2% over three years.

However, alongside high revenue growth, profitability indicators are flashing warning signals.

From 2023 to 2025, the company’s net profit was 129 million yuan, 88.66 million yuan, and -182 million yuan, respectively, with a book loss in 2025. Even after factoring out about 240 million yuan in non-operational factors such as issuing shares to investors and dividend payments, adjusted net profit still decreased from 130 million yuan to 92 million yuan, dropping for three consecutive years.

Behind the pressure on profitability, the ballooning expenses cannot be ignored.

From 2023 to 2025, the company’s marketing expenditure soared from 301 million yuan to 570 million yuan, with its share of revenue rising from 16% to 18.2%. Rapid expansion of online channels certainly drove revenue growth, but customer acquisition costs increased simultaneously.

Even more noteworthy signals come from cash flow and operational efficiency.

In 2025, Creality’s net operating cash flow was -63.98 million yuan, a clear deterioration compared to 161 million yuan in 2023 and 173 million yuan in 2024. Current liabilities increased from 764 million yuan to 1.223 billion yuan, up about 60%.

Inventories and accounts receivable increased year-on-year by 44.7% and 50.2%, respectively, and inventory turnover days extended from 81.4 days to 98.3 days. The synchronous deterioration of these indicators reflects the pressure on working capital management during rapid expansion.

The evolution of the competitive landscape is also worth warning about.

By annual shipments, Creality’s 3D printer sales dropped from about 870,000 units in 2023 to about 720,000 units in 2024, a decrease of about 17.2%. Meanwhile, its competitor, Bambu Lab, founded just six years ago, reached about 1.2 million units shipped, surpassing Creality. By gross merchandise value, in 2024, Bambu Lab took the lead in the global consumer-grade 3D printing market with a 35.5% share, followed by Creality at 11.2%.

However, for this unicorn with a valuation of $1 billion after four rounds of financing, listing has never been the endpoint. The real test is whether it can avoid becoming a "hardware paver" that only attracts eyeballs but doesn't make money in the stage where it should be harvesting market dividends.

The Rise Logic of Consumer-grade 3D Printing

The explosive growth in the consumer-grade 3D printing market in recent years has clear technical and economic logic.

According to the China Additive Manufacturing Industry Alliance data, the Chinese 3D printing industry market size is expected to reach 70 billion yuan in 2025, up about 30% year-on-year.

In the consumer-grade segment, the China Business Industry Research Institute report states that the global consumer-grade 3D printing market size by GMV will reach $4.9 billion in 2025, and is expected to grow to $6.3 billion in 2026.

The first driving force behind the market’s rise is the systematic lowering of technical barriers.

Around 2009, the core patents for Fused Deposition Modeling technology expired one after another, ushering in the open-source movement. Open-source projects like RepRap enabled full disclosure of 3D printer design blueprints, and equipment prices dropped from tens of thousands of dollars to thousands of yuan.

The supply chain in the Greater Bay Area centered on Shenzhen further broke through the price bottom line, with Chinese manufacturers sharply cutting costs by substituting standard parts for customized parts and through mass production.

However, low price alone is not enough to open the mass market. Early consumer-grade 3D printer users needed to assemble by themselves, manually level, operations were complex and the failure rate high, mainly serving niche groups such as makers and engineering enthusiasts.

The real transformation happened after 2022, when brands led by Bambu Lab introduced product innovations like high-speed multi-color printing, automatic leveling, and "out of the box" usability, greatly lowering user barriers. These improvements turned 3D printers from hands-on "tool kits" into home appliance-like consumer goods, driving category awareness among the masses.

The second key driving factor is the rapid expansion of application scenarios, especially the emergence of micro-production models like "print farms" in trendy toys and figures.

On Xiaohongshu platform, the topic "3D printing" reached 1.64 billion views in 2025, up 119% year-on-year. On JD.com, transaction volume for 3D printers in 2025 grew over 120% year-on-year, maintaining consecutive doubling growth for two years, with a marked increase in household users and continued explosive demand for parent-child education and light entrepreneurship.

Overseas, Bambu Lab’s MakerWorld community has more than 300,000 active creators and nearly 2 million quality models, growing at about 100,000 per month.

Outside consumer scenarios, horizontal expansion of the industry chain into fields like consumer electronics is also broadening market boundaries.

BLT forecasts revenue in 2025 at about 1.863 billion yuan, up about 40.5% year-on-year, with net profit attributable to shareholders up about 101%. The consumer electronics field saw significant product volume. Farsoon also disclosed plans to lay out processing services in civilian consumer goods fields such as 3C.

Currently, Chinese companies occupy an absolute dominant position in the global consumer-grade 3D printing market.

CONTEXT data shows that in Q1 2025, global entry-level 3D printer shipments exceeded 1 million units, up 15% year-on-year, with Chinese suppliers contributing about 95% share.

The industry landscape is highly concentrated, with four Shenzhen companies—Bambu Lab, Creality, Anycubic, and Flashforge—holding 90% of the global entry-level 3D printer market, collectively known as Shenzhen’s "Four Little Dragons." By full-year data in 2025, Bambu Lab’s entry-level 3D printer market share was about 37%, with Creality closely following.

Capital enthusiasm for this track heated up at the end of 2025.

According to Wind data, since 2025, there have been 72 investment and financing events in the global primary market for 3D printing, with 52 companies receiving investment. DJI invested billions in Flashforge; Meituan invested in Kuaizao Technology; Hillhouse Capital co-led the B round of Kuaizao Technology. Anker Innovations, Dreame Technology, and AtomRemake have also entered the field. This intense capital influx reflects optimism about the industry's prospects but also means competition is escalating rapidly.

Looking ahead, competition in consumer-grade 3D printing is moving from pure hardware specs to full-ecosystem competition—“hardware + software + content + services”. The industry generally believes that the spread of AI modeling technology and further lowering of operational thresholds will be key drivers for the next phase of growth.

However, the industry also faces unavoidable challenges. Device idling is common, reflecting low user retention. How to foster lasting stickiness among consumers remains a shared challenge. Intellectual property issues, such as the dispute between Bambu and Pop Mart, are also creating legal risks for model-community-based ecosystems.

Furthermore, US tariff policies pose potential pressure for Chinese firms with a high proportion of exports—Creality’s income from the Chinese market dropped from 49.9% in 2022 to 24.6% in Q1 2025, while North America and Europe together account for nearly 60%. Uncertainty in the international geo-economic trade environment will be a long-term variable all overseas 3D printing companiess must face.

Facing a track still in the rapid growth stage but with a far from stable competitive landscape, Creality’s Hong Kong IPO is a capital action racing against time.

When Bambu Lab rapidly grows with product strength and ecological closed loop, and new forces like Flashforge and Kuaizao Technology accelerate their pursuit with support from large firms, whether this established leader can consolidate its position and reshape growth momentum with the help of capital markets will be one of the most closely watched stories in the consumer-grade 3D printing industry in the coming period.

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