Gaokai jumps 240% on debut, hits $3.5B as a Changzhou unicorn IPO
What's the deal? Gaokai TechnologyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a precision fluid-control maker based in Changzhou's Wujin district, debuted on China's STAR Market with shares opening up 240%. That lifted its market capitalisation past 25 billion yuan.
The backstory: The company traces back to 2013, when Liu Jianfang, then a 38-year-old professor at Jilin University, left academia with several graduate students to commercialise piezoelectric drive technology. They registered the business in Wujin with just 2 million yuan in start-up capital.
What it makes: Gaokai started as a small dispensing and packaging shop and grew into a technology platform spanning three core lines: flow control, dispensing and packaging, and precision coating. Its markets now include semiconductor equipment, new-energy batteries, and consumer electronics.
The numbers: Revenue climbed from 165 million yuan in 2022 to 423 million yuan in 2024, a compound growth rate above 60%, with 242 million yuan booked in the first half of 2025. Net profit attributable to shareholders rose to 99.76 million yuan in 2024, up 276.6% year on year, and reached 54.42 million yuan in the first half of 2025.
Why it matters: In 2021, Gaokai developed what it calls China's first semiconductor-grade piezoelectric mass flow controller, challenging the long-held dominance of overseas suppliers HoribaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, MKSDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and BrooksDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → in domestic etching and deposition equipment. Some flow-control products are now used in batch production for 7nm-and-below logic chip front-end equipment and can support 5nm etching machines.
Who's on board: Customers include LuxshareDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, FoxconnDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, AAC TechnologiesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and GoertekDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, spanning the Apple, Huawei, and Xiaomi supply chains, plus CATL, BYD, and JinkoSolar. Backers over the years include Inovance's investment armDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Walden International, and SMIC-linked Yuanhe ChipDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Notably, Xinhui Venture CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a subsidiary of Changzhou Investment GroupDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, also invested.
The signal: Gaokai's listing underscores Jiangsu's role as China's most prolific IPO engine — the province led the country with 46 listings in 2025 and became the first to top 200 potential unicorns. It also reflects Changzhou's playbook of retaining technical founders through local funding and support, turning lab ideas into public companies over a 13-year run.
Read more: 36kr.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
