"In fact, it is not easy for anyone to have. In the darkest moments of life, don't expect to send charcoal in the snow, the only thing you can do is to stick to the end and never give up. ”
Holding the two future "black technologies" of flexible displays and flexible sensors, 4 years ago was still the focus of attention, and was sought after by many well-known investment institutions such as IDG Capital, Poly Capital, CITIC Capital, China Merchants Wealth, and Cornerstone Capital.
For a while, Royole Technology has become the most dazzling unicorn enterprise in China and is regarded as the responsibility of China's flexible electronics industry. It seems that if you hitch a ride on Royole, you will catch a boat to the future.
Today, Royole Technology has been bursting into unpaid wages again and again, and founder Liu Zihongzi has written the darkest moment in the circle of friends and never gives up. How did Royole Technology fade its aura and fall to this point?
Avoid missing out on in-depth information and reports on the sensor industry, as well as sensor technology, sensor and test technology, IoT sensor technology... and other sensor knowledge, please pay attention to the sensor expert network public number, set as a star, view the previous content.
Royole Technology email paycheck, employees take 3 months off?
At the beginning of December 2021, Royole Technology was exposed to unpaid wages, when according to media reports, a number of Royole employees said that November 30 was the day royole promised to pay employees for October, but did not wait for the reissue salary on that day.
This is the first time royole technology was exposed to the news of arrears of wages, after that, royole technology salary, year-end bonuses and other arrears, delay in the distribution of news, some employees said that "before the Spring Festival this year, that is, (about) January 17 to February 16 to resume work, the month of the holiday is also according to the Shenzhen minimum wage standard accounting salary." ”
Today, Royole Technology's salary arrears have reached a high point.
On March 29, Royole Technology employees broke the news that since September last year, he has received 5 unpaid emails in 6 months, the content of which is roughly the same: "The company's financing is advancing, the funds are about to arrive, and the salary will be paid immediately." According to its calculations, Royole Technology has owed him nearly 100,000 yuan in salary.
Because of the aura of the former technology unicorn, the news of Royole Technology's unpaid wages was on the hot search for a time, and some netizens used Jia Yueting's joke of "returning to China tomorrow", calling Royole Technology's move "email pay".
After the Qingming Festival, more employees broke the news: "On the afternoon of March 31, various departments of the company successively notified that the holiday began after the Qingming Festival, and the time was 3 months. Among them, April is paid according to full salary, May and June are calculated according to shenzhen's minimum wage standard, and the social security of these two months must also be adjusted according to the minimum base. ”
Perhaps in order to avoid being leaked by employee screenshots and affecting the operation of the enterprise, the notice did not have a written or formal email, so many employees are worried that if the company does not issue a formal notice in the official name, will the follow-up company interpret 3 months as absenteeism? Therefore, there are still many employees who come to the company to punch in and work.
And Royole Technology also hurried to dispel rumors: the company did not have a full holiday, many employees went to work normally, and the network spread that all employees were on vacation for three months.
But this rumor is so powerless under the wave of unpaid wage news, a former "tall" technology unicorn giant, holding flexible display and flexible sensors, two future hardcore black technology unicorn companies, gradually faded the aura of the past.
An internal royole employee said: "We have now passed the most angry time. "Royole Technology, also through the most glorious moment in the life of the enterprise, what is the next to meet Royole Technology?
Why is Royole Technology so sought after by capital?
"A project that I have really missed since I made an investment" and "Every time I see their good news, my heart is like a knife." The pride of being an angel investor was crushed to pieces. ”
These heart-wrenching words came from Xu Xiaoping, a well-known angel investor, who regretted missing such a technology giant.
When Royole Technology was at its most beautiful, the market valuation exceeded 50 billion yuan.
From August 2017 to November 2019, Royole Technology has successively obtained 7 rounds of financing from many well-known investment institutions such as CITIC Capital, Shenzhen Venture Capital, Hangzhou Cornerstone, poly (Hengqin) Capital and so on. In 2020, Royole Technology ranked among the top 12 in the "2020 China New Economy Unicorn 200 List" with a valuation of US$6 billion, and became the top of the "China Entrepreneur" 2020 "China Top 100 Science and Technology Innovation Enterprises List".
Obviously, these institutions and investors are optimistic about Royole Technology, and we can't help but ask, why is Royole Technology so highly sought after?
This has to introduce the two main businesses of Royole Technology: full-flexible display and full-flexible sensor.
Both of these technologies are considered to be future-oriented technologies.
According to market research institutes, by 2027, the global printed and flexible electronics market size will reach 330 billion US dollars, of which flexible displays and flexible sensors will become the main market segments.
▲Sullivan's global flexible electronics market size "Source: Royole Electronic Prospectus"
▲The development process of Sullivan's flexible electronics market "Source: Royole Electronic Prospectus"
Flexible display has become a huge consumer electronics market to seek product breakthroughs in the new technology, especially in the mobile phone market, in the past two years, there have been Samsung, Huawei, millet, OPPO and other mobile phone giants, constantly testing the folding screen mobile phone, and achieved good market results.
With the maturity of flexible display technology and the decline of terminal price products, no one will deny the broad prospects of flexible displays in the consumer electronics market.
Flexible sensors are more sci-fi than flexible display technology. After Facebook changed its name to META and entered the metaverse, the first big thing was to announce the development of "electronic skins", and the basic technology of electronic skins is flexible sensors.
Through flexible sensors, we can reproduce human tactile perception in the metacosm, which is undoubtedly an important cornerstone of the metacosm. For the introduction of flexible sensors, you can refer to the content of "If this sensor is made, it is not far from the metaverse".
Flexible sensors also play an important role in medical electronics, wearable devices, the famous athlete "flyer" Su Bingtian has written a paper, elaborating on the flexible sensor in the exercise monitoring of the great help played by athletes, Su Bingtian paper details can be viewed "Su Bingtian published the latest review paper: flexible wearable sensor motion monitoring application latest progress" content.
Royole Technology has mastered these two technologies and reached the level of global leadership.
Royole Technology was founded in 2012 by Liu Zihong, Wei Peng, Fan Junchao jointly funded 100,000 yuan, they are tsinghua university and Stanford university alumni.
In August 2014, Royole Technology released the world's thinnest color flexible display, with a thickness of only 0.01 mm and a curl radius of up to 1 mm, which is a subversive level of technology.
Royole Technology uses a different from Samsung, BOE and other manufacturers of flexible display technology, called ULT-NSSP (ultra-low temperature non-silicon integration) technology, different from Samsung and other display panel manufacturers in the traditional TFT display technology upgraded LTPS flexible display technology, ULT-NSSP using non-silicon-based materials to build, whether it is weight or thickness, and even safety to exceed Samsung LTPS technology.
According to the technology media reports:
The gap between upgrading traditional technology and new technology is also reflected in the process, because of the limitations of traditional silicon-based materials, LTPS process is inseparable from complex processes such as high-temperature dehydrogenation, ion implantation, laser crystallization, etc., and the Royole ULT-NSSP route using new non-silicon-based materials not only improves many traditional settings, but also eliminates these complex processes, while also reducing the number of exposures, which also makes the thickness and weight of the full flexible screen produced by ULT-NSSP technology significantly lower than that of LTPS technology.
In the yield rate of ULT-NSSP is also better than the traditional LTPS, due to the use of traditional silicon-based materials, LTPS technology production temperature needs more than 450 ° C, high temperature treatment is easy to make silicon-based materials defective, which is also Samsung's first generation of flexible screen products Galaxy Fold and the second generation of flexible screen products Galaxy Fold 2 The price is the biggest reason why the price is high. Due to the use of non-silicon-based materials, the production temperature of Royole ULT-NSSP technology only needs 150 °C - 250 °C, which reduces material loss and greatly improves the yield rate. The price decline in each link makes the price of Royole flexible screen more affordable, which is also one of the reasons why more than 500 international large customers, including Airbus, LV, ZTE, Gree, Toyota, China Mobile, SF and so on, have signed contracts with Royole.
Similar to flexible display technology, Royole Technology's flexible sensor technology is derived from flexible display technology, which is also a comprehensive innovative product integrating new materials, new processes and new designs, and is in a leading position in the field of flexible sensing.
According to royole technology prospectus, Royole's flexible touch sensor can be bent more than 1.8 million times, the transmittance (removing the influence of the substrate) can reach 98%, the tensile coefficient can reach 60%, and the repeated stretch life is more than 40,000 times, taking into account a good touch experience, with the ability to support larger size full-flexible displays.
Prior to the establishment of Royole's flexible display production line in 2018, flexible sensor solutions were Royole's main profit-making business.
Rather than saying that institutions and investors have taken a fancy to Royole's technology, it is better to say that they see the future behind flexible displays and flexible sensors, and these two technologies will inevitably shine in the future.
Royole Technology has not made a penny, and the loss has expanded year by year
The future is very full, the reality is very bone.
In fact, since its inception, Royole Technology has not even seriously achieved profitability, and even because of the need to invest in new technology research and development, the loss has been expanding year by year.
From the prospectus of Royole Technology's IPO on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2021, we can see that Royole Technology is a "pit".
The first pit: never achieved profit, the loss is getting bigger and bigger
According to the main financial data disclosed in the prospectus from 2017 to June 2020, the losses were 359.3128 million yuan, 802.1797 million yuan, 1073.1928 million yuan and 960.5372 million yuan, respectively, and it can be seen that the loss has increased year after year. In the first half of 2020, the company's net loss reached 960 million yuan, about 9 times the revenue of the period, and the loss in 2019 was 1.073 billion yuan, about 5 times the revenue of the current year.
▲Royole Technology's main financial data "Source: Royole Technology Prospectus"
According to the prospectus, the ratio of revenue to R&D expenditure is a manifestation of a company's scientific research investment and emphasis on technology:
As of June 30, 2020, R&D expenditure from 2017 to June 30, 2020 totaled $1,817,699,600, accounting for 351.71% of total operating income.
▲Royole Technology's main business income "Source: Royole Technology Prospectus"
It can be seen that royole technology R & D investment is far greater than revenue, up to 351.71%! Insufficient revenue, what to rely on to support research and development? What underpins this ideal?
It can only be filled by continuous investment or listing financing until the company's new technology can bring profits. This also lays the groundwork for Royole's current predicament.
Royole has failed to list twice, once for U.S. stocks and once for the Science and Technology Innovation Board:
In January 2020, it is planned to go public in the United States and raise about $1 billion in funds, until June 2020, the company's U.S. stock listing road has not yet been dynamic, at the same time, the company's market entity from "limited liability company (Sino-foreign joint venture)" to "joint-stock company", at that time, this move was also interpreted by the market to abandon the U.S. stock listing and switch to the domestic capital market.
On December 31, 2020, Royole Technology disclosed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange that the IPO prospectus of the Science and Technology Innovation Board was accepted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and it intends to raise 14.4 billion yuan. On January 28, 2021, it entered the "inquiry" state, and has not yet responded to the relevant inquiry, and chose to withdraw the listing application of the Sci-Tech Innovation Board in February 2021.
The second pit: the production line capacity has never been met
In June 2018, Shenzhen Royole International Flexible Display Base surged with people, and the world's first large-scale mass production line of fully flexible display screens with a total investment of about 11 billion yuan was successfully lit up and put into production!
This is the introduction of Royole's official website, which is also the highlight moment that belongs to Royole Technology.
However, this production line, which invested 11 billion yuan, did not bring a large number of orders to Royole. Judging from the prospectus, the production capacity of this production line is far from enough, and the production rate in the first half of 2020 is only about 5.27%, 31.19% in 2019 and 15.08% in 2018. Excluding the impact of the new crown epidemic in the first half of 2020, the highest capacity satisfaction rate of the production line is only 31%, less than half of the production rate.
▲Royole Technology design capacity and output (Source: Royole Prospectus)
▲Royole Technology flexible display mass production line put into production (source: Royole Technology official website)
Interestingly, because Liu Zihong, the founder of Royole Technology, was listed as a dishonest person and was restricted from spending, because the funds of the production line were delayed, the contractor Baoye Group appealed to the court.
The third pit: the raised funds are huge and the application is unreasonable
According to the prospectus, Royole Technology issued 120 million shares in the IPO, raising a total amount of about 14.434 billion yuan, which is relatively large, enough to enter the top three of the funds raised by the listed enterprises on the science and technology innovation board at that time.
Among them, 462 million yuan was used for flexible cutting-edge technology research and development projects, 4.939 billion yuan for flexible display base upgrade and expansion construction projects, 1.123 billion yuan for flexible technology enterprise solution development projects, 710 million yuan for new generation flexible intelligent terminal development projects, and 7.2 billion yuan for supplementary working capital.
▲Royole Technology IPO Fundraising Fund (Source: Royole Technology Prospectus)
In other words, the largest tranche of $7.2 billion – used to "pay off debts" – replenishes the previously owed liquidity.
The second largest amount of money of 4.939 billion yuan, but used to expand the production line, as we analyzed above, royole technology in 2018 put into production line production capacity is far from being satisfied! Also expanding production lines?
Who is royole technology's white horse knight?
It can be seen that Royole technology is very good, and the technical prospects are also very good, but it has come to today's pit step by step.
Today's Royole, the former flexible display and flexible sensor unicorn, has entered the "life and death line" of the capital chain is broken and the edge of bankruptcy.
In the current situation, either there are companies willing to acquire, or there are institutions willing to continue to take over and increase investment, in a short period of time, relying on royole technology's own business situation, it is really difficult to see the opportunity to turn over.
Who is royole technology's white horse knight?
White Horse No. 1: Shenzhen Zhongzhi Wei'an
On the evening of January 17, 2022, Royole Technology WeChat public account posted that on January 16, CIIC Weian signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Royole Technology. Based on the cooperation agreement, CIIC Wei'an will purchase flexible displays, flexible sensors and software and hardware integration solutions from Royole Technology in batches for the company's full line of commercial robot products, with a total procurement amount of about 3 billion yuan for three consecutive years from 2022.
It seems to be very good, SATO is that white horse knight?
CIIC Wei'an is currently in the B round financing stage, the company's registered capital is 10 million yuan, that is to say, CIIC Wei'an is currently only in the start-up financing stage, similar to Royole Technology, and there is no too stable and sustained revenue.
According to royole's internal employees, "At least I, as an employee, have not seen a particularly substantial advance. It was later learned that this strategic agreement has no practical constraints on both sides. Does this consumer-grade robot really need a more expensive flexible screen? ”
Hakuba II: Outside shareholder
According to the Economic Observer, royole technology content circulated information that external shareholders had raised 300 million yuan to save royole technology.
However, this fund entry has a premise, that is, to require Royole Technology to reduce its valuation, from a valuation of more than 50 billion yuan to 10 billion yuan, so that the new funds can account for 3% of the equity of Royole Technology, but without the consent of Liu Zihong, so there is no following.
White Horse No. 3: Shenzhen Shenzhen Venture Capital
The third White Horse Rider is a deep venture capital with a background in the Shenzhen Municipal Government, which is also the funds that Royole Technology's internal employees believe are most likely to save Royole Technology.
According to the news of royole technology internal employees, in order to reinvest royole technology, the Shenzhen municipal government has spent tens of millions of yuan to hire three institutions to conduct due diligence on royole technology, but this news cannot be confirmed.
By viewing royole technology's past financing information, we can see that Shenzhen Venture Capital, as the earliest venture capital institution, entered Royole Technology from the beginning of the A round, and followed the next B and C rounds.
▲Royole Technology Financing Information (Source: Tianyancha)
At the same time, Royole Technology is also a project that Shenzhen values more, and even some shareholders will call Royole Technology together with Guangqi Technology and BGI Gene as "Shenzhen's Three Major Deceptions".
In recent years, the smart sensor industry has received attention from many local governments, and many policies have been introduced for this purpose. The Shenzhen Municipal Government is also preparing to vigorously develop the sensor industry, and has introduced policies with clear responsible departments, clear support policies and great strength. Related policies, it is recommended to check the "Blockbuster Policy! Shenzhen Municipality's Several Measures to Accelerate the Development of the Intelligent Sensor Industry (Draft for Comments)
Royole Technology has two trump cards in its hands, flexible display and flexible sensor, which are first-class in the industry in technology, but the mass production capacity and market capabilities need to be improved. Maybe Shenzhen Venture Capital will be the biggest white horse?
epilogue
Royole Technology tells us that only first-class technology is not enough, but also needs to sink to specific products, specific markets, and winning customer recognition is the king.
In addition to Royole Technology, the excellent enterprises that do flexible sensors in China also include Titanium Deep Technology, Nengdas, etc., which have made a wealth of flexible sensor products based on practical applications, and the future can be expected!
Can Royole Technology still turn the tables?
The content of the star = the content you care about, according to the principle of WeChat public account recommendation, without the sensor expert network public account home page [set as a star], will not be able to get the latest information of the sensor industry in time!
Disclaimer: The content of this article is the personal opinion of the author and does not represent the views or positions of the Sensor Expert Network. For more views, please leave a comment.