Net profit of 380 million in 9 months, post-80s Shandong boss goes to Hong Kong for IPO, Alibaba-affiliated Yu Yongfu becomes major shareholder

Source: Times Finance Author: Zhou Jiabao

Image source: Visual China

Another Shandong-based company is making a push to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

On February 27, Titanium Motion Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Titanium Motion”) officially submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, aiming for a main board listing and striving to become the “First Multi-Agent Stock.”

Titanium Motion is headquartered in Guangzhou. Its founder, Li Shuhui, is a post-80s Shandong native. Currently, he serves as Chairman of the Board, Executive Director, and CEO. The prospectus shows that Li Shuhui holds a controlling stake in Titanium Motion and exercises 35.05% of the voting rights.

Li Shuhui was an early employee at UC Browser. After UC was acquired by Alibaba, Li Shuhui was responsible for overseas deployment of Alipay and AliExpress. He was among the first to engage in digital international expansion at a major tech company, but his ambitions go beyond that. In an interview, Li Shuhui repeatedly expressed patriotic sentiments, stating his goal to “represent China in the fight” and create a billion-dollar company.

In 2016, with stocks realized from UC’s acquisition by Alibaba, Li Shuhui decided to leave Alibaba to start his own business. In 2017, he co-founded Titanium Motion with co-founders Yu Zelong, Wang Jian, and Wang Heping. He initially tried various tools and product offerings but was unsuccessful.

However, Li Shuhui’s former leader and former Alibaba Big Entertainment and Local Life head Yu Yongfu gave him a boost. On Yu Yongfu’s advice, Li Shuhui shifted his focus to B2B marketing.

With the wave of Chinese companies going global, in less than ten years, Titanium Motion has developed its own multimodal large model, Titanium Extreme, and the world’s first marketing multi-agent Navos. By 2025, the company has served over 100,000 advertisers, including ByteDance, Changhong, Skechers, 361 Degrees, and Lilith, making it a rising player in AI marketing for overseas expansion.

Notably, Yu Yongfu also participated in Titanium Motion’s Series A funding in 2018. Today, Yu Yongfu remains a shareholder, holding 11.27% of the company through Redefine Capital HK.

Titanium Motion’s supporters are not limited to Yu Yongfu. From 2017 to 2022, the company completed four rounds of funding from Pre-A to B+, with investors including Hillhouse Capital, Zhongding Capital, and Yuecai Investment. In recent years, the company has not raised new funds.

The rapid growth of Titanium Motion coincides with the golden era of Chinese companies expanding abroad. According to Frost & Sullivan, the Chinese AI marketing technology market overseas is expected to reach approximately $1.1 billion in 2024, growing to $6.4 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 42.2%.

Titanium Motion’s revenue and profits have continued to grow. The prospectus shows that from 2023 to 2024, revenue increased from approximately $73 million to $102 million. In the first nine months of 2025, the company’s revenue already exceeded the full year of the previous year, reaching $130 million (about RMB 892 million). According to Frost & Sullivan, based on 2024 revenue, Titanium Motion ranks first among domestic Chinese providers of AI marketing services for overseas markets.

Additionally, the company’s net profit margin once approached 50%. From 2023 to the first nine months of 2025, gross profit margin remained above 80%. From 2023 to 2024, annual net profit increased from about $34 million to $51 million, and in the first nine months of 2025, annual net profit was approximately $56 million (about RMB 384 million). The net profit margins were 47.2% in 2023, 49.8% in 2024, and fell back to 43.0% in the first nine months of 2025.

However, behind these impressive results, Titanium Motion faces significant challenges.

The company disclosed in its prospectus that competition in the AI marketing industry is intensifying. Market participants include not only other overseas marketing service providers but also large, established tech companies and new entrants, leading to increasingly fierce price wars and customer acquisition battles due to high overlap in client resources.

On February 26, another A-share listed company, Yidian Tianxia (301171.SZ), also announced plans to issue H-shares for listing. In the first three quarters of 2025, the company’s revenue reached 2.717 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 54.94%, with net profit attributable to shareholders of about 204 million yuan, up 4.41%.

Similarly, in June last year, BlueFocus (300058.SZ), which is undergoing AI transformation and global expansion, also submitted an application for main board listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In the first three quarters of 2025, its revenue reached 51 billion yuan. Additionally, Minglue Technology (02718.HK), dubbed the “First Global Agentic AI Stock,” successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last November.

Looking ahead, for Titanium Motion to maintain its competitive edge, the iteration of its two main products, Titanium Extreme and Navos, will be crucial.

The prospectus shows that in the first nine months of 2025, R&D expenses increased by 137% year-over-year from $7 million to $16.7 million, accounting for 12.8% of revenue. Titanium Motion explained that this growth is due to expanding the R&D team, enhancing core technological capabilities, providing competitive compensation to key members, and increased costs related to training and iterating AI products.

To secure a more prominent position in the global AI marketing arena, this Hong Kong IPO is a key step in its strategic reserve. The company explicitly states in the prospectus that the funds raised will mainly be used for technological R&D, product iteration, strategic investments, and marketing efforts.