Jieli Technology's Four IPO Attempts: Attempting to Pass the "Gauntlet" of Going Public Sparks Attention

Ask AI · Jieli Technology’s IPO repeatedly fails but persists; what are the key obstacles?

Revenue and net profit both “decline” in 2025.

Investor Network, Zhang Wei

On March 20, New Third Board company Jieli Technology (874500.NQ) successfully passed the listing (IPO) review for the Beijing Stock Exchange, attracting attention.

Jieli Technology is an integrated circuit design company focused on system-on-chip (SoC), primarily targeting areas such as Bluetooth audio and video, smart wearables, and smart IoT terminals, providing high-specification, high-flexibility, and high-integration chip products to the global market.

The performance report shows that Jieli Technology expects a revenue of 2.804 billion yuan and a net profit of 596 million yuan in 2025, representing year-on-year declines of 10% and 25%, respectively. The company has not yet gone public, but both revenue and net profit are declining, contrasting sharply with the rapid growth of previous years. Whether Jieli Technology can maintain high growth in the future seems to remain in question.

Four Attempts at IPO Finally Yield Results

The IPO journey of Jieli Technology can be regarded as a typical case of repeatedly striving for A-share listing despite failures.

The prospectus shows that Jieli Technology was founded in August 2010 and attempted its first IPO in 2017. For nearly nine years thereafter, Jieli Technology has successively “attempted” to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange main board (twice), Shenzhen Stock Exchange ChiNext, and the Beijing Stock Exchange, with its IPO path fraught with difficulties.

Jieli Technology’s first IPO destination was the Shanghai Stock Exchange main board. At that time, Jieli Technology had only been established for 7 years and occupied a certain market share in the mid-to-low-end market due to the cost advantage of its Bluetooth audio chips. Financial reports indicate that in 2016, Jieli Technology’s revenue reached 1.13 billion yuan, with a net profit of 120 million yuan, showing steady growth and laying the groundwork for a listing on A-shares.

However, in 2017, Zhuhai Jianrong reported Jieli Technology for allegedly infringing on commercial secrets, which may have triggered regulatory red lines. In March 2018, Jieli Technology voluntarily withdrew its listing application.

Shortly thereafter, Jieli Technology submitted a new listing application to the Shanghai Stock Exchange main board. This IPO aimed to raise 587 million yuan, nearly a 50% reduction from the first IPO, with no significant changes in the fundraising projects. Analysts believe Jieli Technology attempted to avoid previous controversies by reducing the fundraising scale and optimizing the application materials.

This time, Jieli Technology was selected for an on-site inspection. During the inspection, regulators found that it still had issues such as “using personal bank accounts for transaction receipts and failing to disclose relevant circumstances accurately” along with unresolved internal control issues exposed during the first IPO.

In January 2021, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued an administrative regulatory warning letter to Jieli Technology regarding financial irregularities from 2015 to 2016, pointing out issues such as off-balance funding cycles and inaccurate information disclosure. Under such circumstances, Jieli Technology again voluntarily withdrew its IPO application.

After two failed main board IPOs, Jieli Technology adjusted its strategy, shifting to the ChiNext board, increasing the fundraising amount to 2.5 billion yuan, over a 300% increase compared to the second IPO, while expanding fundraising projects to include smart wearables and AIoT edge computing chips, aiming to leverage the support for innovative enterprises on the ChiNext board for an IPO breakthrough.

Financial reports show that in 2021, Jieli Technology’s revenue reached 2.931 billion yuan, and its net profit was 623 million yuan, demonstrating strong growth and proving its capability for a ChiNext application.

However, after on-site supervision, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange found that “the internal control issues from the previous application have not been thoroughly resolved in this application,” with related issues including abnormal fund flows for key personnel and inadequate disclosure of some employees’ “backdoor” activities, as well as irregularities in research and development investment accounting.

Faced with inquiries from regulatory authorities, Jieli Technology was unable to provide sufficient and reasonable explanations, and in August 2022, it voluntarily withdrew its ChiNext IPO application. Subsequently, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued a regulatory work letter, requiring Jieli Technology to explain “the reason for withdrawing the application immediately after the supervision notice was issued.”

After the failure of the third IPO, Jieli Technology fell silent for two years and submitted a listing application to the Beijing Stock Exchange in December 2024, intending to raise 681 million yuan, a reduction of over 70% compared to the third IPO; at the same time, it adjusted fundraising projects to focus on the upgrade of smart wireless audio technology, smart wearable chip upgrades, and AIoT edge computing chip research and industrialization, aligning with the Beijing Stock Exchange’s goal of “serving small and medium-sized enterprises and supporting technological innovation.”

In this IPO, Jieli Technology addressed the core controversies from the first three IPO attempts, responding to three rounds of inquiries from the Beijing Stock Exchange, focusing on explaining the status of internal control rectification, litigation and settlement details with Zhuhai Jianrong, and the rationality of performance growth, among other issues. Ultimately, Jieli Technology successfully passed the review and obtained an “entry ticket” for A-shares.

Historical Entanglements and Performance “Flip”

Jieli Technology’s previous IPO attempts have an unavoidable company—Zhuhai Jianrong. Data shows that the actual controllers and core technology team of Jieli Technology all come from Zhuhai Jianrong. The main business of the company after its establishment highly overlaps with that of Zhuhai Jianrong. The suspected “digging the wall” style of entrepreneurship has led to multiple lawsuits from Zhuhai Jianrong against Jieli Technology.

Relevant documents indicate that Jieli Technology’s actual controllers Wang Yihui, Zhang Qiming, Zhang Jinhua, and Hu Xiangjun were all former senior executives of Zhuhai Jianrong. The four founded Jieli Technology after leaving Zhuhai Jianrong. Zhuhai Jianrong was established in 2004, specializing in Bluetooth audio chip design. Six years later, Jieli Technology was founded, with its business also focusing on SoC chip design for Bluetooth audio and video, smart wearables, and other fields.

According to the prospectus, as of September 2021, during the third IPO, of Jieli Technology’s 405 employees, 33 were from Zhuhai Jianrong and its affiliated parties. By the end of 2025, Jieli Technology’s core technical team still had not absorbed personnel without a Zhuhai Jianrong background. The highly overlapping personnel structure has become the main basis for Zhuhai Jianrong’s accusations against Jieli Technology for infringing its commercial secrets.

From 2012 to 2018, Zhuhai Jianrong and its related parties filed criminal reports and civil lawsuits against Jieli Technology and Wang Yihui three times on grounds of “infringement of commercial secrets” and “infringement of integrated circuit layout design proprietary rights,” with the amount in dispute escalating from 100,000 yuan to 8 million yuan, resulting in a six-year legal entanglement.

In 2021, just before Jieli Technology’s third IPO attempt, both parties reached a settlement agreement, with Jieli Technology paying 8 million yuan in settlement fees to Zhuhai Jianrong, which led to the withdrawal of all lawsuits and reports by Zhuhai Jianrong, with both parties agreeing “not to initiate lawsuits regarding previous intellectual property disputes.” Thus, the disputes between Jieli Technology and Zhuhai Jianrong finally came to an end.

However, the “turmoil” between Jieli Technology and Zhuhai Jianrong was quite significant, and the related lawsuits also drew the attention of the Beijing Stock Exchange. During the first round of review inquiries for this IPO, the Beijing Stock Exchange required Jieli Technology to clarify whether “the core technology, invention patents, integrated circuit layout designs, software copyrights, or trademarks have clear ownership and whether there are situations of infringement from other parties or violations of other parties’ commercial secrets or intellectual property.”

Jieli Technology responded that it has adhered to a path of independent innovation since its establishment, and the litigation disputes with Zhuhai Jianrong have been resolved, with no ongoing lawsuits or arbitration matters that might significantly affect its financial status, operating results, reputation, business activities, or future prospects.

Just when one wave recedes, another rises; after the historical issues of Jieli Technology were thoroughly clarified, current issues surfaced, with performance “flipping” before the upcoming listing.

Financial reports indicate that from 2022 to 2024, Jieli Technology’s revenue was 2.267 billion yuan, 2.931 billion yuan, and 3.120 billion yuan, with net profits of 336 million yuan, 623 million yuan, and 791 million yuan, respectively, showing significant year-on-year growth during this period, all positive. However, in 2025, Jieli Technology’s revenue and net profit both “declined.”

This sharply contrasts with four of the five comparable companies in the same industry, which have disclosed performance growth trends for 2025. Jieli Technology stated that it was mainly affected by uncertainties in international trade policies, fierce competition in the consumer electronics market, declining sales prices of products, and a drop in Bluetooth headset chip sales.

Some analysts believe that Jieli Technology’s performance decline is due to its single product structure, excessive reliance on the mid-to-low-end market, and a “price-for-volume” operating strategy, which has led to persistent pressure on profitability and weak risk resistance.

Currently, Bluetooth headset chips are the primary source of income for Jieli Technology, while revenues from emerging fields like smart wearable chips and smart IoT terminal chips are relatively low and have not yet formed a scale that can effectively support performance growth. The fundraising from this IPO aims to reinforce core businesses while also addressing gaps in areas such as smart wearable chips and smart IoT terminal chips. Whether the final fundraising projects can assist Jieli Technology in achieving performance growth remains to be seen.

It is worth mentioning that after this IPO was approved, the Beijing Stock Exchange also required Jieli Technology to provide a profit forecast report for 2026, explaining whether the basic assumptions, specific basis, calculation process, and results of the company’s profit forecast are prudent and reasonable. It seems that regulators still express doubts about the stability of Jieli Technology’s performance. (Produced by Siwei Finance)