Author | Chen Junda, Editor | Xinyuan
Xindongxi reported on November 5 that according to the CSRC website, yesterday, Jiangsu Changzhou-based VCSEL laser chip company Vertilite filed for tutoring registration with the Jiangsu Securities Regulatory Bureau, initiating its A-share IPO process. The tutoring institution is Guotai Haitong Securities.
Vertilite was established in November 2015 by a team of returnee PhDs from Stanford and MIT. It is the earliest domestic enterprise engaged in R&D of VCSEL laser chips for 3D sensing applications. The company's founder and chairman, Zhao Li, was born in 1988. He obtained his bachelor's degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and later pursued a PhD in Materials Science at Stanford University in the United States, studying under US National Academy of Engineering member Professor James Harris and US National Academy of Sciences member Professor Yi Cui. He developed the world's first long-wavelength VCSEL laser capable of continuous emission at room temperature.
Vertilite's main business involves the R&D, manufacturing, and sales of Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) chips, devices, and modules, extending to optical communication chips and RF epitaxial wafers. According to the filing documents, Vertilite has no single controlling shareholder in the traditional sense. Six concerted actors, including Zhao Li and Huo Yijie, control a total of 30.2775% of the company's equity through direct holdings and control of employee stock ownership platforms, serving as the actual controllers. The company's registered capital is approximately CNY 378 million.
The company's primary product, VCSEL, is a semiconductor laser that emits light vertically from the chip surface. With low cost and ease of array integration, it serves as the core light source device for smartphone 3D face recognition and LiDAR. In an official blog post, the company disclosed that as of October 2025, its cumulative chip shipments exceeded 600 million units. Data from corporate information platform Qichacha shows that since its inception, Vertilite has completed multiple rounds of financing. Its shareholder list includes several core enterprises across the upstream and downstream of China's LiDAR industry chain, such as Huawei Hubble, BYD, Hesai Technology, RoboSense, and DJI.
In addition, industrial capital such as Ant Group and Dongyangguang, along with significant state-owned funds including the China Development Bank Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund and the Qianhai Equity Investment Fund, are also shareholders of Vertilite. Regarding business layout, Vertilite initially focused on the consumer electronics market, producing VCSEL chips for smartphone 3D face recognition. In a 2023 interview with MEMS Consulting, Vertilite co-founder and General Manager Chen Xiaochi revealed that the company's market share in areas such as Android phone Face ID exceeded 80%. Automotive-grade chips represent another core business for Vertilite. In 2020 and 2021, the company successively obtained AEC-Q102 automotive qualification certification and IATF 16949 system certification, laying the foundation for its entry into the automotive VCSEL chip market. Multi-junction high-power VCSELs are currently the mainstream solution for solid-state automotive LiDAR. This year, Vertilite launched a 12-junction ultra-multi-junction cascaded VCSEL, achieving an output power exceeding 220 watts at 20A current, with peak wall-plug efficiency breaking through 45%.
Currently, Vertilite's automotive-grade chips have been scaled onto mainstream LiDAR and intelligent driving pre-installation platforms, achieving stable installation in over one million vehicles. The company is a key supplier for LiDAR products from Huawei, Hesai, and RoboSense. In the AI era, Vertilite has also laid out its optical communication business. In August this year, Vertilite signed an agreement to establish a high-end optical communication chip and device R&D and manufacturing base in Changzhou, with a total investment of CNY 5 billion. The project focuses on building R&D and mass production lines for Indium Phosphide (InP) high-end laser chips. Indium Phosphide is the core material for EML lasers in 800G/1.6T high-speed optical modules.
Conclusion: Optical Chip Companies Flock to A-Share IPOs
This year, the optical chip sector has seen a notable rise in A-share IPO activity, with companies such as Dugen Hexin, XPHOR, and Shiweitong successively initiating their IPO processes. As Vertilite enters the tutoring period, its subsequent capitalization progress warrants attention.