Insta360’s Journey: From Dorm-Room Startup to Global Camera Powerhouse and IPO Triumph

On June 11, 2025, Chinese camera maker Insta360 made a splashy debut on Shanghai’s STAR Market, with its stock surging 285% on opening day and its market capitalization briefly topping ¥70 billion (over $10 billion) . Founder Liu Jingkang – known as JK Liu – proudly rang the opening bell while wielding an Insta360 X5 panoramic camera, marking him as the first 1990s-born founder to lead a company to China’s Nasdaq-style board . The blockbuster IPO is the culmination of a decade-long journey of entrepreneurial grit and continuous innovation. This narrative retraces Insta360’s path from a college project to a global leader in 360° cameras and action cams, its hard-fought road to an IPO, and what lies ahead for the Shenzhen-based pioneer.

Founding a 360° Vision: JK Liu’s Origin Story

Insta360’s story begins with a tech-obsessed student in Nanjing. Liu Jingkang (JK) was born in 1991 in Guangdong and developed a precocious talent for computers. As a Nanjing University undergrad, he became a campus legend for audacious geek projects – famously decoding the mobile number of Qihoo 360’s CEO by analyzing phone keypad tones . This stunt won Liu instant fame (and the nickname “standard哥”), and even job offers from tech luminaries. But Liu declined big-company opportunities; instead, his entrepreneurial spark was lit early. Backed by a 15万元 loan from his father and personal savings, he launched a startup while still in school .

Liu’s first venture in 2013 was a campus live-streaming platform called “名校直播,” providing multi-camera video streaming for top universities . The young founder and his small team pulled off hundreds of live events and even expanded into corporate streaming within a year . This hectic baptism in startups taught Liu to “grow through exploration”, but also exposed him to the next big thing: virtual reality. After casually trying a Google Cardboard VR headset and seeing an overseas team capture a 360° balloon video over Australia, Liu had an epiphany – the future was immersive imagery . He pivoted the company to focus on VR panoramic cameras, declaring that Insta360 was born to enable immersive storytelling .

In 2015, at just 24, JK Liu officially founded Shenzhen Arashi Vision Co., branding its products “Insta360影石” (YingShi). The vision was clear: leverage 360-degree imaging technology to help people “better record and share life” in every scenario . Early on, building a VR camera from scratch wasn’t easy – Liu lacked hardware supply chain experience and had only a tiny team. He relocated the startup from Nanjing to Shenzhen to tap into China’s best electronics ecosystem . Even then, their very first camera prototype failed to reach mass production due to technical hurdles. It was December 2015 when Insta360 finally unveiled its inaugural product: a professional VR camera dubbed the “4K Beta.” This chunky, enterprise-grade 360° rig wasn’t a GoPro clone for consumers but rather a “big square camera” designed for event videographers to rent for weddings and parties . It was a humble start, but it demonstrated Liu’s determination to push into uncharted territory of panoramic video.

That bold bet soon attracted believers. In 2014, as China’s “大众创业、万众创新” (mass entrepreneurship and innovation) boom took off, IDG Capital spotted news of the “genius coder from Nanjing University” and came knocking . Impressed by Liu’s technical chops and quick execution – if not yet by a polished business plan – IDG embraced a “invest in the person” philosophy . In March 2015, IDG led a $1 million angel round for Insta360, taking 20% equity. “He had a baby face and was quiet, but his thinking on tech and product was outstanding,” recalled IDG partner Niu Kuiguang of first meeting the 23-year-old founder . Other prominent VCs soon followed – Qiming Venture Partners joined in a Series B, and strategic investors like Xunlei (a Chinese tech firm) and retail giant Suning participated in 2016 financing rounds . By keeping his burn rate low and raising only modest capital (totaling ~¥500 million over 5 years), Liu maintained significant ownership and a laser-focus on product-market fit . Little did early backers know that their faith would be richly rewarded: IDG’s initial $0.65 million stake, held for a decade, swelled to a paper gain of over ¥8 billion (100× return) by IPO time .

From Panoramic Pioneer to Pocket Camera Innovator

The heart of Insta360’s success lies in relentless product innovation, evolving from a niche 360º camera maker into a multi-category smart imaging brand. After the 4K Beta pilot, 2016 proved a breakthrough year. Insta360 launched the Nano, a pocket-sized 360° camera that could work standalone or plug into an iPhone – instantly stitching 360 photos and videos on the go . The Nano addressed a key pain point: earlier 360 cams were clunky and made users wait to see their shots. With its plug-and-play ease, Insta360 Nano caught fire. It debuted to acclaim at global tech expos (CES and Germany’s IFA), and even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak praised it as a “remarkable product.” Thanks to Nano’s popularity among vloggers and gadget reviewers, Insta360’s revenue spiked to ¥20 million per month that year . However, the 360° camera market was so new that after the initial buzz, sales dipped sharply once early adopters were saturated, underscoring that broader consumer education was still needed .

Flush with 2016’s buzz (and two new funding infusions from Xunlei and Suning that year ), Insta360 expanded its lineup. It introduced the Air (a 360 camera for Android phones) and ventured into professional gear with the 8K Insta360 Pro for VR filmmakers. But 2017 turned into what Liu later called “the toughest year” for the company . The initial 360 craze cooled, no blockbuster new product was ready, and the startup was supporting ~100 employees on dwindling cash . “Our valuation was stuck around ¥500 million and I had no confidence to even seek new funding,” Liu quipped in hindsight . He resisted the temptation to over-hype or burn money recklessly, insisting that in hardware, scaling headcount faster than revenue was a dangerous sign . Instead, the team doubled down on R&D, determined to create a device that could break out of the niche.

Redemption came in 2018 with the launch of the Insta360 ONE X. This sleek, palm-sized 360° action camera became a global hit, thanks to its inventive design and user-friendly features. The ONE X could capture immersive 5.7K video at 30fps with impressive stabilization – one demo famously showed the camera being tossed like a flying frisbee, yet still producing smooth footage . More importantly, Insta360 nailed the software side: the ONE X’s app automatically stitched and edited highlights from the 360 footage, making it effortless for users to share dynamic content to Instagram or TikTok . The impact was dramatic – ONE X catapulted Insta360 to No.1 worldwide in consumer 360 cameras (beating rivals like Samsung Gear and Ricoh Theta), and even to No.2 globally in the overall action camera market, just behind GoPro . In that year alone, Insta360’s revenue surged past ¥200 million with nearly ¥20 million in net profit, proving that the startup’s business model was viable . Remarkably, this ascent happened just 3 years after Insta360’s official founding – a speed that impressed investors and industry watchers alike . As IDG’s team realized by 2018, “the model was validated” and their young portfolio company had indeed built a “global first” in a new category with very limited capital .

Building on ONE X’s success, Insta360 kept up a brisk cadence of product releases. In 2019, it unveiled the Insta360 GO, an ultralight thumb-sized camera meant to clip onto clothing or hats for effortless, hands-free shooting. Weighing under 20 grams, the GO was marketed as a “tiny stabilized vlogging camera” that could be a game-changer for capturing everyday moments in ways a phone or bulky camera couldn’t . Around the same time, Insta360 introduced the ONE R, a modular action camera co-engineered with Leica that featured interchangeable 360° and wide-angle lens mods – directly challenging GoPro’s flagship cams with a fresh twist. The company also continued pushing the pro horizon with devices like the Insta360 Titan, an 11K VR camera for filmmakers.

In 2022, as remote work and live streaming spiked, Insta360 expanded beyond action cams into the desktop imaging realm. It launched the Insta360 Link, an AI-powered 4K webcam mounted on a miniature gimbal that can track the user’s movement. The Link garnered rave reviews – The Verge noted its best-in-class image quality and slick AI tracking software – helping Insta360 tap into the booming demand for high-end webcams. By now Insta360’s portfolio covered a “four-pronged” range of solutions: 360-degree cameras for consumers and professionals, standard action cameras for sports and adventure, wearable mini cameras (GO series) for casual life-logging, and even smart webcams for streaming and video calls . This breadth set Insta360 apart from single-category players. As founder Liu put it, “we make a 360 camera every year to keep our top-tier position” in immersive imaging , but the company was equally adept at applying its imaging know-how to adjacent categories. It is now commonplace to see Insta360’s devices used by everyone from YouTube vloggers and extreme sports enthusiasts to journalists, travelers, and remote workers – all part of Liu’s broader mission to “help people record and share their lives in better ways.”

Building a Sustainable Business Model

Unlike many hardware startups, Insta360 has managed to build a profitable business while scaling globally, in part by smartly balancing its revenue streams and keeping costs in check. The company’s core business is selling its imaging devices and accessories across consumer and professional markets . Each time Insta360 rolled out a hit product (from the Nano to ONE X to GO and beyond), it saw a corresponding leap in sales. By 2019, the company was already profitable, helped by the success of the ONE series – in fact, Insta360 boasted five-fold revenue growth from 2017 to 2019 and turned a profit while GoPro was still losing money . Liu has confirmed that since 2017 the firm has stayed in the black , a rarity among gadget makers. In 2019, Insta360’s annual revenues neared ¥600 million with over ¥56 million net income , indicating healthy margins for a company of its size.