Outdoor brand Toread is undergoing a structural growth shift driven by its chip business. In Q1 2026, the company's revenue approached 500 million yuan, with the chip segment contributing over one-third of total revenue and growing more than twofold. This transition from 'selling gear' to 'making chips' is moving from a capital story to financial reality.
Dual-Business Data Divergence: Outdoor Stable, Chip Explosive
Industry public data shows Toread's Q1 2026 revenue reached 496 million yuan, up 39.41% YoY; net profit attributable to shareholders was 56.45 million yuan, up 14.44% YoY. More notably, non-recurring net profit grew 32.36%, outpacing net profit growth, indicating improved core business profitability.
Breaking it down, the outdoor segment contributed 315 million yuan, up 8.02% YoY, showing resilience on a high base. The chip segment became the biggest variable—revenue of 179 million yuan, surging 206.92% YoY, with its revenue share jumping from 16.65% at end-2025 to 36.09%. This means the company's revenue structure is rapidly shifting from single outdoor to 'outdoor + chip' dual drivers.
The chip business explosion is not organic growth but a concentrated release of M&A consolidation and domestic substitution dividends. At end-2025, the company completed acquisitions of 51% stakes in Betterlife and Shanghai Tongtu for a total of approximately 678 million yuan, with both companies consolidated into financial statements from January 2026. Betterlife has held the top market share in fingerprint recognition chips for years, and its touch chips have been mass-produced in laptops from multiple leading brands. Shanghai Tongtu specializes in image and video processing, with its IP licensed to over 20 medium-to-large chip companies.
Scenario-Driven Technology: The Logic of Smart Exoskeleton
The synergy of dual businesses is moving from strategic planning to product landing. On June 17, the company's self-developed smart exoskeleton Crest C3 began pre-sales, weighing only 1.8 kg with a push-to-weight ratio of 10:1. Leveraging offline stores targeting core outdoor customer groups, it achieved daily sales of over 100 units.
This product is a typical sample of 'chip technology empowering outdoor': Shanghai Tongtu's compression technology and Betterlife's sensor chips are integrated into outdoor equipment, while outdoor scenarios provide real-world validation and user feedback loops. This differentiated path of 'outdoor scenarios supporting chip technology landing' is rare among both outdoor brands and chip design companies.
For the company, this means the chip business is no longer just a consolidation number on financial statements but is beginning to generate tangible product value. For buyers and channel partners, the initial commercialization success of the smart exoskeleton may signal that the window for upgrading outdoor equipment from 'functional' to 'smart' is opening.
1 Billion Yuan Private Placement and Consecutive Dividends: Dual Signals from Capital Markets
Alongside business expansion, capital market moves are equally dense. On July 9, the company's private placement plan passed the Shenzhen Stock Exchange review, with proceeds not exceeding 1.005 billion yuan, pending China Securities Regulatory Commission approval. Since gaining control in 2021, Toread has completed five chip-related acquisitions, investing over 1 billion yuan. This additional 1 billion yuan injection by the actual controller is a strong endorsement of the chip strategy, providing ammunition for future R&D and industrial chain integration.
Notably, the company has paid cash dividends for three consecutive fiscal years. From 2023 to 2025, cumulative dividends reached 38.93 million yuan, exceeding 30% of the average annual net profit attributable to shareholders over the past three fiscal years. Maintaining dividend rhythm during the dual-business transformation reflects improving fundamentals and signals confidence in navigating industry cycles.
Risks and Outlook: Sustainability of M&A Integration and Domestic Substitution
Despite impressive data, industry analysis must remain cautious. The chip business's high growth is primarily driven by consolidation effects; endogenous growth capability needs time to verify. Whether Betterlife and Shanghai Tongtu can maintain technological leadership and customer expansion within Toread's system is a core metric to watch.
Moreover, domestic substitution dividends are cyclical. The fingerprint recognition chip market is highly competitive, international giants still dominate the touch chip sector, and Shanghai Tongtu's compression technology is still in early stages of landing in edge AI scenarios. Whether the cooperation with Horizon Robotics can translate into substantial revenue also requires tracking.
For the outdoor industry, Toread's path offers a new perspective: when traditional outdoor brand growth slows, entering the semiconductor sector through M&A and using outdoor scenarios to back chip technology landing could be a differentiated breakout route. However, this path demands high capital, technology integration capabilities, and management skills, making it difficult for all brands to replicate.