“I studied information management, and I always wanted to make smart products,” Liu Bingbin, founder and CEO of Guangzhou Jianghai Technology, told 36Kr at the company’s Shenzhen office. The company is behind the overseas brand Zendure.
He realized early that “adding Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to a power bank was meaningless. Later, when we made portable power stations, we also tried adding 4G modules, but the demand was not that strong in outdoor scenarios.”
That changed in 2022, when Liu discovered balcony energy storage. The device is fixed at home, connected in real time, and checked daily by users who want to know how much electricity they have generated and how much money they have saved. More importantly, unlike traditional residential energy storage, which depends heavily on installation, balcony energy storage can be plug-and-play. It bypasses bottlenecks around installer channels and electrician availability, allowing it to enter households quickly, much like a home appliance.
“This scenario was exactly the high-stickiness, strong-demand, consumer electronics scenario we wanted,” Liu said, with the certainty of someone who had waited a long time.
That consumer-facing DNA, present from the company’s first day, is helping Zendure differentiate itself from traditional energy storage companies.
Over the past five years, Zendure has achieved an annualized growth rate of more than 102%. Widely regarded in the industry as a pioneer of balcony energy storage, the company aims in 2026 to enter hundreds of thousands of European households, rank first in total sales in France, and lead direct-to-consumer sites in Germany.
In a nearly two-hour conversation with 36Kr, Liu repeatedly emphasized one point:
“We do not define ourselves as an energy storage hardware company. We are the global pioneer of plug-in home energy management systems.”
In his view, energy storage is only the hardware foundation. The real barrier lies in the ecosystem and artificial intelligence. Zendure has made several early moves on this path: connecting with more than 840 European electricity suppliers, integrating with more than 5,000 heat pump models, and becoming the first company in its category to connect with Shelly, one of Europe’s largest home energy management platforms. Liu said these moves have put rivals at least a year behind.
At the end of 2025, Zendure received an investment from Han’s Laser, filling a supply chain gap. Around the same time, ZenWave, its dynamic electricity retail service, went live in Germany, marking Zendure’s shift from selling hardware to selling energy services.
Liu is not someone who leans on grand narratives. In the interview, he spent more time discussing the details of product iteration: how the first generation became compatible with microinverters, how the second generation became a split unit, how the third generation became an all-in-one unit, and how the team later discovered that French users needed storage for existing rooftop solar systems, prompting Zendure to develop an AC-coupled solution.
Zendure is currently raising a Series C funding round, with several leading institutions participating. According to Liu, the process has moved faster than expected.
Liu told 36Kr that the funds will be used mainly for R&D and expansion into new markets. “Our vision is to become the home energy hub for the artificial intelligence era, just as the PC was the computing host of the information era. In an increasingly volatile future, households around the world will all need it. That means we can eventually enter tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of homes,” he said.
The following transcript has been edited and consolidated for brevity and clarity.
Liu Bingbin (LB): When we were founded in 2017, we just wanted to build a distinctive brand and a very solid, durable power product. Our first-generation product was a power bank that could withstand being run over by a car.
When the pandemic arrived in 2020, users stopped traveling, but household electricity use kept rising as many people worked from home. We realized that the home scenario involved greater electricity consumption and stronger energy demand, so we shifted toward home energy management.
In 2022, we discovered the opportunity in balcony energy storage. It is fixed at home, has Wi-Fi, and lets users monitor power generation, electricity use, and cost savings in real time. User stickiness is extremely strong, making it especially suitable for smart and AI products. So in 2022, we fully pivoted into this field.
LB: The essence is that balcony energy storage is decoupled from rooftop solar. Traditional residential energy storage developed alongside rooftop solar. It is an accessory to rooftop PV, and its development is severely constrained by rooftop PV limitations. Hardware installation costs, labor costs, and time costs are all very high.
Although it is called balcony energy storage, it should really be called plug-in energy storage, because most of our users are villa users who place solar panels in gardens, and some users do not use solar panels at all. So it is completely decoupled from rooftop solar. That is why it can be plug-and-play and does not require an electrician for on-site installation.
This category has existed for only a little more than three years, and we figured it out step by step. That is why people in the industry say we are the pioneer of the balcony energy storage industry.
The first-generation product added storage for existing microinverter users. At the time, we found that Germany had hundreds of thousands of such users. They had bought microinverters and solar panels and plugged the microinverters into home sockets to generate electricity, but they had no electricity to use at night because there was no storage solution for microinverters on the market. Microinverter models are complicated, there are many brands, and they do not open APIs, so we could only simulate PV to drive microinverter discharge. We bought every microinverter brand on the market and achieved 99% compatibility. Rivals that copied us had compatibility below 50%, and many later gave up.
During this process, we found that existing users numbered only 200,000–300,000, but new installations were growing faster. Germany added hundreds of thousands each year, with storage pairing rates as high as 70%. So we integrated the inverter and storage. The second generation became a split unit, and the third generation became an all-in-one unit.
When expanding into France in 2024, backend data showed that 70% of users did not connect solar panels. We later asked users and found that they already had rooftop solar. So we pioneered an AC-coupled series to provide plug-and-play storage for existing rooftop PV systems. That was very interesting.
So, returning to your question, the essence of balcony energy storage is turning a traditional industrial residential energy storage product into a plug-and-play home appliance.
LB: Frankly, it is difficult. They have their own path dependence. Their product systems, channel systems, and service systems are all built around traditional residential energy storage. If they switch to a plug-and-play product form, that is equivalent to cutting away their original advantages. It is not an easy decision.
More importantly, their understanding of “intelligence” differs from ours. For many traditional manufacturers, “smart” just means adding an app that lets users see data. Our AI makes millisecond-level decisions. It dynamically dispatches energy based on weather forecasts, electricity price fluctuations, and user behavior habits. This is not something that can be solved by attaching a smart label. It requires data accumulation, algorithm iteration, and ecosystem integration.
None of these can be caught up with overnight.
LB: The energy host concept also comes from our insight into user pain points. It has two layers of meaning.
First, our all-in-one unit itself can serve as an energy host with certain computing capacity. It has energy management functions, can connect to Tesla vehicles and heat pumps, and can control appliances through smart plugs.
Second, we will launch a more independent energy host that goes beyond energy storage devices. Our vision is to combine the “energy host” concept with an OS and Zenki to build the home energy hub for the AI era. The product details are confidential for now.
LB: We position our brand as the global pioneer of plug-in home energy management systems (HEMS), not an energy storage hardware company.
Our first-generation product already had home energy management capabilities. In September 2023, we were the first to connect with Shelly, Europe’s largest home energy management platform. Rivals only connected in September 2024. We also connected with Tesla, becoming the first company in the balcony energy storage space capable of supporting electric vehicles. We can also manage more than 5,000 heat pump models and have connected with more than 840 European electricity suppliers.
All of these were industry firsts, and rivals were almost a year behind. As the earliest brand to introduce plug-and-play balcony energy storage systems to the European market, we have evolved from a single hardware manufacturer into a complete smart energy solution provider.
The ZenWave dynamic electricity retail service is a key part of our ecosystem upgrade. This service first went live in Germany and is accelerating expansion to other European countries, providing real-time electricity pricing mechanisms and 100% green electricity. Combined with smart scheduling and AI, home energy management can be upgraded from manual adjustment to system-level automation.
Based on these ecosystems, our goal is to reach one million users by the end of 2027.
LB: It means we have entered a stage where accumulated capabilities are beginning to pay off. We have worked deeply in this field for nearly four years and were the first in the world to bring plug-in home energy management systems to the European market.
When the product first came out in 2023, the market had no such concept. We initially used a direct-to-consumer strategy to push the product quickly and generated EUR 4 million (USD 4.7 million) in the first month. But after that, the supply chain became our weakness. In 2024 and 2025, when the industry developed rapidly, our growth was constrained. We could actually have grown faster.
So when we encountered Han’s Laser in 2025, the two sides immediately aligned. Han’s is a global leader in upstream lithium battery supply chains and automation equipment, with extensive lithium battery industry resources. But in the energy field, it lacked a company that understood the European market, could build a consumer-facing brand, and had R&D capabilities. We complemented each other well. With support from Han’s supply chain resources, our performance began breaking out in the first quarter of this year, growing nearly 200% year-on-year.
LB: On one hand, it helped us establish a European headquarters in Switzerland as a strategic base covering all of Europe. Han’s European headquarters is also in Switzerland, which is helpful for building a mid- to high-end brand image.
More importantly, in the supply chain, the dedicated facility it built for us can reach an annual manufacturing capacity of one million units. It uses Han’s Laser’s most advanced self-developed lithium battery laser welding and automation equipment, improving our quality and supply chain across the board.
LB: Growth mainly comes from our own development. One factor is fast product iteration, from the first to the fourth generation, with each iteration covering more customers. Another is country expansion, from Germany to France to the Netherlands, and next the UK. The UK has just announced that it will open up balcony energy storage. Many users are urging us to enter the UK market.
We believe this is a worldwide shift, and we are the force behind it. Plug-and-play small microinverters are a basic consumer right. They should not be monopolized by the grid. Low-power inverters below 800 watts have no impact on the grid. Countries around the world will sooner or later accept this standard, which is also the basis for our confidence in future growth.
In addition, we are continuously expanding the power boundaries and application scenarios of balcony energy storage, such as adding storage for existing rooftop PV systems. This is also a promising market.
LB: It is hard to generalize, because demand and development stages differ from country to country. German users are the most mature and educated, with a very large DIY user base. But in other countries, rooftop storage may come first. The Netherlands, for example, has more than three million existing rooftop PV users. In 2027, feed-in tariff subsidies will end, and all these users will urgently need to add storage.
Overall, however, the trend in balcony energy storage is that it is becoming increasingly smart and AI-driven. In the future, balcony energy storage that has only hardware and no AI capability will not be competitive.
LB: Unlike traditional residential energy storage, which depends heavily on national subsidy policies, balcony energy storage is market-driven rather than policy-driven. For example, existing rooftop PV users are beginning to buy balcony energy storage precisely because feed-in tariff subsidies are phasing out.
Globally, there are 40 million existing rooftop PV systems, and the storage pairing rate is only about 10%. After subsidies phase out, these users must shift to self-consumption, making storage a rigid need. Traditional residential energy storage in Europe and the US costs several thousand euros in installation fees. Our system has zero installation cost. The total price is only around EUR 1,000 (USD 1,162.9), giving it a clear advantage.
As for the 800W policy limit for balcony energy storage, more than 20 European countries have already opened up, while the UK and US are also opening. This is a worldwide shift and an irreversible trend. We only need to follow the trend.
LB: Revenue is still mainly hardware for now, but our focus is quickly shifting toward software and services. We are a third-party electricity supplier. Through ZenWave electricity retail, we capture electricity price spreads, and this is recurring revenue.
More importantly, we want to occupy the home energy management gateway. Once millions of households form network effects, if they pay electricity bills through you, manage energy through you, and bind Tesla and other devices through you, it becomes difficult to leave. Like the Apple ecosystem, hardware is the customer acquisition method. The ecosystem is the moat.
LB: We were among the first to build home energy management systems, and that is the foundation of AI. We have accumulated 200 billion pieces of user charge-discharge data. Based on that, we developed an energy time-series large model. Combined with seven days of user learning, it can infer electricity usage over the next seven days.
Then, combined with weather forecasts and dynamic electricity pricing, it calculates when to charge and discharge. For example, users can see a 24-hour forecast curve and half-hourly planning details, such as charging from noon to 1 p.m. because there is a low-price window and smart forecasting predicts sufficient afternoon sunlight, so charging capacity is reserved in advance.
Rivals can save at most 20% more than traditional modes. We can save 73%, and this number has been verified by several thousand actual users.
LB: Three algorithms: power-generation forecasting, user behavior forecasting, and electricity price fluctuations.
For example, if tomorrow is cloudy and electricity prices are high, AI may preserve battery power and use more cheap grid electricity today. If tomorrow is sunny, AI could discharge the battery as much as possible to prevent the battery from being full the next day and forcing solar curtailment.
These decisions are very complex and must be made by AI. Many companies say they use AI, but what they use is actually a timer. We make countless decisions every second to calculate the optimal strategy, and we also tell users the reasons for those decisions. That is real AI-driven energy management, not just attaching a smart label.
LB: It gained several hundred subscriptions in the first month, far exceeding our expectations. One user in Dusseldorf saved more than EUR 100 (USD 116.3) in a month after switching to us.
Dynamic electricity pricing in Europe has struggled to take off because consumers do not have energy storage systems and feel no control over electricity price fluctuations.
We have energy storage systems and AI, so users can use battery power when prices are high and charge when prices are low, making full use of fluctuations.
Europe’s energy supply is fragile now. Many European countries’ grid infrastructure is already 30–50 years old, peak-valley spreads are large, and outage risks are increasing, so we have the greatest advantage in promoting this. We are a third-party electricity supplier and collect the spread between transport fees and electricity prices.
LB: We believe we are currently the only brand in the industry that integrates high-performance hardware, smart HEMS software, and ZenWave-centered energy services. We are helping households achieve round-the-clock energy autonomy and maximize economic returns. Investors who understand this model are optimistic.
Once Zendure is recognized as an AI-driven home energy service platform rather than a traditional energy storage hardware company, its valuation logic will change. A future IPO may be valued not by the price-to-earnings ratio, but by price-to-sales. Financing is also a process of mutual selection. We need investors who understand this model.
LB: We are working on a Series C round, mainly with market-based funds. Allocation is highly sought after, and this round has far exceeded expectations. The funds will mainly be used for R&D and new market expansion.
LB: We created this industry, so it is normal for others to follow. But honestly, many rivals are still at the stage of copying appearances. Our moat isn’t appearance or hardware parameters, but the entire system ecosystem and AI capability.
For example, Zenki can save up to 73% more electricity than traditional modes, while the best rivals can only reach about 20%. Where does this gap come from? We have 200 billion pieces of real user charge-discharge data to train models. We have connected with more than 840 European electricity suppliers and more than 5,000 heat pump models. These are not things that can be caught up with in one or two years.
There is another point many people overlook: user stickiness. Our app’s DAU (daily active user) rate exceeds 50%, and users open it four times a day on average. They look every day at how much electricity they generated and how much money they saved. Once this habit is formed, the cost of switching to another brand becomes very high. So I am not too worried about competition. Instead, the more imitators there are, the more it means the sector has been validated. That is a good thing for us.
LB: My biggest judgment is that only AI-driven balcony energy storage will be competitive in the future. Without AI, hardware alone has no differentiation.
Why? Because hardware will become increasingly homogenized. Core components such as batteries and inverters are similar across suppliers, and costs will become increasingly transparent. But AI capability is different. It is soft and invisible, and yet it is exactly what users can perceive most clearly: how much they pay for electricity each month. That number is the most honest.
So everything we are doing now is essentially building a decision engine with AI at its core. The stronger this is, the better the user experience, the more money users save, and the stronger the stickiness. This is a positive flywheel.
LB: We mainly focus on several directions.
On hardware, the first is lowering hardware costs, the second is some unique thinking around inverter architecture design, and the third is improving efficiency. Hardware ultimately comes down to efficiency and cost. When efficiency rises, heat decreases. When heat decreases, fewer heat dissipation components are needed, and hardware costs naturally fall. So what we are working hardest on is efficiency and cost.
On software, the main focus is deep application of AI. We have already launched an internal strategy to transform into an AI-native organization.
At Zendure, AI is not just an internal efficiency tool. We will use AI from the bottom up to reconstruct our product architecture. Native AI hardware and software products will also be launched in the future.
LB: We are already doing this. Our electric cargo bike will launch in the second half of this year. We are the only company in the balcony energy storage industry doing this. We have expanded from the home to short-distance outdoor mobility in the yard.
Some European users have even asked if we will make electric vehicles. It is not very realistic for now, but it shows users’ high trust in the brand. If they like you, they hope you will make everything.
We are also exploring heat pumps and air conditioners, though nothing has been finalized yet.
LB: Yes. Our user base is expanding from early technology geeks to mass market users. Especially when couples make purchase decisions together, women’s aesthetic requirements are much higher. So next, we will move in a more appliance-like direction, making the appearance more refined and closer to home appliances.
LB: To lead Europe’s plug-in home energy management system market, reach one million users, and complete an IPO. Personally, I lean more toward a Hong Kong listing, because 99% of our revenue comes from overseas. A Hong Kong listing would benefit our overseas business and brand, and would serve as a concentrated brand upgrade for our channels, energy suppliers, and installer ecosystem partners in Europe and North America.
I have communicated with some European investors. Once our brand is mentioned, they all say they are very familiar with it. Because our strategic focus over the years has been overseas, we have kept a low profile in China, so China’s capital markets do not feel our brand as strongly.
KrASIA features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Xiao Xi for 36Kr.
Note: EUR figures are converted to USD at rates of EUR 0.86 = USD 1 based on estimates as of May 25, 2026, unless otherwise stated. USD conversions are presented for ease of reference and may not fully match prevailing exchange rates.
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