news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Unicorns know iponews

｜Information leverages new capital｜

According to an exclusive source from "Unicorn Early News", WeRide is currently undergoing PDIE (Pre-Deal Investor Education) and is expected to be officially listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in August. The transaction size is approximately US$200 million to US$300 million (determined based on market feedback).

Comprehensive | Prospectus Editing | Arti

This article is for information exchange only and does not constitute any trading advice

As Robotaxi accelerates its development, autonomous driving technology startup WeRide has officially applied for a listing in the United States, and is expected to become the largest IPO of a Chinese company in the United States since Didi (DIDIY.US) went public in 2021.

WeRide plans to list on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in the United States under the ticker "WRD". The lead underwriters for the IPO are Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and CICC.

The prospectus shows that the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance will participate in the private placement and subscribe for US$97 million. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance has participated in WeRide's Series A and C1 financing rounds.

WeRide was founded in 2017 to develop autonomous driving technology. In terms of products, WeRide has entered the commercial operation stage of autonomous driving, forming five major product matrices including autonomous taxis (Robotaxi), autonomous minibuses (Mini Robobus), autonomous freight vehicles (Robovan), autonomous sanitation vehicles (Robo Street Sweeper), and advanced intelligent driving (Advanced Driving Solution), providing a variety of services such as online car-hailing, on-demand public transportation, intra-city freight intelligent sanitation, and advanced intelligent driving solutions.

WeRide's autonomous driving vehicles are undergoing test runs and commercial pilots in 30 countries and seven cities in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, making it one of the L4 autonomous driving companies with the most operating countries. It also holds autonomous driving licenses in China, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

WeRide's operating model is "1+3+5", namely 1 platform (WeRide One autonomous driving general technology platform), 3 scenarios (smart travel, smart sanitation, smart freight), and 5 product lines (Robotaxi autonomous driving taxis, Robobus autonomous driving minibuses, Robovan autonomous driving freight trucks, Robosweeper autonomous driving sanitation vehicles and Advanced Driving Solution high-level intelligent driving).

In June this year, WeRide received the notice for the commercial pilot of highway travel services in Beijing's intelligent connected vehicle policy pilot zone, and its autonomous driving travel service vehicles were approved to carry out commercial pilot projects of autonomous driving travel services in specific areas of Beijing.

Han Xu, founder and CEO of WeRide, was the chief scientist of autonomous driving at Baidu and left Baidu in March 2017. Han Xu holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, is a tenured professor at the University of Missouri, and was the director of the Computer Vision and Machine Learning Laboratory.

Before the IPO, Han Xu held 7.6% of the shares and had 31% of the voting rights; Li Yan held 6.3% of the shares and had 10.8% of the voting rights; and Duane Ziping Kuang held 8.5% of the shares and had 5.7% of the voting rights.

WeRide has completed 10 rounds of financing. Investors include He Xiaopeng, GAC Group (601238.SH), NVIDIA, Bosch, IDG Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Cornerstone Capital, etc. The total amount of public financing has exceeded US$1.09 billion (approximately RMB 7.903 billion). It completed the last round of D+ financing in 2022, with a valuation of US$5.1 billion (approximately RMB 36.977 billion).

WeRide said that the company's commercial revenue ranks first among similar autonomous driving companies. According to the prospectus, its main sources of income are divided into two parts: the first part is the sale of products, including robot buses, robot taxis, robot street sweepers and related sensor kits; the second part is the provision of services, including autonomous driving operations, technical support services and advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) R&D services.

In terms of products, WeRide's product line in the field of autonomous driving covers multiple aspects, demonstrating its comprehensive strength in software and hardware. At present, WeRide's Robotaxi has provided paid services in three cities around the world, and is the first company to provide paid L4-level robot taxi services to the public. It has been operating safely on open roads for four years.

RoboBus will achieve commercial production in 2021 and provide services to the public in Guangzhou in 2022, becoming the world's first company to provide driverless Robobus services. In addition, the company has also developed an L4-level robot truck, which will be launched in September 2021 to improve the efficiency of intra-city logistics.

In the cleaning field, WeRide has developed the world's first L4-level sweeping robot and has successfully carried out commercial pilots in Guangzhou and is testing it in nine cities.

In terms of software, WeRide cooperates with Bosch, using its accumulated experience in L4 autonomous driving technology to provide advanced driver assistance systems covering a variety of driving scenarios. The company's ADAS solutions have outstanding performance in terms of technical advantages, system security and scalability, and are expected to maintain a leading position in the industry.

At the same time, WeRide also has extensive cooperation with OEMs and Tier1s. It has established in-depth cooperation with many top OEMs and Tier1 suppliers in the field of autonomous driving. In addition, WeRide also provides L4 autonomous driving and ADAS R&D services to its partners.

From 2021 to 2023, WeRide achieved revenues of 138.2 million yuan, 527.5 million yuan, and 401.8 million yuan, respectively. In the first half of 2024, the company achieved revenues of 150.3 million yuan. The gross profit margins were 37.4%, 44.1%, and 45.7% from 2021 to 2023, respectively.

WeRide's adjusted losses for the three years from 2021 to 2023 totaled RMB 1.328 billion. Compared with the same industry, according to the financial report disclosed by General Motors, WeRide's comparable L4 autonomous driving company Cruise had an adjusted net loss of US$900 million in the first half of 2024, about 20 times that of WeRide, and the company's losses were better than the industry.

According to the prospectus, WeRide's R&D expenses are mainly composed of personnel expenses related to engineers responsible for designing, developing and testing autonomous vehicles. From 2021 to the first half of 2024, WeRide's R&D expenses were 443.2 million yuan, 758.6 million yuan, 1.0584 billion yuan, and 517.2 million yuan, respectively, totaling 2.778 billion yuan in three and a half years.

WeRide said it will focus its R&D investment on testing, experimentation and commercialization of autonomous driving technology, expand its R&D team and invest more resources to improve its technical capabilities. The company also promised that its R&D expenses will continue to increase.

The prospectus shows that the global and mainland China autonomous driving market sizes will be US$10 billion and US$2 billion respectively in 2022. It is expected that by 2030, the global and mainland China autonomous driving market sizes will reach US$1.745 trillion and US$639 billion respectively.

Among them, self-driving taxis and self-driving trucks are the most important markets in the field of autonomous driving. The prospectus shows that the global and mainland China self-driving taxi market is expected to reach US$15 billion and US$5 billion in 2025, respectively, and US$545 billion and US$201 billion in 2030, respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 106% and 111% from 2025 to 2030.

In terms of self-driving trucks, the global and mainland China robot logistics vehicle market sizes are expected to reach US$13 billion and US$3 billion respectively in 2025, and US$784 billion and US$294 billion in 2030.

While focusing on the domestic market, WeRide has also put a lot of energy into developing overseas markets, especially in the Middle East market, where the company has made considerable progress.

As of now, WeRide has been operating Robotaxi in the UAE for nearly three years, and its operating area has been continuously expanding from the initial small-scale demonstration area to the core economic development zone, serving local citizens and completing more than 20,000 orders.

In addition to the Middle East, WeRide has established teams in Singapore and Europe in 2022 and 2023 respectively. The company will continue to expand its overseas markets to more countries and regions such as East Asia, North Africa, and South America. As the first domestic general intelligent driving company to go public in the United States, WeRide's IPO in the United States also has strong symbolic significance.

Note: The material in this article comes from public channels on the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact us to delete it. The content only represents personal opinions and is not used as a guide. You are responsible for your own risks when operating based on this!

【Company Review】