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Author: Wang Xiaojuan

Editor｜Zhou Zhiyu

Momenta, an autonomous driving company that has been rumored to be about to go public, is one step closer to listing.

Recently, the China Securities Regulatory Commission disclosed that Momenta has passed the overseas listing registration procedures and confirmed that it plans to be listed on Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange. For this listing in the United States, Momenta plans to issue no more than 63.3529 million common shares.

However, regarding the specific listing time plan, Momenta responded to Wall Street Journal that there is no clear information yet.

Founded 8 years ago, this unicorn, which was valued at over $1 billion in 2021, is just one step away from going public. In the trillion-dollar market of autonomous driving, there will be another powerful player.

Momenta founder Cao Xudong studied for his undergraduate degree at Tsinghua University. Due to his interest in AI, he gave up the opportunity to pursue a direct doctorate and joined the Computer Vision Group of Microsoft Research Asia. He then joined SenseTime and served as the executive R&D director of SenseTime.

This big shot, who has already gained considerable fame in the industry, founded Momenta in 2016 with a group of like-minded partners, and received a US$5 million Series A financing from Blue Lake Capital, Sinovation Ventures, and ZhenFund.

After its establishment, Momenta also caught up with the wave of autonomous driving. Data shows that as of November 2021, Momenta's cumulative public financing amount reached US$1.2 billion. Especially after turning to mass production, it received strategic investment from many OEMs and also received a lot of orders, and began to improve all the way.

But Momenta also faces the challenge of commercialization. At first, it went straight to L4. After many L4 companies turned to L2, Momenta also decided to walk on two legs, focusing on mass production of autonomous driving (Mpilot) on one hand and fully unmanned driving (MSD) on the other. The mass production of autonomous driving solutions is mainly supplied to OEMs, while the goal of fully unmanned driving is the Robotaxi business.

However, later, with the support of SAIC Group, its "noble man", it not only obtained investment from OEMs, but also achieved a breakthrough in business scale.

At present, the OEMs that have chosen Momenta include SAIC Zhiji, GM, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, etc. Cao Xudong revealed that Momenta has carried out mass production cooperation with half of the top ten automobile groups in the world, and its business covers multiple international markets including China, Germany, Japan, and the United States.

Among the many autonomous driving companies, Momenta is not very strong, but it has already reached a level comparable to that of leading manufacturers in terms of high-end intelligent driving, and there is still a lot of room for imagination in the future.

Thanks to its strong performance in mass production, Momenta is able to stand shoulder to shoulder with companies such as Huawei, and is known as "the great Huawei demon" in the Tier 1 team of intelligent driving solutions. Currently, there are more and more IPO news for Horizon Robotics, another company in this team.

Since last year, intelligent driving companies have not only been struggling in the mass production race, but also in the capital market. More than 10 autonomous driving-related companies have announced their listing process, but only a few have succeeded.

And as Apple cut its foothold in autonomous driving and turned to AI, TuSimple, the "first autonomous driving stock", was delisted at the beginning of the year. Autonomous driving has further cooled in the capital market and even entered a cold winter. Obviously, this is not the right season for listing.

The same is true for Momenta. One obvious manifestation is that the funds raised in this preparation for listing are more than 5 billion yuan less than the rumors four years ago.

When rumors of an IPO were circulating in early 2020, the target amount of funds to be raised was US$1 billion (approximately RMB 7.257 billion). Now, the fundraising target has become "expected to raise US$200 million to US$300 million (approximately RMB 1.451 billion to 2.177 billion)."

However, as autonomous driving companies accelerate their entry into the capital market, if they cannot keep up with the pace of their peers and accelerate their development with the help of the capital market, they may be eliminated by the market.

Cao Xudong had previously stated that for first-tier customers, he would allocate twice the resources to make the best products. He is also looking forward to more cooperation, reserving teams in advance, and setting up teams next to customers. He currently has more than 1,300 employees at home and abroad.

It is a routine operation for Juan Zhijia to pile up people, which naturally requires more funds.

For customers, the success of suppliers in the capital market is helpful in assisting in selling cars. Even if a supplier is hidden behind the OEM, a supplier that can come up with a reliable intelligent driving solution can become an important consideration for consumers when purchasing a car.

In order to go public, Momenta has carried out share reforms in multiple domestic companies since January this year to prepare for listing. Currently, Momenta's Hong Kong entity controls all subsidiaries by controlling Momenta (Suzhou) Technology Co., Ltd.

But for intelligent driving companies such as Momenta, IPO is just the beginning. It is also important to develop long-term and sustainable hematopoietic capabilities.

The market is still very competitive at the moment. Cao Xudong has previously further explained the current market competition from both hardware and software perspectives at the Automotive Blue Book Forum.

According to his prediction, the current BOM of a set of intelligent driving hardware is 7,000-10,000 yuan. By 2025, the BOM is expected to drop to 4,000-5,000 yuan. In terms of software, the capability will increase tenfold every two years.

In order to participate in this hardware market, Momenta has also stepped in and started to develop chips; and in terms of software capability iteration, it needs more people and the installation of its intelligent driving solutions on more car models.

These "rolls" that have no end in sight require real money to support them.

For Momenta, continuous hematopoietic ability means obtaining more fixed points and the models equipped with it can also have good sales. This will also help Momenta's flywheel obtain more data and iterate faster, thus forming a positive cycle.