Asia Tech Wire (Oct 16) -- Chinese self-driving technology startup Haomo.AI, backed by Great Wall Motor (GWM), has denied that it is holding off on its Hong Kong IPO plans.

This comes after reports that GWM chairman Jianjun Wei had recently called a temporary halt to Haomo.AI's Hong Kong IPO internally, with one of the reasons for the delay being that shareholders felt it was not a good time.

In response, Haomo.AI said Wednesday that "the news is untrue," and that the company is not currently putting its IPO plans on hold.

Kai Zhang, chairman of Haomo.AI, also said on Wednesday that "at present, Haomo.AI has not suspended its IPO plans to Hong Kong, and it is still in progress."

For a specific IPO timing, Zhang said "it should be 2025."

Formerly known as GWM's smart driving foresight division, Haomo.AI focuses on the development of ADAS smart driving systems. And in 2019, it was incubated from GWM.

In February 2021, Haomo.AI completed a 300 million yuan Pre-A round of financing, with investors including Shougang, Meituan, and Hillhouse Investment.

At the time, the company planned to achieve profitability in 2022 and list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR market) in 2023.

However, in July last year IFR reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that Haomo.AI was considering a Hong Kong IPO next year to raise as much as $400 million.