Asia Tech Wire (Oct 18) -- Chinese self-driving company Pony.ai formally filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday night.
The tech startup plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "PONY". Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank and Huatai Securities are acting as lead underwriters for the U.S. IPO.
Pony.ai filed for its U.S. IPO less than a week after Tesla completely triggered the robotaxi industry, and once successful, it will become the world's No. 1 robotaxi stock.
According to the overseas listing filing notice issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) in April, Pony.ai intends to issue no more than 98,149,500 ordinary shares in its U.S. IPO.
Pony.ai didn't disclose the price of the stock offering in its IPO filing, but according to market sources, the fundraising will exceed $300 million, and it's almost destined to become one of the largest U.S. IPOs by a Chinese company this year.
Pony.ai plans to use the funds raised in the IPO mainly for large-scale commercialization and market development of self-driving taxi or robotaxi services and freight services.
Founded in 2016, Pony.ai provides autonomous driving technology and solutions in the field of transportation and logistics for the global market.
Since its inception, Pony.ai has completed seven rounds of financing, with a cumulative amount of more than US$1.3 billion, with investors including HongShan, formerly known as Sequoia Capital China, IDG Capital, Legend Capital, 5Y Capital and other investment institutions, as well as industrial capitals such as China FAW Group and Toyota, and capital support from the Middle East at a later stage.
Over the past two and a half years, Pony.ai has recorded cumulative revenue of more than $165 million, making it the top L4 autonomous driving company with the highest revenue scale in China. In particular, the company's robotaxi service revenue grew 86% year-over-year in the first half of 2024.
Pony.ai has already obtained robotaxi service licenses in four key Chinese cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen - and operates a fleet of over 250 driverless taxis.
The Chinese company said it will continue to focus on robotaxi as its next business direction, with the key development goal being to achieve scale in robotaxi.
Before the IPO, Jun Peng, co-founder and CEO of Pony.ai, was Pony.ai's top shareholder with an 18.9% stake, while Toyota was the second largest shareholder with a 13.4% stake, the filing showed.
In addition, HongShan, through its funds, accumulated a 10.2% stake in Pony.ai, making it the third largest shareholder.
