On October 25th, Eastern Time, global autonomous driving company Wenyuan Zhixing WeRide was officially listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange with the stock code "WRD".
The price for this public offering is $15.5 per American Depositary Share. Assuming all underwriters' over allotment rights are exercised, the company will publicly issue a total of 8903760 American Depositary Shares. Combined with the previously disclosed synchronized private placement of $320 million, the total fundraising amount of Wenyuan Zhixing's public offering may reach $458.5 million.
On the first day of listing, Wenyuan Zhixing experienced two circuit breakers due to a significant increase, with the highest surge reaching 27% to $19.73 per share. As of the close, it rose 6.77% to $16.55 per share, with a total market value of $4.491 billion.
Wenyuan Zhixing is listed on NASDAQ
L4 level autonomous driving mass production landing acceleration
Founded in 2017, Wenyuan Zhixing is an autonomous driving technology company that provides autonomous driving products and services ranging from L2 to L4 levels, forming five product matrices including autonomous taxis, autonomous minibuses, autonomous freight vehicles, autonomous sanitation vehicles, and advanced intelligent driving. Its application scenarios cover smart travel, smart freight transportation, and smart sanitation.
Han Xu, founder and CEO of Wenyuan Zhixing, introduced that the successful listing is a new starting point for the company. Wenyuan Zhixing will continue to adhere to technological innovation and bring safe, comfortable, and convenient autonomous driving products and services to users in more countries and regions.
It is reported that Wenyuan Zhixing is a technology company that holds autonomous driving licenses in four regions including China, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and the United States. It has conducted autonomous driving research and development, testing, and operation in 30 cities in seven countries worldwide, with over 1700 operating days.
On October 15th, Wenyuan Zhixing WeRide officially released its new generation mass-produced Robotaxi - GXR. Wenyuan Zhixing stated that as a mass-produced Robotaxi model, the Wenyuan Zhixing GXR has industry-leading L4 level public road operation capabilities, and can easily cope with complex scenarios such as morning and evening rush hour, mixed traffic, and high-speed nighttime driving. Previously, the prospectus indicated that the company plans to begin commercial production of Robotaxi in 2024 and 2025, and is preparing for large-scale commercialization.
Revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan in three years
Investments from Nvidia, Bosch, and others
Data shows that from 2021 to 2023, Wenyuan Zhixing achieved revenue of 138.2 million yuan, 527.5 million yuan, and 401.8 million yuan respectively, with a total revenue of 1.068 billion yuan.
In terms of research and development, from 2021 to 2023, Wenyuan Zhixing's research and development expenses were 443.2 million yuan, 758.6 million yuan, and 1058.4 million yuan, respectively. Wen Yuan Zhixing stated that the company will focus on the testing, experimentation, and commercialization of autonomous driving technology, expand its research and development team, and invest more resources to improve the technology.
The prospectus shows that the main sources of revenue for Wenyuan Zhixing include two parts. The first is to sell L4 level autonomous vehicle, including robot buses, robot taxis, robot cleaning vehicles and related sensor kits. The second is to provide L4 autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) services, covering autonomous driving operation services, technical support services, and ADAS research and development services.
According to Tianyancha information, previously, Wenyuan Zhixing's investors included industry players such as GAC Capital, Bosch, Yutong Group, and Nvidia, as well as He Xiaopeng, China Arab Industrial Investment Fund, and Carlyle Investment Group.
The commercialization and scaling up of autonomous driving are accelerating
Wenyuan Zhixing continuously promotes the commercialization and scaling of autonomous driving.
In September 2024, Wenyuan Zhixing and mobile and delivery technology company Uber announced the establishment of a strategic partnership to jointly promote the launch of Wenyuan Zhixing's autonomous vehicles on the Uber platform. The cooperation between the two parties will officially land in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, by the end of this year. In the same month, Wen Yuanzhixing officially launched the pilot project of the commercialization of intelligent Internet autonomous vehicle in the Hengqin Guangdong Macao in-depth cooperation zone, and launched the charging operation service for autonomous minibuses.
In terms of autonomous taxis, the WeRide Go application is a shared mobile network owned by Wenyuan Zhixing. Meanwhile, Wenyuan Zhixing also collaborates with other shared mobile platforms to provide autonomous taxi services.
In terms of unmanned buses, Wenyuan Zhixing cooperates with Yutong and Jinlong Bus Co., Ltd. to produce unmanned buses. Previously, Wenyuan Zhixing had received approximately 2000 intended orders for unmanned buses.
In terms of unmanned delivery vehicles, in May 2024, Wenyuan Zhixing's unmanned delivery vehicles were allowed to conduct unmanned driving tests in designated areas of Guangzhou.
In terms of unmanned sanitation vehicles, Wenyuan Zhixing has launched commercial pilot projects and conducted tests in nine cities simultaneously.
In terms of software, Wenyuan Zhixing has collaborated with Bosch to start large-scale production and launch ADAS solutions, covering various driving scenarios. The relevant solutions have been applied to a certain model of Chery Automobile.