One of the very few companies globally to achieve full autonomous driving, truly leading the way in the mass production and commercialization of Robotaxi.

Original article by IPO Early Bird | Author: Stone Jin | WeChat public account: ipozaozhidao

According to IPO Early Bird, Pony.ai Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "Pony.ai") submitted a red herring prospectus to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on November 14, 2024, Eastern Time. This signifies that Pony.ai is poised to officially become the "First Global Robotaxi Stock".

Pony.ai plans to issue 15 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) in this IPO, with a price range of $11 to $13 per ADS, and the underwriters have an additional over-allotment option of 2.25 million ADS. Among them, BAIC Group and Singapore-based transport operator ComfortDelGro will participate in Pony.ai's IPO as cornerstone investors - the former intends to subscribe for ADS worth up to $70.35 million, and the latter intends to subscribe for ADS worth up to $4.5 million.

Additionally, Pony.ai will simultaneously conduct a strategic private placement of approximately $153.4 million, with multiple investors, including GAC Capital, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GAC Group, participating in the placement.

In other words, through this IPO and strategic private placement, Pony.ai's IPO fundraising scale could reach up to approximately $378 million (approximately RMB 2.747 billion).

Founded in 2016, Pony.ai primarily provides autonomous driving technologies and solutions for the global market in the fields of transportation and logistics, developing "Virtual Driver" technology applicable to different vehicle models and scenarios. Based on this, Pony.ai's revenue also primarily comes from autonomous ride-hailing services (Robotaxi), autonomous trucks (Robotruck), and technology licensing and application services. Currently, Pony.ai's autonomous road test mileage totals nearly 40 million kilometers.

Among them, Pony.ai launched PonyPilot, China's first autonomous ride-hailing service (Robotaxi), in December 2018, and has become one of the very few companies globally to achieve full autonomous driving, truly leading the way in the mass production and commercialization of Robotaxi. According to Frost & Sullivan's report, Pony.ai is one of the first batch of enterprises in China to obtain autonomous ride-hailing (Robotaxi) licenses in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and is the only autonomous driving technology company to obtain all available regulatory approvals in these four domestic first-tier cities.

To date, Pony.ai has deployed over 250 Robotaxi vehicles nationwide and has commenced fully autonomous commercial charging services for Robotaxi in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Its Robotaxi has accumulated over 33.5 million kilometers of autonomous road test mileage, including over 3.9 million kilometers of driverless road test mileage. As of June 30, 2024, the number of registered users on the PonyPilot mobile app exceeded 220,000; by the end of August 2024, approximately 70% of registered users had used PonyPilot multiple times. Additionally, Pony.ai has also integrated with third-party ride-hailing platforms such as Gaode Maps, Alipay, and Ruqi Chuxing. As of June 30, 2024, the average daily number of orders for each fully autonomous Pony.ai Robotaxi exceeded 15.

It is noteworthy that Pony.ai anticipates that its Robotaxi business will achieve positive gross profit per vehicle operation in 2025, partly thanks to its continued efforts in the mass production of Robotaxi. In August 2019, Pony.ai and Toyota officially announced a strategic partnership to begin the development of the first Robotaxi model. In April of this year, Pony.ai, Toyota China, and GAC Toyota established a joint venture with an investment exceeding RMB 1 billion to jointly promote the mass production of autonomous taxis and the implementation of services. Currently, the joint venture is conducting joint research and development and production planning for the first Boxi 4X Robotaxi model, and has begun production preparations, with plans to deploy over 1,000 Robotaxi vehicles in first-tier cities from 2025 to 2026.

Not long ago, Pony.ai also announced a technical cooperation with BAIC BJEV on the development of L4 autonomous driving models. Both parties will jointly research and develop fully autonomous Robotaxi models based on the ARCFOX Alpha T5 model, with plans to deploy at least 1,000 BAIC BJEV Robotaxi vehicles in the domestic market.

It is not difficult to find that Pony.ai has established comprehensive cooperation with domestic and international mainstream automakers such as Toyota, BAIC, GAC, and FAW - on the one hand, in terms of financial support, BAIC and GAC are participating in this IPO subscription, while Toyota and FAW participated in Pony.ai's Series C funding round, with Toyota being Pony.ai's largest strategic investor in terms of shareholding; on the other hand, in terms of strategic support, Pony.ai is also Toyota's only L4 autonomous driving partner in China.

Regarding globalization, Pony.ai is also advancing its overseas layout of autonomous driving technology solutions and products in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and other regions. In fact, ComfortDelGro, which is participating in the IPO subscription, is an important partner of Pony.ai in advancing its Robotaxi globalization strategy, with operations in 12 countries and an operating network of over 29,000 taxis globally. In July of this year, the two parties signed a memorandum of cooperation to jointly promote the commercialization of driverless taxis in China and other countries and regions.

Additionally, the red herring prospectus has also updated Pony.ai's financial data for the first three quarters of this year - in the first three quarters of this year, Pony.ai's overall revenue increased by 85.5% year-on-year, with all business segments showing revenue growth. Among them, Pony.ai's autonomous ride-hailing service revenue was $4.7 million, a year-on-year increase of 422.2%; autonomous freight service revenue was $27.4 million, a year-on-year increase of 56.5%; and technology licensing and application service revenue was $7.4 million, a year-on-year increase of 155.2%.

In its prospectus, Pony.ai stated that approximately 40% of the net proceeds from the IPO will be used for the large-scale commercialization and market expansion of autonomous ride-hailing and freight services; approximately 40% will be used for continuous research and development investment in autonomous driving technology; and approximately 20% will be used for potential strategic investments and acquisitions to enhance technological capabilities and build an industrial chain ecosystem.

This article is originally written by the IPO Early Bird public account (ID: ipozaozhidao). For reprints, please contact