Da He Cai Li Fang reporter Wang Ningning: Another listed company has been added to the field of autonomous driving.
On the evening of November 27th Beijing time, Xiaoma Zhixing was officially listed on NASDAQ in the United States, with the stock code "PONY", becoming the first stock of Robotaxi.
On the first day of listing, the stock price of Xiaoma Zhixing opened high and fell low, with an opening price of $15 per share, an increase of over 15% compared to the issue price of $13 per share. But then the stock price continued to decline, closing at $12 per share, with a first day drop of 7.69%, lower than the issue price.
It is reported that after expanding the issuance scale, if all the underwriters' over allotment rights are exercised, Xiaoma Zhixing will issue a total of 23 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at the upper limit of the issuance range price of $13 per share, with each ADS corresponding to one ordinary share. The financing amount can reach $299 million, making it the largest IPO in the field of autonomous driving in the US stock market this year. With the addition of approximately $153.4 million worth of common stock through synchronous private placement, the total fundraising amount for Xiaoma Zhixing's IPO can reach approximately $452 million.
Peng Jun, co-founder and CEO of Xiaoma Zhixing, stated that since its establishment in 2016, Xiaoma Zhixing has led the industry through cycles for 8 years and has finally reached a critical turning point in commercialization.
In 2018, Xiaoma Zhixing launched Robotaxi service, with its core technology being "virtual drivers" suitable for different vehicle models and scenarios. It has established cooperative relationships with car companies such as Toyota, BAIC, GAC, FAW, SAIC, and Sany. Meanwhile, Xiaoma Zhixing is one of the first domestic enterprises to obtain autonomous driving service licenses in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and the only autonomous driving company to obtain all categories of Robotaxi regulatory licenses in these four first tier cities.
Since the beginning of this year, the intelligent driving track has been hot and has become a key direction for the transformation of the global automotive industry. Domestic autonomous driving companies have successively gone public on the US or Hong Kong stock exchanges. On October 24th, Horizon Robotics (9660. HK), a smart driving unicorn company, was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; On October 25th, Wenyuan Zhixing was listed on the US stock market.
The phenomenon of Tesla, Xiaoma Zhixing and other car companies increasing their investment in Robotaxi indicates that autonomous taxis have been regarded as one of the important directions for future travel. Angel investor and senior artificial intelligence expert Guo Tao told reporters that the promotion of Robotaxi can also bring new business models and revenue sources for car companies.
However, it is worth noting that compliance and safety risks still exist in the intelligent driving industry, and how to achieve profitability, safety, and regulation are still industry issues faced by autonomous driving companies.