On October 25th local time, autonomous driving company WeRide (WRD.US) was officially listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. On its first day of trading, WeRide shares rose as much as 27% during the session, closing up 6.77% at $16.55 per share, giving it a total market value of $4.491 billion.
The initial public offering price for WeRide was set at $15.5 per American Depositary Share (ADS), with the total amount raised potentially reaching $458.5 million. The funds raised will be used for the research and development of autonomous driving technology and services, the commercial operation of the autonomous driving fleet, capital expenditures, and supplementary operating funds. Prior to this, WeRide had undergone six rounds of financing, with investors including IDG Capital, Cornerstone Capital, Qiming Venture Capital, and industrial investors such as GAC Capital and Bosch, as well as individuals like He Xiaopeng, chairman of XPeng Motors.
Established in 2017, WeRide's main business is autonomous driving products and services from levels L2 to L4, including autonomous taxi services (Robotaxi), autonomous minibuses (Robobus), autonomous freight vehicles (Robovan), autonomous sanitation vehicles (Robosweeper), and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).
However, the prospectus indicates that due to high initial research and development investments, WeRide is still in a loss-making state. From 2021 to the first half of 2024, WeRide's revenues were 138 million yuan, 528 million yuan, 402 million yuan, and 150 million yuan respectively; net losses were 1.007 billion yuan, 1.298 billion yuan, 1.982 billion yuan, and 882 million yuan, with a total net loss of over 5.1 billion yuan in three and a half years; adjusted net losses were 426 million yuan, 401 million yuan, 501 million yuan, and 316 million yuan respectively. During the corresponding reporting periods, WeRide's R&D expenditures were 443 million yuan, 759 million yuan, 1.058 billion yuan, and 517 million yuan, with a total R&D investment of 2.777 billion yuan over three and a half years, accounting for approximately 54.07% of the cumulative losses.
According to the China Star Market, in terms of commercialization, WeRide holds autonomous driving licenses in China, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore, and has conducted autonomous driving R&D, testing, and operations in 30 cities across seven countries. At the same time, WeRide is the world's first company to provide paid L4 level Robotaxi services to the public with the longest operating history and is also the world's first company to provide Robobus services on open roads. Additionally, the company's L4 level autonomous driving car orders were the first to break ten thousand.
This year, several companies in the autonomous driving field have gone public: in July 2024, Ruqi Mobility, which focuses on autonomous driving operation technology, was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In August 2024, Black Sesame Technologies, an AI chip company for smart cars, was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. On October 24, Horizon Robotics, which raised a total of 5.407 billion Hong Kong dollars, became the largest technology IPO in Hong Kong this year.
In addition, several companies are preparing to go public: on October 18, Pony.ai, which is also committed to the commercialization of Robotaxi, officially submitted its IPO prospectus to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and plans to list on NASDAQ. Companies such as Momenta, Westwell, and ZongMu Technology, which cover the fields of smart driving chips, LiDAR, and autonomous driving solutions, are in line for listing.
In China, pilot programs for Robotaxi in various cities and the integration of vehicle-road-cloud are strongly supported by policy. Overseas, Tesla recently released two Robotaxi concept models, Cybercab and Robovan, with the Cybercab scheduled to hit the market between 2026 and 2027.
According to Frost & Sullivan forecasts, Robotaxi services are expected to become commercialized around 2026, with the global market size expected to reach $290 million in 2025 and further reach $66.6 billion by 2030. China is expected to become the largest Robotaxi market, with a market size expected to reach $200 million and $39 billion in 2025 and 2030, respectively.
