Innovusion plans to issue up to 21,382,252 ordinary shares and list them on the Nasdaq exchange, according to an announcement from China's securities regulator.
(During the Shanghai auto show in April 2023, Innovusion displayed a Nio ET7 at its booth. Image credit: CnEVPost)
Nio's (NYSE: NIO) LiDAR provider Innovusion plans to make a US initial public offering (IPO), according to a statement from China's securities regulator.
Innovusion plans to issue up to 21,382,252 ordinary shares and list them on the Nasdaq exchange, according to an August 10 announcement on the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) website.
Chinese companies were originally not required to report to their home regulators for US listings, but after the financial fraud of Luckin Coffee, and the farce of Didi's US listing, the CSRC introduced new rules at the end of 2021 that impose the requirement.
The announcement did not reveal much more about Innovusion's planned US IPO.
Founded in 2016, Innovusion has R&D centers in Silicon Valley, Suzhou and Shanghai, and LiDAR manufacturing facilities in Ningbo and Suzhou.
On March 28, 2022, Nio delivered the first ET7 vehicles, marking the mass production of Innovusion's LiDAR products.
Since the ET7 began carrying Innovusion's image-grade, ultra-long-range LiDAR Falcon, all of Nio's NT 2.0 platform-based vehicles have been equipped with the LiDAR as standard.
In October 2018, Innovusion secured $30 million in Series A funding, led by Nio Capital, according to its website.
The company received $64 million in Series B funding in May 2021 and $66 million in Series B+ funding in August 2021, both of which Nio Capital participated in.
Nio launched the new ES6 in China on May 24, and Innovusion posted an article the next day saying that its 2 LiDAR manufacturing sites in Ningbo and Suzhou can operate efficiently, and that the part won't have capacity issues.
Innovusion's annual capacity has reached more than 300,000 units and will continue to increase with future plans, the company said at the time.
Innovusion has partnerships in China with Baidu Apollo, self-driving startup Mogo Auto, and self-driving trucking company TuSimple. On December 8, 2022, California-based electric vehicle maker Faraday Future (NASDAQ: FFIE) announced that it had selected Innovusion's Falcon LiDAR to power the FF 91's autonomous driving system.
Innovusion is one of the first of Nio's suppliers scheduled to go public.
Beijing WeLion New Energy Technology, which supplies semi-solid-state battery cells to Nio, plans to go public as early as 2025, the battery maker's founder Li Hong said in a Bloomberg interview earlier this month.
