Pony.ai is expected to make an IPO in the US as soon as September, and has already received investment interest from some institutional investors, according to local media.
Chinese autonomous driving startup Pony.ai, is expected to make an initial public offering (IPO) in the US as soon as September, local media Jiemian said today, citing people familiar with the matter.
The startup, which is backed by Toyota and Nio Capital, has received clear investment interest from several institutional investors, according to the report.
For Pony.ai, the challenge for its US IPO is not the process itself, but how to find a valuation that balances the psychological expectations of the founding team, early-stage investors, and secondary market investors, the report said.
Founded in late 2016, Pony.ai has R&D centers in Silicon Valley, Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai, and local robotaxi operations.
In late 2019, Nio Capital invested an undisclosed amount in the company. In February 2020 Pony.ai announced it had raised $400 million from Toyota.
On August 4, 2023, Pony.ai signed an agreement with Toyota and Toyota's joint venture company in China, GAC Toyota, to create a joint venture company to operate the robotaxi business.
On October 25, 2023, Pony.ai said it received a $100 million investment from Saudi Arabia's Neom and its investment fund NIF (Neom Investment Fund).
In this D2 round last October, Pony.ai was valued at $8.5 billion, the same as before, according to a report by local media outlet 36kr at the time.
Pony.ai had filed with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) in April to go public in the US, according to an announcement dated April 22.
Pony.ai planned to issue up to 98,149,500 ordinary shares and list them on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange or the New York Stock Exchange in the US, according to the announcement.
The company had revealed in 2021 that it was considering a US listing, but its plans were put on hold as US authorities at the time tightened scrutiny of IPOs by Chinese companies, Jiemian's report noted.
For autonomous driving companies, including Pony.ai, not achieving profitability and their own high valuations have made it difficult to raise capital in the shrinking primary market, the report said.
The price of listing overseas could be seeing low liquidity and potentially lower valuations, Jiemian said.
This will likely be a tough discussion, as early investors may accept making less money, but late entrants will need to take losses, the report said.
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