Pony AI raised $413 million in its US offering, making it the largest IPO in the autonomous driving space on the US stock market this year.
Chinese autonomous driving startup Pony AI (NASDAQ: PONY) went public on the Nasdaq overnight, making it the largest initial public offering (IPO) in the autonomous driving space on the US stock market this year.
Pony AI's IPO offering was priced at $13 per ADS (American Depositary Share), which is at the upper end of the $11-$13 price range. Each ADS corresponds to one ordinary share.
After expanding the size of the offering by 33.3 percent from the originally planned 15 million shares, the company issued 20 million ADSs to raise a total of $260 million.
It also sold about $153 million worth of ordinary shares through concurrent private placements, bringing the total amount raised in the IPO to $413 million.
Notably, Pony AI was valued at just over $5 billion in the IPO, down significantly from $8.5 billion two years ago.
The company was trading at $15 per ADS at the US opening overnight and fell 7.69 percent to $12 at the close, giving it a market capitalization of $4.66 billion.
Its latest market capitalization is about the same as that of WeRide (NASDAQ: WRD), another Chinese startup autonomous driving tech company that went public on Nasdaq on October 25 and had a market cap of $4.71 billion as of Wednesday's close.
Founded in 2016, Pony AI is one of China's first autonomous driving technology companies and is seen as the Chinese version of Waymo.
Its co-founder and CEO, Peng Jun, and co-founder and CTO, Lou Tiancheng, have both worked at Baidu, with Peng holding 17.3 percent of the shares as well as 55.6 percent of the voting rights, and Lou holding 6.1 percent of the shares and 19.5 percent of the voting rights.
As of June 30 this year, Pony AI had 1,359 employees, including a research and development team of 601, according to its latest prospectus.
Pony AI has raised a cumulative amount of over $1.3 billion prior to its IPO and was valued at $8.5 billion in its last funding round in March 2022.
Its backers include car companies such as Toyota and GAC, as well as venture capital firms such as Nio Capital, Sequoia China, and IDG Capital.
Pony AI aims to create virtual drivers for different car models and scenarios, with robotaxi, robotruck, and personally-owned vehicles (POV) businesses.
The company reported revenue of $68.39 million, $71.9 million, and $24.72 million in 2022, 2023, and the first half of 2024, respectively.
In the first three quarters of 2024, the company's total revenue increased 85.5 percent year-on-year to $39.51 million.
However, autonomous driving remains a money-burning business.
From the beginning of 2022 through June 30, 2024, Pony AI had a cumulative net loss of $324 million. In the first half of 2024, it reported a net loss of $51.78 million.
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