Dida Mobility restarts IPO: NIO Capital, JD.com and others are important shareholders

Lei Jianping February 20

As the state's policies to support the platform economy and encourage the private economy have been introduced one after another, the Hong Kong stock market has continued to recover, and IPO financing activities have recovered, many companies are preparing IPOs.

On 20 February 2023, Dida also submitted its IPO application in Hong Kong, restarting the IPO process, with CICC, Haitong International and Nomura International as joint sponsors.

According to the prospectus, the IPO fundraising intends to focus on the following aspects: improving technical capabilities and upgrading security mechanisms; Expand the user base and strengthen marketing and promotion programs; Enhance monetization; Selectively pursue strategic alliances and investment and acquisition opportunities in the value chain of the Chinese mobility market.

It will achieve profitability for four consecutive years

According to reports, Dida Travel is an integrated service provider of travel information, and its business model is an asset-light business model. Dida Mobility does not rely on large capital investments or traffic purchases, does not own or lease fleet vehicles, does not bear any car ownership costs, and does not need to provide substantial subsidies to private car owners and taxi drivers.

This asset-light business model enables Dida to quickly expand its business scale with minimal incremental costs, achieving unit economy and operating leverage ratio higher than the industry level.

According to the listing application information, in the first nine months of 2020, 2021 and 2022 under the epidemic, the total transaction volume (GTV) of Dida Chuxing was about 8.1 billion yuan, 7.8 billion yuan and 4.6 billion yuan, the total operating income was 754.2 million yuan, 780.6 million yuan and 428.3 million yuan, and the adjusted net profit was 343.3 million yuan, 238.0 million yuan and 65.4 million yuan, respectively.

This means that although it has been continuously affected by the epidemic in the past three years, Dida Chuxing, which has been profitable for the first time since 2019, will achieve profitability for four consecutive years, and the platform has maintained a continuous "self-hematopoiesis".

According to the prospectus, during the 30-day period including the two weeks before and after the Spring Festival holiday in 2023, the Dida hitchhiker business has returned to the pre-COVID-19 level based on the number of rides promoted by Dida Ride.

Many Tick Hitchhiker owners said, "I used to have to wait to see if there was an order for the ride, but now many riders will take the initiative to send me invitations." ”

At present, with the mature application of new generation digital technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing, the degree of integration of China's digital economy and the real economy is constantly increasing, and it is gradually expanding from the consumption field to the production field, promoting the development of related industries. The report of the 20th National Congress pointed out that "develop the digital economy and promote the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy." ”

The Central Economic Work Conference held in December 2022 also proposed that "we should vigorously develop the digital economy and support platform enterprises to play a role in leading development, creating jobs and international competition; Promote the green transformation of economic and social development, and work together to promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion and growth, and build a beautiful China. The executive meeting of the State Council that followed also clearly emphasized that "support the healthy and sustainable development of the platform economy." ”

It can be expected that as China opens up at the end of 2022, Dida Chuxing's performance in 2023 will improve significantly.

12.4 million certified hitchhikers

Behind the continuous profit of nearly four years, Dida Chuxing focuses on the actual needs of public travel, focusing on the two major businesses of "real hitchhiking" and "smart taxi", and constantly carrying out refined operations.

According to the listing application data, in 2020, 2021 and the first nine months of 2022, the R&D expenses of Dida Chuxing continued to increase, reaching 47.346 million yuan, 60.071 million yuan and 61.514 million yuan respectively, accounting for 6.3%, 7.7% and 14.4% of the revenue, respectively.

According to the F&S report, China's four-wheel travel market is composed of taxi ride-hailing, taxi ride-hailing, ride-hailing and hitchhiking, with total orders of about 14.4 billion, 1.8 billion, 10.2 billion and 300 million respectively in 2021. This means that Dida Chuxing's business areas (taxi promotion, taxi ride-hailing and ride-hailing) account for more than 60% of China's four-wheel travel market.

Among them, the hitchhiker market will be the fastest growing segment with a CAGR of 28%. The taxi market accounts for the largest share of China's four-wheeled travel market, but the Yangzhao business accounts for 89.8%, and the digitalization of the Yangzhao scene is still in the early stages.

According to the listing application materials, as of September 30, 2022, Dida Hitchhiker has opened services in 366 cities across the country, with 12.4 million certified hitchhiker owners.

At the same time, Dida taxi service has opened to 86 cities across the country, and has promoted strategic cooperation with 53 cities including Xi'an, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shiyan, Jinan, Qiqihar, Nanning, Cangzhou, Jingzhou, Guiyang and Zhengzhou.

In the first half of 2022, the average response time of Dida Hitchhiker orders was shortened by 10% year-on-year, and the overall review and certification time of Hitchhiker owners was accelerated by 300%. In addition, the optimization of optimal combination, quick matching, and order search list sorting improves the order receiving experience of car owners.

Since 2019, Dida Chuxing has deeply implemented the decision-making and deployment of comprehensively deepening the reform of the taxi industry, promoted the "three modernizations" project of taxis, and made efforts to digitize the entire service chain of taxis through the two directions of "digital recruitment" and "network reduction", empowering the traditional taxi industry from the three dimensions of digital traffic management, taxi service and industry efficiency, truly combining scientific and technological innovation with solving industry pain points and promoting growth, and achieving two-way incremental development of recruitment and network contract with deep synergy of digital and real integration.

As of September 30, 2022, the Dida Taxi Smart Code has received approximately 98.5 million passenger reviews. 798 taxi companies in 65 cities use the Dida Phoenix Taxi cloud platform service.

With the deepening of the carbon neutrality strategy, promoting green and low-carbon economic and social development will become an important direction for the high-quality development of society and enterprises. Dida Mobility has a strong ESG gene, deeply integrates ESG concepts with corporate development strategies and business growth, and advocates "tapping potential and increasing efficiency" on the basis of "no additional vehicles".

According to the listing application information, Dida Hitchhiker is focused on creating new vehicle transport efficiency without additional road footprint. According to the F&S report, in 2021, Dida Hitchhiker users lost more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to planting about 1.4 million acres of forest.

NIO Capital, IDG, Schunk Capital, Bitauto, Hillhouse, and JD.com are important shareholders

Since its inception, Dida has attracted many institutional and corporate investors to invest in the company, including NIO, IDG, Schunk Capital, Bitauto, Hillhouse, JD.com and Ctrip.

In 2015, Dida completed a Series B financing led by institutional and corporate investors such as IDG and Bitauto, and in the same year, completed a series C financing of US$100 million. In 2017, Dida completed a Series D financing led by NIO Capital.

Before the IPO, five co-founders, Song Zhongjie, Li Jinlong, Zhu Min, Duan Jianbo and Li Yuejun, held 33.11% of the company through 5brothers Limited, which was the majority shareholder;

Song Zhongjie, Li Jinlong, Li Yuejun, Zhu Min and Duan Jianbo own 59.33%, 10.87%, 10.87%, 10.87% and 8.06% of the equity interests in 5brothers Limited respectively.

NIO Capital holds a total of 21.92% through Leap Profit and SMART, Bitcar holds 5.05%, IDG Capital holds 10.43%, and Eastnor Castle Limited under Schunk Capital holds 7.29%.

Hillhouse Capital's HH SPR-IV holds 4.23%, JD.com's Sumptuous holds 4.23%, Ctrip holds 2.92%, and Trustbridge Partners V, L.P. holds 1.46%.

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Lei Dian was founded by media person Lei Jianping, if reprinted, please indicate the source.