On October 17, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued a notice on the filing of WeRide Inc.'s overseas issuance and listing, stating that the company's filing materials for overseas issuance and listing had been received. The Company intends to issue up to 159,045,000 shares of its common stock and list on the United States NASDAQ exchange.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) stated that from the date of issuance of the filing notice to the end of the overseas issuance and listing, if a major event occurs in the company, it should report through the filing management information system of the China Securities Regulatory Commission in accordance with the relevant regulations on the overseas issuance and listing of domestic enterprises. Within 15 working days after the completion of the overseas issuance and listing, WeRide shall report the issuance and listing through the filing management information system of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. In the process of overseas issuance and listing, the company shall strictly abide by the relevant laws, regulations and rules at home and abroad. If WeRide has not completed the overseas issuance and listing within 12 months from the date of issuance of the filing notice and intends to continue to promote it, it shall update the filing materials.
Synthesis | Prospectus: WeRide
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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute any trading advice
WeRide (WRD) previously filed with the SEC to list on the Nasdaq exchange in United States, with Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and CICC as lead underwriters.
Founded in 2017, WeRide is the only technology company in the world that has autonomous driving licenses in China, U.A.E., Singapore and United States at the same time, and is committed to "changing human travel with unmanned driving", and has carried out autonomous driving R&D, testing and operation in 30 cities in 7 countries around the world. The five major product matrices, including high-end intelligent driving, provide a variety of services such as online car-hailing, on-demand public transportation, intra-city freight, intelligent sanitation, and high-end intelligent driving solutions.
With the diversified commercialization strategy of "1 platform + 3 major scenarios + 5 major products", WeRide has reached strategic partnerships with many of the world's top OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, including Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, Yutong Group, Bosch, GAC Group, etc., to continuously provide more new choices for human mobility.
On October 15, WeRide officially released its next-generation mass-produced Robotaxi - GXR. WeRide said that the car is the world's most space-based Robotaxi model so far.
As a mass-produced Robotaxi model, the GXR has industry-leading L4 public road operation capabilities, and can easily cope with complex scenarios such as morning and evening rush hours, mixed traffic of people and vehicles, and high-speed driving at night.
The GXR is equipped with WeRide's new-generation sensor suite Sensor Suite 5.6, which adopts a streamlined and compact design with low wind resistance, and has more than 20 sensors, including high-performance and low-cost LiDAR, high-definition and high-dynamic cameras, and RTK high-precision combined inertial navigation modules, which can realize 360° perception of the surrounding area without blind spots and 200 meters ahead, covering extreme scenarios such as high dynamics and low light.
As the first technology company in China to launch commercial Robotaxi operations, WeRide continues to be at the forefront of the industry, accumulating more than 1,800 days of public operation experience, and expanding its footprint overseas, operating the largest Robotaxi fleet in the Middle East.
GXR is another ingenuity of WeRide to upgrade the passenger experience on the basis of its operational experience at home and abroad, and will continue to meet the diversified travel needs of users around the world by providing high-quality and innovative travel experiences for more and more users with the company's global layout.
In June this year, WeRide was notified of the commercialization of high-speed road travel services in the Beijing Intelligent Connected Vehicle Policy Pilot Zone, and its autonomous mobility service vehicles were approved to carry out commercialization pilots of autonomous driving travel services in specific areas of Beijing.
WeRide founder and CEO Han Xu worked as chief scientist for autonomous driving at Baidu before leaving Baidu in March 2017. Xu Han holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in United States, is a tenured professor at the University of Missouri, and was the director of the Computer Vision and Machine Learning Laboratory.
Prior to the IPO, Han Xu held 7.6% of the shares and had 31% of the voting rights; Li Yan holds 6.3% of the shares and has 10.8% of the voting rights; Duane Ziping Kuang holds 8.5% of the shares and has 5.7% of the voting rights.
WeRide has completed 10 rounds of financing, with investors including He Xiaopeng, Guangzhou Automobile Group (601238. SH), NVIDIA, Bosch, IDG Capital, Qiming Venture Capital, Cornerstone Capital, etc., have accumulated more than 1.09 billion US dollars (about 7.903 billion yuan) in public financing, and completed the last round of D+ financing in 2022, with a valuation of 5.1 billion US dollars (about 36.977 billion yuan).
WeRide said that the company's commercial revenue ranks first among similar autonomous driving companies. According to the prospectus, its main sources of revenue are divided into two parts: the first part is the sale of products, including robot buses, robot taxis, robot sweepers and related sensor kits; The second part is to provide services, including autonomous driving operations, technical support services, and ADAS R&D services.
In terms of products, WeRide's product line in the field of autonomous driving covers many aspects, demonstrating its comprehensive strength in software and hardware. At present, WeRide's Robotaxi has provided paid services in three cities around the world, and is the first company to provide paid L4 robo-taxi services to the public, and has been operating safely on the open road for four years now.
RoboBus achieved commercial production in 2021 and made its services available to the public in Guangzhou in 2022, becoming the first company in the world to offer driverless Robobus services. In addition, the company has developed a Level 4 robotic van, which was launched in September 2021 with the aim of improving the efficiency of intra-city logistics.
In the field of cleaning, WeRide has developed the world's first L4 robot vacuum, which has been successfully piloted in Guangzhou and tested in nine cities.
In terms of software, WeRide has partnered with Bosch to leverage its experience in L4 autonomous driving technology to provide advanced driver assistance systems covering a variety of driving scenarios. The company's ADAS solutions are expected to maintain a leading position in the industry due to their outstanding performance in terms of technical advantages, system security and scalability.
At the same time, WeRide also has a wealth of cooperation with OEMs and Tier1. In the field of autonomous driving, it has established in-depth cooperative relations with many top OEMs and Tier1 suppliers around the world. In addition, WeRide also provides L4 autonomous driving and ADAS R&D services to partners.
From 2021 to 2023, WeRide achieved revenue of 138.2 million yuan, 527.5 million yuan, and 401.8 million yuan respectively, and in the first half of 2024, the company achieved revenue of 150.3 million yuan. The gross profit margin levels from 2021 to 2023 are 37.4%, 44.1% and 45.7%, respectively.
WeRide's cumulative adjusted loss for the three years from 2021 to 2023 was RMB1.328 billion. Compared with the same industry, according to the financial report disclosed by General Motors of United States, Cruise, a comparable L4 autonomous driving company of WeRide, has an adjusted net loss of US$900 million in the first half of 2024, about 20 times that of WeRide, and the company's loss is better than that of the industry.
According to the prospectus, WeRide's R&D expenses are primarily comprised of personnel costs related to the engineering personnel responsible for designing, developing, and testing autonomous vehicles. From 2021 to the first half of 2024, WeRide's R&D expenses were RMB443.2 million, RMB758.6 million, RMB1,058.4 million, and RMB517.2 million, respectively, with a cumulative total of RMB2.778 billion in three and a half years.
WeRide said that they will focus their R&D investment on testing, trial and commercialization of autonomous driving technology, expand the R&D team and invest more resources to improve technical capabilities. The company also promised that its R&D expenses will continue to increase.
According to the prospectus, the global and Chinese mainland autonomous driving markets will be US$10 billion and US$2 billion respectively in 2022, and the global and Chinese mainland autonomous driving markets are expected to reach US$1.745 trillion and US$639 billion respectively by 2030.
Among them, self-driving taxis and self-driving trucks are the most important markets in the field of autonomous driving. According to the prospectus, the global and Chinese mainland robotaxi markets are expected to reach US$15 billion and US$5 billion in 2025, and US$545 billion and US$201 billion in 2030, with a CAGR of 106% and 111% from 2025 to 2030, respectively.
In terms of autonomous trucks, the global and Chinese mainland robotic logistics vehicle markets are expected to reach US$13 billion and US$3 billion respectively in 2025, and US$784 billion and US$294 billion in 2030.
While focusing on the domestic market, WeRide has put a lot of energy into overseas market development. Especially in the development of the Middle East market, the company has made great progress.
Up to now, WeRide has been operating Robotaxi in U.A.E. for nearly 3 years, and the operation area has been expanding, gradually expanding from the initial small-scale demonstration area to the core economic development zone, serving local citizens and completing more than 20,000 orders.
In addition to the Middle East, WeRide has established teams in Singapore and Europe in 2022 and 2023, and the company will continue to expand its overseas expansion to more countries and regions such as East Asia, North Africa, and South America.