Shanghai-based LiDAR maker Hesai Group made its debut on the Nasdaq, becoming the first Chinese LiDAR manufacturer to list in the US. The company’s shares began trading under the ticker HSAI and opened at $23.75, a 25% increase from its offering price. By the end of the day, the shares had risen 10.79% to $21.05, giving the company a market capitalization of $2.6 billion.
The initial public offering (IPO) saw the company make a public offering of 10 million ADS shares for a total of $190 million, making it the largest IPO of a Chinese company in the US in the past 18 months. The IPO is also the first deal by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse to underwrite a US-listed Chinese company since 2021.
Hesai was founded in Shanghai in 2014 and initially focused on developing high-performance laser sensors. Since 2016, the company has been exploring driverless LiDAR products. In 2021, the company had filed to go public on China’s sci-tech innovation board, but withdrew the IPO in March of that year.
However, later that year, Hesai closed a Series D funding round of over $300 million with investors including GL Ventures, Xiaomi, and Meituan. In November 2021, Xiaomi invested an additional $70 million, bringing Hesai’s total Series D funding to over $370 million.
See also: Changan new car models will carry AT128 LiDAR from Hesai Technology
From 2019 to 2021, the company’s net revenue increased from RMB 348.1 million to $720.8 million, with 19.4% growth in 2020 and 73.5% year-on-year growth in 2021. For the first three quarters of 2022, the company’s net revenue was RMB 793.5 million, a 72.7% increase from the same period in 2021.
Hesai has partnerships with companies including Li Auto, Jidu, Aiways, WeRide, and Nvidia. In September 2022, Xiaomi identified Hesai as its LiDAR supplier for its first model, using the company’s hybrid solid-state radar, AT128, as the primary radar and several all-solid-state radars as fill-in radars. In September of that same year, Hesai announced that it had exceeded 10,000 deliveries of its AT128 LiDAR in a single month, making it the first LiDAR manufacturer in the world to reach this milestone.
The company’s production line is automated at 90%, with an average of one qualified LiDAR product rolling off the line every 60 seconds. Hesai has also invested nearly $200 million in a manufacturing center known as Maxwell, which has a planned annual capacity of over 1 million units and is expected to go into operation this year.
