China's top bike-sharing company will use the listing as its new funding source.
Last week, Hello-Inc submitted its prospectus on NASDAQ to be listed in the United States stock market, with Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and CICC as its sponsors. Since its establishment, the company has completed ten rounds of financing. After completing Series E in April 2018, four rounds of strategic funding have been completed before 2020. Considering its financing history, listing in the United States has become the most crucial way for Hello-Inc to obtain continuous funding sources.
Founded in 2016, Hello-Inc's products ('Xiaolan') did not occupy much market share in the war of bike-sharing market compared with Ofo and Mobike. However, the company has survived the reshuffle of the industry and is slowly gaining a firm foothold. It continues to expand its revenue and narrow its losses by expanding its service boundary. According to the prospectus, it achieves revenue of CNY 2.11 billion, CNY 4.82 billion and CNY 6.04 billion respectively in 2018, 2019 and 2020 with a CAGR of 70%.
The company has recently launched several primary mobile travel services such as shared bicycle service and windmill service. In addition, it has developed a variety of products and services for multicity scenarios, including hotel reservations, group purchases, taxi services and online advertising. As of December 31, 2020, the company's app has become the third-largest local service platform in China in terms of transaction volume. In terms of riding volume, it ranks the top bike-sharing provider of China in 2020, indicating a potential IPO to watch.