Guangzhou-based WeRide Inc. (文远知行), a self-driving super unicorn company valued at USD 5.1 billion (about RMB 37.2 billion), has been granted an IPO license in the US.
Guangzhou-based WeRide Inc. (文远知行), a self-driving super unicorn company valued at USD 5.1 billion (about RMB 37.2 billion), has been granted an IPO license in the US.
WeRide is a technology company dedicated to the research and development of L4-level autonomous driving, and has formed one platform, three scenarios and five product operation modes. The company plans to further strengthen its presence in the international market through the issuance of up to 159 million ordinary shares and plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ exchange.
Data on WeRide's official website shows that up to now, the company has deployed more than 600 self-driving vehicles globally and accumulated more than 20 million kilometers of self-driving mileage. WeRide successfully launched self-driving cab (Robotaxi) service, and in November 2019, WeRide landed the country's first Robotaxi service open to the public in Guangzhou, which is the earliest company in China to land commercialized Robotaxi service.
EqualOcean reviewed data from MarketsandMarkets and found that the driverless market back magic is expected to grow from USD 26.2 billion in 2022 to USD 38.3 billion in 2027, with a CAGR of 9.7% from 2022-2027, and that the driverless industry is expected to grow significantly over the next 10 years in the residential and commercial sectors.
In terms of internationalization, on 3/7/23, the UAE approved the first autonomous driving road running license and awarded it to WeRide, which is also the first national-level full-area autonomous driving road running license in the Middle East and even in the world, and WeRide will carry out road running tests and operations of various types of autonomous driving vehicles in the UAE. It is worth noting that in addition to its technological achievements, WeRide is also in the spotlight because of the inauguration of Zhao Xiaohui, a well-known stand-up comedian, which has further boosted the company's popularity and influence.
Competition in the field of autonomous driving is fierce, and in addition to WeRide, many domestic and foreign companies are also actively laying out their business. Representative domestic companies include Baidu(百度), Azure(蔚来), Xiaopeng(小鹏), etc.; while internationally, Tesla(特斯拉), Waymo, Uber(优步), etc. are also in the spotlight.
In the recent financing activities, Wenyuan Zhixing has once again won the favor of investors. According to the latest data, Wenyuan Zhixing has raised more than $1 billion in total, with investors including NVIDIA(英伟达), GAC Group(广汽集团), IDG Capital(IDG资本), CMC Capital(CMC资本), etc. The company's latest valuation reaches $5.1 billion.
This new financing will further strengthen Wenyuan Zhixing's technological innovation and market expansion in the field of automated driving, enabling it to better promote the development of automated driving technology globally and lead the future of intelligent mobility.