On April 25, Hellobike filed a prospectus on Nasdaq for an IPO in the US, intending to raise up to USD 100 million with Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and CICC as co-sponsors.
Founded in September 2016, Hellobike is a Chinese bike-sharing company. Compared to other leading bike-sharing brands, the company does not have competitive performance and lacks strong capital support in first-tier cities. Its expansion strategy is mainly devised for second or third-tier cities in China.
The IPO prospectus indicates that Hellobike achieved revenue figures of CNY 2.114 billion, CNY 4.823 billion and CNY 6.044 billion in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively, with corresponding net losses of CNY 2.208 billion yuan, CNY 1.505 billion and CNY 1.134 billion. The company’s gross profits accounted for CNY -1.147 billion, CNY 419 million and CNY 715 million, respectively.
In terms of user statistics, Hellobike's annual transaction users reached 183 million in 2020, with a total transaction amount of CNY 13 billion and a total of 5.2 billion annual transactions. Among them, 34% of users have used two or more services of the company, and the average user retention rate rises above 60% if the user uses the platform for over a year.
In December 2017, Hello Travel announced the completion of a new round of financing, worth USD 350 million. From this financing, Ant Group became an investor in Hellobike as a powerful support. Thus, the company projects a rapid expansion.
After nearly five years of development, Hellobike has now developed into a comprehensive mobile travel platform covering shared bikes, electric vehicles, hitchhiking, taxi, and local transportation services. In 2020, Hellobike has adjusted its strategy to become a travel-based inclusive living platform. As of December 31, 2020, Hellobike said it had become the No. 1 bike-sharing service provider in China in terms of the number of rides.