Will it succeed this time?
Lalatech, the Hong Kong-based logistic platform backed by Hillhouse and Sequoia China, has filed its application to go public on the Hong Kong stock exchange with Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities and JPMorgan Chase serving as IPO sponsors.
The intra-city carrier operated under Lalamove brand in the overseas market and under Huolala (Chinese: 货拉拉) in mainland China. It recorded revenue of USD 529 million, USD 844 million, USD 1036 million in 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively, marking a compounded annual growth rate of nearly 40%, per prospectus.
According to Frost & Sullivan, Lalamove is the world's largest logistics trading platform by closed-loop GTV in the first half of 2022, with a global GTV of USD 7.307 billion in the whole year 2022, as disclosed in the prospectus.
The company also presents strong growth in users, with average monthly active users (MAUs) increasing from 7.3 million to 11.4 million and doubling average monthly active drivers between 2020 and 2022. Moreover, the carrier's global fulfillment orders reached 428 million in 2022, ranking first among logistics trading platforms worldwide in terms of average monthly active users and annual fulfillment orders.
Along with the growth in business scale, Lalamove has also achieved significant operational growth. In 2022, it turned profitable for the first time, with adjusted profit for the year of USD 53.2 million.
Previously in June 2021, the on-demand logistics and delivery startup has confidentially submitted an IPO application to the US Stock Exchange, seeking to raise at least USD 1 billion in the share sale, as reported by Bloomberg.
According to Tianyancha, Lalamove has completed eleven rounds of financing, with a total amount of USD 2.626 billion (about CNY 18.087 billion). The prospectus showed that the company bagged another CNY 230 million in a Series G financing in February 2022; however, the investors were not disclosed.
Lalamove is also a pioneer in expanding overseas, who has further made its presence in markets such as Southeast Asia and Latin America. At present, the company is operating in more than 400 cities in 11 markets worldwide with the aim of promoting the digitization of freight transactions.