Recently, TechStar Acquisition Corporation (07855. HK), a special purpose acquisition company, announced that Seyond, the successor company of the special purpose acquisition transaction, has submitted a new listing application. Seyond plans to land on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the De SPAC model. This means that Seyond is only one step away from going public through a backdoor listing. If it successfully goes public, it will become the third mainland LiDAR company to go public after Hesai Technology and Sagitar Juchuang.
It is reported that Seyond has agreed to a valuation of HKD 11.7 billion. TechStar and Seyond have entered into investment agreements with three PIPE investors, and the proceeds from the PIPE investment will be approximately HKD 551.3 million. PIPE investors include: Mount Huangshan Construction Investment Capital under the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Mount Huangshan City invested 387.5 million Hong Kong dollars; Gong Hongjia's subsidiary Fuche invested HKD 156 million; Huagai Capital invested HKD 78 million through Zhuhai Hengqin Huagai.
Since its establishment, Seyond has completed multiple rounds of financing, and its investors include well-known institutions such as NIO Capital, Temasek, Fidelity Investments, Gaorong Venture Capital, Sidao Capital, Huachuang Capital, Joyful Capital, Shunwei Capital, and Guotai Junan Venture Capital.
The announcement shows that approximately 40% of the net proceeds from Seyond's listing will be used for research and development; About 25% will be used for building self operated manufacturing facilities and upgrading the existing production lines of the target group; About 15% will be used for launching and optimizing the supply chain; About 10% is used for global expansion; The remaining 10% will be used for general company purposes, which may include working capital needs and potential strategic investments and acquisitions.
Seyond is a provider of image level LiDAR and solutions, founded in 2016. The company focuses on the research and production of automotive grade LiDAR, and is a global leader in the design, development, and production of automotive grade LiDAR solutions. Its main products include Falcon K1, Falcon K2, Lingque E1X, Lingque W, OmniVidi, etc., which can be widely used in scenarios such as autonomous driving, low-speed unmanned vehicles, intelligent transportation, smart cities, power stations, and vehicle road coordination.
According to data from Zhuoshi Consulting, Seyond delivered a total of over 147000 standard grade LiDAR vehicles in 2023, ranking first globally in terms of ADAS LiDAR solution sales revenue. Seyond has achieved great success in product design, development, and commercialization. According to Zhuoshi Consulting, Seyond is one of the few companies with a commercial record in both automotive and non automotive solutions. The company has established mass production facilities in Suzhou, Deqing, and Pinghu, China, and utilizes its mature supply chain, production, and commercialization experience in China to maintain effective control over key production and procurement processes.
Like many intelligent driving track companies, Seyond also has a strong "Baidu background": Seyond's two founders are Bao Junwei and Li Yimin. Before founding the company, the two founders worked at Baidu's US R&D center, responsible for the in car computing system and sensor team of Baidu's autonomous driving business unit. After the completion of the merger and acquisition transaction, Bao Junwei held a total of 12.66% of the shares through Phthalo Blue LLC and High Altos Limited; Li Yimin holds 1.69% of the shares.
Seyond has a close partnership with NIO, and its mass-produced long-range main view LiDAR Falcon has been delivered as standard for NIO's Aquila Super Sensing System on the NT2.0 platform. It is equipped on multiple models including ET7, ET5, ES7, ES8, EC7, ES6, ET5T, and EC6. As of February 3rd, NIO has chosen to adopt Seyond's LiDAR solution on its 9 models. From 2022 to 2023 and the first three quarters of 2024, Seyond's revenue from NIO was approximately $58.8 million, $110 million, and $110 million, respectively, accounting for 88.7%, 90.6%, and 92.4% of the total revenue for the same period.
In addition, as of now, the company has obtained winning designs from six other OEMs and ADAS or ADS companies, including Hongjing Intelligent Driving, Zhitu Technology, Pony AI, etc. These companies integrate Seyond's LiDAR into their ADAS for cargo and logistics applications as well as commercial vehicle applications.
On January 20th, Seyond and Xingshen Intelligence announced a formal strategic cooperation. The two sides will deeply integrate resources, focus on Seyond's high-performance LiDAR solution and Xingshen Intelligence's advanced intelligent driving technology, take functional unmanned vehicle applications as the starting point, and work together to build an efficient operation system for functional unmanned vehicles in multiple scenarios such as end of pipe logistics, smart transportation, smart sanitation, and smart scenic spots, driving the globalization and large-scale application of functional unmanned vehicles.
In terms of performance, Seyond is still in a loss making stage. In the first nine months of 2022, 2023, and 2024, Seyond's operating income was $66 million, $121 million, and $119 million, respectively, with corresponding net losses of $188 million, $219 million, and $130 million, respectively. The adjusted net losses were $143 million, $137 million, and $76 million, respectively.
Source: Yangtze River Delta Laser Alliance
