Pony AI, a China-based developer of self-driving vehicle systems for robotaxis and robot trucks, filed for an initial public offering with the SEC on Thursday. The company filed a placeholder deal size. We estimate that the IPO could raise up to $300 million.
Through partnerships with major OEMs such as Toyota, GAC, and SAIC, Pony AI aims to mass produce self-driving technology for use in robotaxis, robot trucks, and other applications. The company currently operates more than 250 robotaxis and 190 robot trucks licensed for driverless operation in all four first-tier cities in China. To date, the company generates the majority of its revenue from technology licensing to OEMs (54% of 2023 revenue, including proprietary vehicle domain controller products, data analytics tools, etc.) and from providing robotic truck logistics services (35%). However, services for which robotaxis are also expected to be used (11%) include AV software deployment and maintenance, vehicle integration and engineering, road testing, and to a lesser extent passenger rides. , will account for a large portion of revenue in the future.
The Guangzhou, China-based company was founded in 2016 and had sales of $84 million for the 12 months ended June 30, 2024. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol PONY. Pony AI was secretly applied for on March 27, 2023. Goldman Sachs (Asia), BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank, Huatai Securities and Tiger Brokers are joint bookrunners on the deal. Pricing terms were not disclosed.
