Recently, Xiaoma Zhixing was listed on NASDAQ in the United States. Since its listing, Xiaoma Zhixing has actively promoted the commercialization of autonomous driving. Recently, Wang Haojun, Chief Financial Officer of Xiaoma Zhixing, stated in an interview with China Securities Journal that the company will continue to invest in technological innovation, promote the commercialization of autonomous driving for travel and logistics, and integrate autonomous driving into daily life.
Focus on the autonomous driving track
One click ordering on the mobile app, and a few minutes later, a Xiaoma Zhixing Robotaxi (autonomous taxi) arrived at the designated boarding point on time. After getting on the car, fastening the seat belt, and confirming the travel information, Robotaxi slowly starts and gradually accelerates. After more than 10 minutes of smooth driving, including slowing down and turning, avoiding pedestrians, and waiting, the vehicle safely transported the reporter to their destination.
On November 27th this year, Xiaoma Zhixing was officially listed on NASDAQ in the United States, becoming the largest IPO in the field of autonomous driving in the US stock market this year, attracting global capital market attention. Recently, the reporter visited Xiaoma Zhixing's Nansha headquarters in Guangzhou to experience Xiaoma Zhixing's Robotaxi autonomous driving service and gain a deeper understanding of the company's development history.
Xiaoma Zhixing was founded in 2016, committed to providing safe, advanced, and reliable full stack autonomous driving technology, achieving a complete transformation of future transportation modes, and ultimately realizing the vision of "making autonomous driving within reach". In December 2018, Xiaoma Zhixing launched the first domestic autonomous driving travel service platform. By creating "virtual drivers" suitable for different vehicle models and scenarios, the company has currently laid out three major businesses: autonomous driving travel services, autonomous driving trucks, and intelligent driving of passenger cars.
Xiaoma Zhixing has obtained licenses for autonomous driving services in four first tier cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. At present, the company has established research and development centers in Silicon Valley, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places, and has laid out autonomous driving business in countries and regions such as South Korea, Luxembourg, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. As of now, the company Robotaxi has accumulated over 33.5 million kilometers of autonomous driving road test mileage, including nearly 4 million kilometers of unmanned testing mileage.
According to the prospectus data, the operating revenue of Xiaoma Zhixing in 2022 and 2023 were 68.39 million US dollars and 71.9 million US dollars, respectively. In the first three quarters of 2024, the company achieved a revenue of 39.51 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 85.5%. Listing on NASDAQ is a new starting point for the company's development. The company will continue to invest in technological innovation and promote the commercialization of autonomous driving and logistics, "said Wang Haojun.
Continuously promote mass production
Recently, Everbright Securities released a research report stating that it is expected that the domestic Robotaxi market size will exceed 100 billion yuan by 2030. Robotaxi, represented by Xiaoma Zhixing, is accelerating its commercialization and may become a catalyst for the industrial chain.
On December 11th, Xiaoma Zhixing and GAC Aion held a strategic cooperation signing ceremony for Robotaxi. The two sides will further cooperate to create a large-scale production model of Robotaxi with commercial operation competitiveness, and jointly promote the commercialization of fully unmanned Robotaxi production. Peng Jun, founder of Xiaoma Zhixing, stated at the signing ceremony that cooperation with GAC Aion is an important layout for Xiaoma Zhixing to continue its large-scale production and commercialization strategy of Robotaxi. As a leading global enterprise in new energy vehicles, GAC Aion has abundant technological reserves and forward-looking layout in the field of intelligent driving. Both parties will work together to create future travel products that bring users a safe, comfortable, and convenient travel experience.
It is reported that Xiaoma Zhixing and GAC Aion will jointly develop a fully redundant front-end production Robotaxi vehicle platform based on Aion's global models and Xiaoma Zhixing's seventh generation autonomous driving software and hardware system solution. At present, both sides have launched a technological battle around the research and development of autonomous driving vehicle grade kits, vehicle production, chassis redundancy safety design, and other aspects. They plan to launch at least a thousand units of the Aion Robotaxi model, with the first batch to be completed by 2025 and first landed in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, covering more regions in the future.
Since the beginning of this year, Xiaoma Zhixing has continuously strengthened its cooperation with car companies such as Toyota, GAC, and BAIC, covering key areas such as forward research and development of vehicle models, production line construction, road testing, and announcement certification, working together to promote the large-scale development of Robotaxi production. Recently, Xiaoma Zhixing also held a signing ceremony for L4 unmanned driving vehicle development technology cooperation with BAIC New Energy. Both parties will aim to mass produce Robotaxi models with full unmanned commercial capabilities, and jointly promote the large-scale implementation of autonomous driving travel services.
Capital empowers technological innovation
Starting from a startup company, how can it grow into an industry "unicorn" in just a few years and become the "first global Robotaxi stock"? Wang Haojun stated that since its establishment, Xiaoma Zhixing has continued to make significant strides in development, which cannot be achieved without the long-term support of automotive companies and venture capital institutions.
According to statistics, the pre IPO financing amount of Xiaoma Zhixing has exceeded 1.3 billion US dollars. The funds raised from this IPO will mainly be used for large-scale commercialization and market development of autonomous driving travel services and freight services, continuous research and investment in autonomous driving technology, as well as potential strategic investments and acquisitions.
In recent years, Guangdong has vigorously promoted the development of the venture capital industry and accelerated the innovation and development of enterprises. As early as 2018, Xiaoma Zhixing signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with Guangzhou Automobile Group, landing the first domestically operated autonomous driving fleet in Guangzhou. On October 10th this year, GAC Group announced that in order to deepen business collaboration and promote the company's development in the field of autonomous driving, it agreed to invest 27 million US dollars in Xiaoma Zhixing, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GAC Capital.
The relevant person in charge of GAC Capital introduced that as the equity investment and financing platform of GAC Group, GAC Capital focuses on the development direction of the "new four modernizations" of automobiles, focusing on investment layout in the fields of chips, intelligent networking, and power batteries, and empowering the development of the automotive industry. It is committed to becoming a professional investment institution in the field of intelligent transportation. In addition to Xiaoma Zhixing, Sagitar Juchuang, Fute Technology, Horizon Robotics, and Wenyuan Zhixing invested by GAC Capital have all successfully gone public this year. At present, the company has invested in projects with a total market valuation of approximately 500 billion yuan.