Self-Driving Startup Pony.ai Seeks Up to $195 Million in IPO

(Bloomberg) — Pony.ai Inc. is looking to raise as much as $195 million from its US initial public offering as automotive-related companies lead a modest pickup in Chinese listings.

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The autonomous driving startup set a price range of $11 to $13 for its American depositary shares, according to a regulatory filing Thursday. The top of the price range implies a market value for the company of about $4.5 billion, based on the filing.

Investment Global Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Beijing Automotive Group Co., and ComfortDelGro Ventures Pte Ltd. indicated an interest in purchasing up to roughly $75 million worth of the offering. Guangzhou Automobile Group, a top Chinese automaker and backer of another self-driving car company, WeRide Inc., is among the investors that struck a deal to buy about $153 million worth of shares from the company in a concurrent deal, the filing shows.

Pony.ai had considered selling shares in the US in 2021 but put that plan on hold, Bloomberg News reported at the time.

About $40 billion has been raised via IPOs on US exchanges this year, a roughly 60% jump from same period in 2023 but still below the average in the decade before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The two biggest Chinese listings in the US this year have been WeRide and Zeekr Intelligent Technology Holding Ltd., the data show.

Founded in Silicon Valley in 2016, Pony.ai develops and operates self-driving fleets in the US and China. Its vehicles include trucks and robotaxis. In December, it received a permit to provide fare-charging, fully driverless taxi services in Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

Pony.ai’s backers include Toyota Motor Corp. and Saudi Arabia’s Neom Co. China’s securities regulator approved the New York IPO in April as Beijing loosened its clampdown on domestic tech companies trying to list overseas.

(Updates with additional cities in sixth paragraph.)