Autonomous driving unicorn WeRide has officially submitted its prospectus to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq, Kallanish learns. 

WeRide mainly generates revenue from selling level-four autonomous driving robobuses, robotaxis and related sensor suites, as well as providing L4 autonomous driving and advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) operations, and technical or R&D support. Its partners include original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and tier-one suppliers such as Bosch, Yutong Group, and GAC Group.

As a Cayman Islands holding company with operations mainly conducted by its subsidiaries in mainland China, it plans to be listed on Nasdaq through American depositary shares (ADS) with the stock code "WRD." 

It did not disclose the amount it plans to raise through this listing, leaving previous reports of it raising $500 million unconfirmed. It did list a breakdown of how the company intends to utilise the proceeds from the public offering and concurrent private placements. It plans to use approximately 35% of the proceeds for research and development (R&D) of autonomous driving technologies, products and services; approximately 30% for commercialisation and operation of its autonomous driving fleets, as well as marketing activities to expand into more markets; and approximately 25% to support its capital expenditures, including purchase of testing vehicles, R&D facilities and administrative expenses. The remaining 10% is for general corporate purposes and working capital, which may include potential strategic investments and acquisitions.

Alliance Ventures, the venture capital fund of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, agreed to purchase $97 million in Class A ordinary shares as part of the private placements. 

Founded in 2017, the company has reported continuous losses during recent years despite revenue increases in 2021 and 2022. For the first half of this year, its net loss reached $121.3 million, and the net loss was $268.2 million for 2023. It still claims it has the smallest net loss among publicly-listed L4 companies globally in 2021, 2022 and 2023. 

Its global headquarters is located in Guangzhou, China, a city actively promoting autonomous driving applications in taxi and bus services through potential legislation. The city is planning to introduce the unmanned taxi hailing platform and competitor of WeRide - Robotgo. It also launched China’s first Robotaxi service, completely open to the public, in November 2019, in Guangzhou, covering an area of 144 square kilometres. WeRide says it is the only company with autonomous driving permits in four countries and that has launched trial and commercial operations in 30 cities in seven countries as of this June. It also has R&D and operation centres in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Wuhan, Zhengzhou and Anqing, as well as San Jose, in the USA.