VMS Group portfolio company, CiDi, officially submitted its prospectus to The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong on November 7^th 2024, aiming to be listed on the main board. CICC, CSCI and Ping An are the joint sponsors. This marks the second autonomous driving firm, after Black Sesame Technologies, to go public under the Hong Kong Chapter 18C scheme. Notably, CiDi was founded by Prof. Zexiang Li, a renowned business mentor and professor of department of electronic and computer engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Since its founding in 2017, CiDi has completed a total of eight rounds of financing, raising a total of over ¥ 1.5 billion. Its post-investment valuation has surpassed ¥ 9 billion. The company has attracted investments from well-known firms and local governments, including Sequoia China, Xinding Capital, Legend Star, EBA Investments, Founder Hesheng Fund, Liangjiang Capital, Baidu Ventures, and Ruishi Capital.

VMS Group has been actively focusing on the technology sector, especially in the field of AI infrastructure and native applications since 2016. One of our notable investments is in Pony.ai, a leading autonomous driving technology company, where we have made multiple follow-up investments. Pony AI has gained significant market recognition and filed for its IPO in the U.S. in October 2024.

Then in 2021, we participated in the early investment of CiDi, further strengthening our investment strategy in autonomous driving.

Through our deep involvement in this sector, VMS Group has built a comprehensive AI investment ecosystem and expanded into the semiconductor industry. Since 2022, we have increased our investments in semiconductors, supporting several related companies and enhancing our expertise and influence in AI technology.

CiDi’s history can be traced back to 2017. The company is leading provider of autonomous driving technology for commercial vehicles in China. CiDi focuses on the research and development of autonomous mining and logistics trucks, V2X technologies and high-performance perception solutions, and offer cutting-edge products and solutions underpinned by proprietary technologies.

CiDi developed products and solutions, adapting autonomous driving technology to rail transit and commercial vehicles. CiDi’s pioneering full-stack autonomous mining solution, METAMINE, automates labor-intensive mining operations by integrating our proprietary algorithms with widely-used autonomous driving hardware for commercial vehicles, enabling autonomous operation and remote monitoring of driverless mining trucks. According to China Insights Consultancy (CIC), CiDi delivered the world’s largest driverless mining fleet operating with manned vehicles. CiDi’s autonomous mining trucks also significantly boosted mining efficiency to 104% of that of human-driven mining trucks, as certified by the National Institute of Metrology of China (NIM) in 2022, making CiDi the first and only autonomous driving company in China to achieve such efficiency. Additionally, as of November 1, 2024, CiDi is the only major autonomous driving technology company to commercialize solutions for all three major scenarios including closed environments, urban roads, and intercity roads in China.

The unique business strategy and full-stack technological prowess made CiDi a market leader in mass commercialization. CiDi served 31, 41, 85 and 100 customers as of December 31, 2021, 2022 and 2023 and June 30, 2024, respectively. As of September 30, 2024, CiDi’s total backlog of orders amounted to approximately ¥ 500 million.

As of September 30, 2024, CiDi delivered 123 autonomous mining trucks to customers and received indicative orders for 320 autonomous mining trucks and 206 sets of standalone autonomous truck systems. Since its deployment up until Nov 1, 2024, the autonomous mining trucks have transported over 12 million tons of coal and ore, accumulated over 1.2 million kilometers of driving, and operated continuously for up to 700 days.

In its prospectus, CiDi stated that the net proceeds from the IPO will be used for:

• Research and development
• Improving commercialization capabilities in China and overseas and further strengthening our cooperation with domestic and global customers
• Potential investment, and merger and acquisition opportunities aimed at further integrating upstream and downstream resources in the industrial chain
• Working capital and general corporate uses

For more details, please refer to CiDi’s prospectus available at: https://www1.hkexnews.hk/app/sehk/2024/106895/documents/sehk24110700575.pdf