NIO to go public on US stock market on September 18, raising $1 billion

NIO will be listed on the U.S. stock market on September 18, raising $1 billion and a market value of $6-8 billion. The last round of private financing before NIO's listing was valued at $5 billion.

NIO successfully became the first Chinese electric car to be listed in the United States, and has been highly recognized by the capital market. This IPO has an ultra-luxury lineup of underwriters: Morgan Stanley, Gaosheng, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Citibank, Credit Suisse, UBS Securities and WR Securities.

In the early morning of August 14, NIO submitted an F-1 prospectus to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, planning to raise up to US$1.8 billion.

Since its establishment in 2014, NIO has been regarded by a considerable number of people in the industry as a benchmark for new car-making forces and the Chinese version of "Tesla".

NIO is trying to build a perfect electric vehicle ecosystem: an efficient energy supply ecosystem. By 2020, NIO plans to build more than 1,100 battery swap stations across the country and deploy more than 1,200 mobile charging vehicles. In addition to smart connectivity, new energy management, and imaginative driverless driving, the complete smart car service ecosystem also includes smart services such as owner big data and smart parking.

Although NIO is a young car manufacturer, it is still favored by the capital market. Its current cumulative financing has exceeded 16 billion yuan, which is still 4 billion yuan away from the minimum threshold mentioned by its founder Li Bin.

In June 2015, NIO completed its Series A financing, with participation from Hillhouse Capital, Tencent, JD.com, Bitauto, Shunwei Capital and others.

In September 2015, NIO completed a $500 million Series B financing round, with Sequoia China and Joy Capital participating. In June 2016, it completed a RMB 100 million Series B+ financing round, with Temasek, Hopu Investments, Le Fund, and TPG participating.

In March 2017, the company raised US$600 million in its Series C round of financing, led by Baidu Capital and Tencent, with participation from Warburg Pincus, IDG, Hillhouse Capital, Lenovo, Hillhouse Capital, Industrial Bank, GIC, TPG, China Renaissance, CICC, Capital Today, and Haitong International.

In May 2017, the company raised its C+ round of financing, led by Everbright Capital, followed by Baidu, Tencent, Warburg Pincus, and Hillhouse Capital.

In October 2017, Tencent led the D round of US$1 billion, followed by Baillie Gifford, Lone Pine, CITIC Capital, and China Asset Management.

NIO is suffering from huge losses, mainly due to huge initial investment and heavy investment in the later construction of NIO House, but vehicle delivery is still in the climbing stage.

NIO's revenue in the first half of 2018 was $6.951 million (about RMB 46 million), of which $6.71 million (about RMB 44.4 million) came from car sales. In the first half of this year, NIO lost $502 million (about RMB 3.325 billion), compared with a net loss of RMB 2.02 billion in the same period last year.

NIO's biggest expense is human cost. In the first half of this year, NIO's salary expenditure was 740 million yuan, which exceeded its R&D expenditure (600 million yuan). NIO currently has more than 6,000 employees, including more than 500 employees in San Jose, California, most of whom focus on design and R&D.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.