On March 17th, China’s EV startup, Leapmotor, filed for an IPO in Hong Kong Stock Exchange HKEX marking the fourth mainland EV maker to start share trading in HKEX.

CICC, Citi, J.P. Morgan Chase, and CCB International are the co-sponsors of the IPO.

According to the IPO document, Leapmotor plans to use the raised funds on the R&D of intelligent electric vehicles, improving its production capability, and enhancing its brand awareness. 

In fact, Leapmotor’s IPO is anticipated by the industry. There were talks about the IPO since 2021, in line with its prominent business performance.

The IPO document showed that the company delivered a total of 43,748 vehicles in 2021, with an annual revenue of RMB3.132 billion $493.07 million RMB3.058 billion $481.42 million) of which are generated by selling cars and auto parts. 

Currently, there is over 1,000 research staff in Leapmotor, accounting for 33.9% of the company’s entire roster. Its yearly R&D cost in 2019, 2020, and 2021, amounted to RMB358 million $56.36 million RMB289 million $45.5 million and RMB740 million $116.5 million respectively. 

Up to now, the EV maker has secured almost ten billion yuan of investment from various enterprises and organizations, including Dahua Technology, CCI Fund, Sequoia Capital, and Shanghai Electric.