(Yicai Global) Feb. 10 -- Hesai Technology, a major Chinese developer of three-dimensional light direction and ranging technologies, has raised USD190 million in the largest initial pubic offering by a Chinese company in the United States since Didi Global went public in New York in 2021.

Hesai sold 10 million American depository shares at USD19 apiece, the top end of the marketed range, becoming also the first Chinese lidar maker to go public in the US. The shares [NASDAQ: HSAI] climbed 11 percent to close at USD21.05 each yesterday, giving the Shanghai-based company a market capitalization of about USD2.6 billion.

Hesei’s is the biggest US IPO by a Chinese business since Didi Global raised USD4.4 billion in June 2021. The ride-hailing giant subsequently delisted from the New York Stock Exchange almost a year later.

A quarter of the proceeds from Heisei’s IPO will be invested in manufacturing capabilities, including building new plants and buying new production and testing equipment, Hesai said. Thirty-five percent will be used for research and development of technologies such as next-generation application-specific integrated circuits and software solutions, the firm added, noting that the rest will go to potential investments and acquisitions.

After the IPO, Hesai founders Li Yifan and Xiang Shaoqing each hold a 7.9 percent stake in the company, equal to 25.1 percent of the voting rights, with the third founder owning 8.2 percent, with 25.9 percent of the voting rights. Chief Financial Officer Xie Dongying has a 1.1 percent stake, giving him 0.3 percent of the rights.

Venture capital giant Lightspeed Venture Partners has invested USD100 million in Hesai since 2018, after having led its five financing rounds. Lightspeed is the lidar maker’s largest institutional investor with a 15 percent stake after the IPO.

“As an early investor in Hesai, we supported the rapid growth of the company all the way, and also went through many ups and downs together,” said James Mi, founding partner of Lightspeed China. “It is thrilling to witness scientific and technological innovations like Hesai develop from the bud to a global leader, and now win the trust of global investors.

“The core hardware for autonomous driving is lidar, which directly affects the development of the entire industry,” Mi added, noting that “Hesai has the world's leading lidar technology research and development capability and has established its own advanced manufacturing capacity.

“We believe Hesai has the ability to support a wider range of autonomous driving applications in the future,” Mi said.

Founded in Shanghai in 2014, Hesai is a leading developer of lidar for self-driving and advanced driver assistance systems. A lidar device measures the precise distance between an object and a sensor by lasing, and is widely used in self-driving cars and robots.

Hesai reported a CNY165 million (USD24.3 million) net loss for the first nine months of 2022, versus CNY175 million a year earlier. Its operating revenue jumped 73 percent to CNY793 million in the period.

Editor: Futura Costaglione