SHANGHAI, Oct. 25,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On October 25th, 2024, Beijing Time,
WeRide, a world-leading autonomous driving company and Qiming
Venture Partners' portfolio company, began trading on Nasdaq. This
marks a historic milestone as both the world's first pure-play
autonomous driving company to go public and the first publicly
listed Robotaxi company. WeRide (NASDAQ:WRD) offered at
$15.5/ADS, representing a market cap
of $4.3 billion.
Qiming Venture Partners, a leading venture firm committed to
frontier technology investments, has long recognized the
transformative potential of autonomous driving technology for
society. As the earliest and largest financial investor in WeRide,
Qiming has played a pivotal role in the company's growth,
participating in its Series Seed, A, and B funding rounds since
2017.
Established in 2017, WeRide aims to develop safe and reliable
autonomous driving solutions. The company is the only tech company
in the world that simultaneously holds autonomous driving permits
in China, the UAE, Singapore, the US, conducting autonomous
driving R&D, tests and operations in over 30 cities of 7
countries around the world. WeRide has operated a self-driving
fleet for more than 1,700 days.
As the pioneer in autonomous driving technologies with
applications in the passenger transportation, intra-city delivery
and urban sanitation industries, WeRide offers an all-rounded
product mix of Robotaxi, Robobus, Robovan, Robosweeper, and
Advanced Driving solution.
With rich experience in autonomous driving R&D,
commercialization and operation, WeRide has forged strong alliances
with world-class vehicle manufacturers, Tier 1 suppliers, logistics
and urban service providers and others, including
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, Yutong Group, BOSCH, GAC Group,
etc. Currently, WeRide has demonstrated its leadership in the
commercialization of autonomous driving technology. According to
China Insights Consultancy, WeRide is the first autonomous driving
company in the world to accumulate 10,000 purpose-built L4
autonomous driving vehicle intent orders, and the only autonomous
driving company to achieve mass production of an ADAS solution
within 18 months into development, the quickest among its
peers.
WeRide has developed the highly compatible autonomous driving
solution platform, WeRide One, which constitutes a full stack of
industry-leading application software, a flexible set of hardware
and a comprehensive infrastructure software platform. This approach
seamlessly connects the entire lifecycle of autonomous driving
products, from R&D through deployment to application. The
platform is designed to enable scalable implementation of WeRide's
technology across a diverse range of products and scenarios.
Tony Han, Founder and CEO of
WeRide, stated, "Since its inception, WeRide has been dedicated to
transforming urban living with autonomous driving. We are grateful
to Qiming Venture Partners for choosing to stand by us during the
early stages of WeRide's development, offering long-term support up
to the milestone we celebrate today. The IPO marks a new beginning
for the company's growth. Moving forward, WeRide will continue to
adhere to its path of productizing technology and commercializing
products, bringing safe, comfortable, and convenient autonomous
driving technologies, products, and services to users in more
countries and regions."
Duane Kuang, Founding Managing
Partner of Qiming Venture Partners, stated, "As the earliest
investor in WeRide, we're proud to have witnessed the company's
transformation from a concept into an industry leader. Over the
years, the WeRide team has demonstrated remarkable resilience and
commitment to using their world-class autonomous driving technology
to improve the world. This IPO represents a significant milestone
and the beginning of a new chapter for WeRide. We are confident in
WeRide's continued innovation and its role in accelerating the
development of autonomous driving applications for the benefit of
humanity. Qiming remains dedicated to supporting visionary
companies like WeRide in the smart mobility sector and its
ecosystem."
About Qiming Venture Partners
Qiming Venture Partners was founded in 2006. Currently, Qiming
Venture Partners manages eleven US
Dollar funds and seven RMB
funds with $9.5 billion in capital
raised. Since our establishment, we have invested in outstanding
companies in the Technology and Consumer (T&C) and Healthcare
industries at the early and growth stages.
Since our debut, we have backed over 530 fast-growing and
innovative companies. Over 200 of our portfolio companies have
achieved exits through IPOs at the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX, Shanghai
Stock Exchange, or Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or through M&A or
other means. There are also over 70 portfolio companies that have
achieved unicorn or super unicorn status.
Many of our portfolio companies are today's most influential
firms in their respective sectors, including Xiaomi, Meituan, Bilibili, Zhihu, Roborock, UBTech,
WeRide, Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals, Tigermed, Zai Lab, CanSino Biologics, Schrödinger, APT
Medical, New Horizon Health, Sanyou Medical, AmoyDx, Berry
Genomics, SinocellTech, Yuanxin Technology, Caidya, Belief BioMed,
among many others.
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SOURCE Qiming Venture Partners