Xpeng, the China-based electric vehicle (EV) producer also known as Xpeng, filed for an initial public offering in the United States on Friday, with corporates Alibaba, Foxconn, UCar and Xiaomi set to exit.
The company has set a $100m placeholder amount as a target for the offering, which is slated to take place on the New York Stock Exchange. Credit Suisse Securities (USA), JP Morgan Securities and BofA Securities are joint bookrunning managers for the IPO.
Founded in 2014, Xpeng produces smart EVs and has so far brought out a sports utility vehicle and a four-door sports sedan model. It made a $523m net loss in 2019, its first year of vehicles sales, from more than $328m in revenue.
The IPO proceeds have been earmarked for research and development along with the expansion of its sales channels, as it looks to beef up its sales and marketing activities.
The filing comes a week after media reports suggested Xpeng was set to raise $300m from investors including e-commerce group Alibaba and the state-owned Qatar Investment Authority.
The extra funding would be added to $500m in series C-plus funding the company raised from Aspex Management, Coatue Management, Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia Capital China last month.
The series C-plus round followed about $1.7bn of earlier funding, including a $324m round led by chauffeured lift provider UCar in 2017.
Alibaba, manufacturing services firm Foxconn and IDG Capital co-led Xpeng’s $348m series B round in January 2018 which included Yunfeng Capital, China International Capital Corporation, Morningside Ventures, GGV Capital, Matrix Partners and Yuri Milner.
Primavera Capital Group led a $585m series B-plus round for the company seven months later, investing alongside Morningside, Hillhouse Capital, Eastern Bell Venture Capital, K11 Investment and Xpeng co-founder and chairman He Xiaopeng at a $3.7bn valuation.
Xpeng secured a further $400m from investors including He Xiaompeng and consumer electronics manufacturer Xiaomi in November 2019. Kinzon Capital, a vehicle for diversified conglomerate Fosun, is among its earlier backers, as are Shunwei Capital and Everbright Zhongying Capital.
He Xiaopeng owns 26.4% of the company’s shares and its largest investors are Alibaba subsidiary Taobao China (14.4%), IDG Capital (6.2%), Morningside (4.2%), GGV Capital (3.8%) and Primvera Capital (3.2%), according to the IPO filing.
