Horizon Robotics ("Horizon"), a portfolio company of Franklin Medici Fund Management, was officially listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 24 October 2024 under the stock code "9660". The joint sponsors are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and CITIC Capital International. 

 Horizon issued a total of 1.355 billion shares in the IPO, raising net proceeds of approximately HK$5.142 billion. Among them, Alibaba, Baidu, Duffy Group and Ningbo State-owned Assets Fund participated in the offering as cornerstone investors, subscribing a cumulative total of approximately US$220 million, as a sign of their optimism in the long-term value of Horizon. 

 Since its establishment, Horizon has also obtained investments from well-known institutions such as Gao Tiles, Wuyuan Capital, Sequoia China, Linear Capital, Zhenge Fund, and Harvest Capital; capital from many automobile companies such as Volkswagen Group, SAIC Group, GAC Capital, Great Wall Motors, Chery Automobile, FAW Group, and BYD; and capital from enterprises upstream and downstream of the industry chain such as Intel, SK Hynix, Nindegye, Lixin Precision, Starry Starry, Weir, and Sunny Optical, among others. The last financing has a post-investment valuation of over 87%. The last financing was valued at more than US$8.7 billion (RMB 62.6 billion). Franklin Medici Fund Management also participated in the investment. 

 As of 10:10 on 24 October, Horizon was quoted at HK$5.01 per share, up 25.56% from the issue price, with a market capitalisation of HK$65.280 billion. 

 Founded in 2015, Horizon, as the first and annually the largest Chinese company to provide front-loaded mass-produced Advanced Assisted Driving and Higher Order Autonomous Driving solutions, its software-hardware integrated solutions have now reached cooperation with 27 OEMs (42 OEMs), with 290 fixed-point vehicle models, and the cumulative number of vehicle models that have reached SOPs is 152, and all the top ten Chinese OEMs have selected Horizon's solutions for mass production of their passenger car models.

Dr Kai Yu, Founder and CEO of Horizon, said in his speech at the listing ceremony, "After nine years of hard work, we have become the preferred partner for many automotive brands to lay out their intelligence in China, as well as an important driving force in the transformation of automotive intelligence. The completion of this Hong Kong listing marks a key step towards the international market." 

 F&M has been accompanying Horizon since its Series C financing in 2020. Along the way, F&M has continued to be optimistic about the intelligent driving industry ecosystem created by Horizon, and has witnessed it step by step walk up to the international poker table and become a global leader, and has continued to look forward to Horizon's broadening of the industry's imagination for us. F&M believes that Chinese technology companies represented by Horizon will lead the way, which is why F&M adheres to the investment philosophy of "Wealth to Beauty".

Currently, Horizon offers a portfolio of advanced assisted driving and high-level autonomous driving solutions covering Horizon Mono, Horizon Pilot and Horizon SuperDrive to meet customers' different needs from mainstream advanced assisted driving to high-level autonomous driving, and has achieved full scene coverage in urban areas, high speeds and parking. 

 Among them, Horizon Mono is positioned as an active safety advanced assisted driving solution, aiming to improve the safety and comfort of daily driving, and is currently embedded in Horizon Journey 2 or Journey 3; Horizon Pilot is positioned as a high-speed automatic pilot (NOA) solution, providing a safe and efficient driving experience, and is currently embedded in Horizon Journey 3 or Journey 5; Horizon SuperDrive, a high-level autonomous driving solution designed to enable smooth and anthropomorphic autonomous driving capabilities in all city, highway and parking scenarios, is expected to be embedded in the latest Horizon Journey 6. 

 To date, the Horizon Journey family of in-vehicle intelligent computing solutions has exceeded 6 million shipments. 

 As of 31 December 2021, 2022 and 2023, and 30 June 2024, Horizon has already secured a cumulative total of 44, 101, 210 and 275 vehicle models, respectively. In 2023 alone, Horizon has secured more than 100 new model placements. 

 Unsurprisingly, Horizon has more than tripled its 2023 order book compared to 2021, and quadrupled its installed base of solutions between 2022 and 2023. According to Scorch Consulting, Horizon's market share of advanced assisted driving and higher-order autonomous driving solutions in China increases by approximately 7 percentage points from 2022 to 2023, based on the installed base of advanced assisted driving and higher-order autonomous driving solutions. 

 To date, Horizon has secured 290 vehicle models, the cumulative number of models with SOPs is 152, and all of the top ten Chinese OEMs have selected Horizon's solutions for mass production of their passenger car models.

In April this year, Horizon released the new generation of in-vehicle intelligent computing solutions Journey®6 series and the full-scene intelligent driving solution Horizon SuperDrive two intelligent driving technology products - the former is the only series of computing solutions in China to meet the needs of "full-order" intelligent driving mass production, containing a total of six versions. The former is the only series of computing solutions in China that meets the needs of "all-order" intelligent driving in mass production, with a total of six versions, which to a certain extent represents Horizon's product R&D leaping from a single point to a series; as for the latter, in the second quarter of this year, SuperDrive has already reached a cooperation with a number of top Tier1 and automotive brands, and will launch the standard version of the mass production solution in the fourth quarter of 2024, and the first mass production cooperation will be achieved in the third quarter of 2025. Q3 to achieve delivery of the first production partner model.

It is worth noting that the Horizon Journey 6 series, which is "explosive on debut", has now secured mass production co-operation with 10 automotive companies and brands, including SAIC Group, Volkswagen Group and Volkswagen Group. Including SAIC Group, Volkswagen Group, BYD, Ideal Automobile, GAC Group, Deep Blue Automobile, BAIC Group, Chery Automobile, Xingtu Automobile, and Lantu Automobile, etc., and will realise the delivery of more than 10 models in mass production in 2025. Meanwhile, the industry's top software and hardware ecological partners have gathered in Journey 6 to invest in development, and several partners have now launched software and hardware production-grade solutions. 

 According to a third-party report, in the first half of 2024, Horizon ranked first in the market with a 28.65% share of the Journey series of computing solutions, covering low, medium and high-level full-scenario smart driving mass production needs. Meanwhile, Horizon jumped to the first place in the market of front-view all-in-one computing solutions for autonomous brand passenger cars (L2 ADAS) with a 33% share.

In addition to the aforementioned inclusion of the top 10 OEMs in China, Horizon has also established joint ventures with global industry giants such as Volkswagen Group, which to a certain extent proves Horizon's status as a trusted partner in the field of advanced assisted driving and high-level autonomous driving for passenger cars. In addition to OEMs, Horizon has also established strategic partnerships with global Tier 1 supplier customers such as Ampofo, Bosch, Continental, Denso, and ZF.

To a certain extent, the cooperation between Horizon and Volkswagen Group is not only a landmark event in the field of intelligent driving, but also means that the new generation of technology companies represented by Horizon has already been on the international poker table, which is a huge confidence boost for technology companies in the entire intelligent industry chain in China. 

 According to Scorchlight Consulting, the global advanced assisted driving and high-level autonomous driving solutions market will be $61.9 billion in 2023, and is expected to continue to grow at a CAGR of 49.2% to further increase to $1,017.1 billion in 2030.

 Among them, China is the world's largest automotive market by sales volume, and is also the world's largest market for advanced assisted driving and advanced autonomous driving solutions. According to Scorchlight Consulting, the market size of China's advanced assisted driving and advanced autonomous driving solutions market will be RMB 24.5 billion in 2023, and is expected to increase to RMB 407 billion in 2030 at a CAGR of 49.4%, while the penetration rate of smart cars equipped with advanced assisted driving or advanced autonomous driving solutions in China is expected to reach 99.7% by 2030.

 This means that Horizon may be poised to capture a larger share of the largest market today and in the future. After all, Horizon has accumulated a substantial R&D base over the past nine years, as well as years of local business operations, giving it more extensive knowledge and hands-on experience in designing advanced assisted driving and higher-order automated driving solutions to address China's unique and challenging road conditions. 

 In terms of financials, from 2021 to 2023, Horizon's revenue will be $467 million, $906 million and $1.552 billion, respectively, representing a compound annual growth rate of 82.3 per cent; in the first half of this year, Horizon's revenue increased by 151.6 per cent year-on-year to $935 million.

 From 2021 to 2023, Horizon's gross profit will be $331 million, $628 million and $1,094 million respectively, while gross margins for the same period will be 70.9%, 69.3% and 70.5% respectively. In the first half of this year, Horizon's gross profit increased by 225.99 per cent year-on-year to $739 million, and gross profit margin further improved to 79.0 per cent.

In fact, Horizon's business model is also highly flexible and scalable - on the one hand, Horizon's customers are able to choose any solution or any combination of components across a full stack of offerings, from algorithms, to software and development tools, to processing hardware; on the other hand, Horizon can often build on the OEM customer's already-set-point model uptake to scale the deployment of the solution. 

 In addition, as Horizon's customers increase their production scale, Horizon's business scales with the increasing number of vehicles equipped with its solutions. After successfully penetrating a customer's vehicle model, customers tend to adopt more categories of Horizon's solutions for other vehicle models, and Horizon has the opportunity to sell more leading-edge solutions and more components to existing customers, all of which helps Horizon build a stable pipeline of orders.

Among the investors behind Horizon, both High Altitude and Five Sources Capital have invested in Horizon in multiple rounds since the seed round and are currently the only financial investors in Horizon's board of directors.

As early as September 2014, before Horizon was formally founded, Gao Tiles got acquainted with Yu Kai and made a decision to invest in the company, and completed 7 rounds of investment in Horizon in the following 9 years. At every critical moment of Horizon's development, Gao Lei stood together with the company, tapping into the company's value in terms of future strategy, industry chain resources, and important customer links. 

 It is a little-known fact that Zhang Lei also introduced his good friend Liu Qin, founding partner of Wuyuan Capital, to Yu Kai; and when the smart driving industry was greatly questioned by outsiders and almost no investors were willing to make a bid (2018-2019), Gao Tiling once again led Horizon's C round of financing. 

 According to Li Liang, a founding partner of Gao Tiles, "At the beginning of Horizon's venture, smart cars were still at a very early stage, but traditional car manufacturers had already started to be anxious. During this period, Yu Kai consciously communicated with the core management and core R&D team of a large number of traditional car makers, after which they launched solutions that were very customer problem oriented. So Yu Kai's strong communication skills for the commercialisation of Horizon 5 years later to play a very solid foundation. In addition, his communication skills are also reflected in the multi-oriented. For example, for overseas, for a long time he is also maintaining conscious communication, this kind of consciousness I think also helps Horizon to maintain its vision and strengthen its technology leadership."

 In 2015, Five Sources Capital led Horizon's seed round of financing, and has since continued to participate in its Series A, B and C rounds. 

 Liu Qin, founding partner of Five Sources Capital, recalled that it spent a night in deep conversation with Yu Kai at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beijing in 2015 when he decided to start Horizon. "At that time, most entrepreneurs were focusing on technology and products, while Yu Kai had already stood at the height of the entire technology innovation industry to think about the problem, trying to build a computing platform for robots and seize the value creation of software ecological empowerment. Yu Kai's simultaneous depth of business thinking and technical literacy is impressive."

Sequoia China has been accompanying Horizon since its seed round of financing for nearly a decade now. 

 Sequoia China partner Zhou Kui recalled that Sequoia China met Yu Kai, the executive vice president of Baidu Deep Learning Institute, as early as 2014. At that time, Yu Kai was still a "scientist" with a dream and vision. Subsequently, Sequoia and Yu Kai discussed entrepreneurial opportunities in the general direction of artificial intelligence, e-commerce, and chips, and hit it off right away, actively investing in Horizon's seed round. 

 Zhou Kui further emphasised that behind Horizon's achievements today, we can see the founding team's continuous growth, self iteration, and resilience and calmness in the face of difficulties and challenges. Yu Kai has gradually grown from a starry-eyed "scientist" to a down-to-earth entrepreneur, who, on one hand, continuously maintains sensitivity to cutting-edge technology and focuses on product power, and on the other hand, pragmatically establishes a wide range of customer groups, carries out in-depth cooperation and services, and step-by-step builds up Horizon into a leading domestic and international software and hardware service provider of Smart Driving. service provider at home and abroad.

 Linear Capital is also the earliest investor in Horizon. 

 Wang Huai, Founder and CEO of Linear Capital, said, "Listing is a new starting point for a technology company, and technology investment and technology entrepreneurship is a long and hard road. In addition to congratulating Horizon on its proud achievements, Linear Capital also hopes that Horizon's growth story will inspire more tech entrepreneurs - we believe that Horizon has done a good demonstration, and that the new generation of Chinese hard-tech entrepreneurs will surely bring the best tech products to the world and promote the progress of many industries, making the world a better place. progress and make this world a better place." 

 Zhenge Capital has invested in Horizon's seed and Series A rounds of financing. 

 Fang Aizhi, founding partner and CEO of Zenith Fund, revealed that investing in Horizon is the most amazing story of finding someone in Zenith's history, stemming from a chance encounter. "

Mr Xu Xiaoping is a donor to the Future Science Prize, and the organising committee invited Mr Xu to see the office, so I went along, and it turned out that Yu Kai was there too. Yu Kai is a top scientist and also a top entrepreneur. From the time we met by chance in 2015, to the time he left Baidu to found Horizon, and the two rounds of continuous investment, we have witnessed him build a strong team, promote the application of deep learning in China, and achieve remarkable results. We sincerely congratulate Horizon on its achievements in the field of intelligent driving!" Fang Aizhi said.

Zhijin Xia, Managing Partner of Xiangfeng Investment, said, "Since investing in Horizon's Series A financing in 2016, Xiangfeng has accompanied the company for nearly nine years and witnessed the company grow step by step into a global leader in the field of intelligent driving. Xiangfeng believes that Horizon's success comes firstly from the founding team's vision and superb execution, but also thanks to the megatrend of China's smart driving industry taking off rapidly, which is the best practice of China's innovation to lead the world, and the best proof of Xiangfeng Investment's confidence and patience in China's technology." 

Yunfeng Fund said, "Congratulations to Horizon for officially landing on the Hong Kong stock market! In the future, it is believed that under the leadership of Dr Kai Yu, Horizon will create more competitive technology products for the era of automotive intelligence and even machine intelligence, build a more diversified and synergistic ecosystem, expand more application scenarios and geographic markets, and develop into an intelligent technology enterprise with a global benchmarking influence, creating more value for users, industry and society. CloudFront will also continue to work with Horizon to develop and create new industrial innovation investment opportunities, and contribute to the upgrading and transformation of China's traditional industries."

 Menghan Zhang, President and Managing Partner of Hexuan Capital, said, "Hexuan Capital continues to be optimistic about the thriving automotive industry ecosystem that Horizon has built as well as its highly efficient mass production and delivery capabilities, and has increased its holdings several times since its initial investment in 2020. Today, Horizon's customers cover the top 10 domestic OEMs as well as global automotive leaders and Tier 1 suppliers, including Volkswagen of Germany. With the gradual large-scale commercialisation of high-level intelligent driving, the future of Horizon is promising! We look forward to continuing our journey with Horizon in the future and moving forward together!"

 Yu Xiaolu, Partner of Crowe Capital, said, "Congratulations to Horizon on its successful listing on the Hong Kong stock market, and we are honoured to witness another milestone in the company's development. The nine years since Horizon's founding are the nine years that intelligent driving has been gaining popularity; Horizon has grown into an indispensable pillar of the industry by adhering to its innovation-driven approach as it has always done. As a hexagonal warrior combining hardware and software for intelligent driving, Horizon insists on the continuous optimisation and iteration of hardware and algorithms, and provides large-scale deployment of front-end mass-production solutions for automotive companies. We also expect Horizon to surpass itself in future development and continue to help the industry upgrade." 

Junlian Capital said, "In Junlian's technology investments over the past 20 years, many of them were completed before the market formed a consensus on the technology route, of which Horizon is a typical case; at the same time, intelligent driving technology is also a typical representative of new quality productivity. The team led by Dr Yu Kai has a far-reaching pattern and foresight, strong commercial landing ability and rich experience in enterprise management. With the continuous growth of China's intelligent automobile industry, we are optimistic that Horizon will continue to expand a broader market and business chain in the field of intelligent driving after listing."