On Sep 12, 2018, Shunwei Capital witnessed the fifth market listing of a company that it has invested in, that of NIO.
Congratulations to NIO on its listing in the U.S.!
ShunWei Capital participated in NIO’s Series-A funding round in March 2015 as well as the company’ Series-B round in July 2016.
In response to this listing, ShunWei Capital founding partner and chairman Lei Jun extended his congratulations to NIO immediately. He said in his message:
Congratulations to NIO on its listing on the New York Stock Exchange today !
ShunWei Capital is fortunate to have invested in NIO at the earliest stages and thus make a tiny contribution to the new-energy automobile industry!
Said Koh Tuck Lye, founding partner and CEO of ShunWei Capital:
ShunWei has been very confident about Li Bin and the founding team that he leads. Li has deep experience in the internet and automobile industries, heads a formidable management team, and has strong strategy implementation capabilities. We had known for some years about Li’s passion for electric vehicles. This is why we had decided to support him at the early startup stage. NIO’s development has been user-driven, i.e., centered on user needs and the user experience. The company’s business model is one that takes into consideration social impact and is also aligned with ShunWei Capital’s investment logic.
Today, NIO has achieved some success, and at this juncture we would like to congratulate NIO on its listing in the U.S. ShunWei Capital believes that NIO will continue to do even better in the future with the leadership of such a passionate and capable founder!
At the scene of NIO’s listing
Seen here in this image: Cheng Tian, partner at ShunWei Capital (L);
Li Bin, founder and chairman of NIO (R)
At the scene of NIO’s U.S. listing
Seen here: Cheng Tian, partner at ShunWei Capital (R); Qin Lihong, president of NIO
At the scene of NIO’s listing
NIO’s IPO in the U.S.: Li Bin builds an empire based on travel
Article below originally published by Lei Jianping on WeChat, reporting from the scene of the listing on Sep 12.
NIO has listed in the U.S. today at a price of USD6.26 per share. This price nets the company around USD1 billion of funding. Based on these numbers, NIO is worth some USD6.4 billion in market value.
Said Li Bin, founder and chairman of NIO today:
NIO was founded less than four years ago. Today, we will need to lay down even more stringent standards for ourselves, for this is what a market listing entails: even higher standards and more responsibilities for the enterprise. A market listing can help us garner more funds with which we can develop even better products and provide even better services to users.
I am pleased to be back here at the NYSE for another IPO after eight years. The market listing is but a milestone, and I am not nearly as moved as the last time. Of course, I am still very excited. We will henceforth need to achieve even more.
Li Bin builds an empire based on travel
Said Koh Tuck Lye, founding partner and CEO of Shunwei Capital:
ShunWei has been very confident about Li Bin and the founding team that he leads. Li has deep experience in the internet and automobile industries, heads a formidable management team, and has strong strategy implementation capabilities.
Cheng Tian, partner at ShunWei Capital with Li Bin
We had known for some years about Li’s passion for electric vehicles. This is why we had decided to support him at the early startup stage. NIO’s development has been user-driven, i.e., centered on user needs and the user experience. The company’s business model is one that takes into consideration social impact and is also aligned with ShunWei Capital’s investment logic.”
“Today, NIO has achieved some success, and at this juncture we would like to congratulate NIO on its listing in the U.S. ShunWei Capital believes that NIO will continue to do even better in the future with the leadership of such a passionate and capable founder”, said Koh Tuck Lye.
Li Bin: “I’m willing to donate one-third of my shares in NIO
to establish a user trust fund”
NIO is the first Chinese smart automobile company to be publicly listed. This is the third company set up by Li Bin (founder and chairman of NIO) to be listed.
Key shareholders in NIO who have played an important role in NIO’s development include: Tencent, Hillhouse Capital, ShunWei Capital, Sequoia Capital China, and Baidu.
Other institutional investors in NIO include: IDG, the Industrial Bank, GIC, TPG, Temasek Holdings, ChinaEquity Investment, MSA Investment, Joy Capital, Primavera Capital, Lenovo Capital and Incubator, China Merchants Bank, Hubei Technology Investment, and Hanfor Capital Management.
According to Li Bin, in the past few years NIO has received support from a good number of investors with the total amount of capital raised being USD2.4 billion. This sum has been primarily used for research and development.
Over 40% of NIO’s staff work in R&D, and what they are working towards is the development of a world-class automobile. The development of the battery assembly and powertrain, etc., is being performed in-house, with the entire vehicle being developed from scratch. NIO is also far ahead within the industry in terms of its smart technologies.
Thus, NIO has been very focused on R&D expenditures, which make up the bulk of its spending.
“Apart from investment in the Formula E, EP9, ES8, and ES6 that everyone is familiar with, we have also started on the development of our third model, the ET7. We are already in the midst of developing our second-generation platform,” said Li.
He added that there must be sufficient spending on R&D to maintain one’s competitiveness. As such, NIO will continue to spend on R&D and customer service.
In an open letter that was published prior to this, Li claimed that after much consideration, he plans to transfer 50 million NIO shares that he owns (which make up around one-third of her holdings) at a suitable time in the future to a trust.
“Although I will retain the voting rights associated with the transferred shares, NIO users will be able to discuss and propose various ways of making use of the economic gains from these shares. The final, accepted proposal(s) will be implemented in the future via certain mechanisms.”
According to Li, he believes that this decision will further position NIO to become the smart automobile maker of users and enterprises around the world and also deepen NIO’s relationship with its users. He also believes that NIO’s users, shareholders, employees and business partners will be able to benefit from this move over the long run.
