51WORLD Submits Listing Application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Sprinting for the "First Digital Twin Stock" | Frontline

Author｜Huang Nan

Editor｜Yuan Silai

HardcoreTech has learned that on November 29, Beijing 51WORLD Digital Twin Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "51WORLD") officially submitted a 18C listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, aiming to be listed on the main board. The joint sponsors are CICC and Huatai. It is also the fifth technology company to choose to submit a listing application under this standard after the Hong Kong Stock Exchange launched the 18C chapter listing rules for special technology companies.

Founded in 2015, "51WORLD" focuses on 3D graphics, simulation, and artificial intelligence technologies, providing digital twin products and solutions to customers. In 2017, the company proposed the "Earth Clone Project", that is, to replicate the earth in the virtual world, create a super-large simulation simulator, and build three core businesses around this vision, namely the 51Aes Digital Twin Platform, the 51Sim Synthetic Data and Simulation Platform, and the 51Earth Digital Earth Platform.

Company Development History

The participants in the Chinese digital twin solution market can be divided into two major categories: one-stop solution providers and single-point solution providers. "51WORLD" provides comprehensive products and services, including model asset development tools to applications, as well as cross-domain digital twin applications. According to Frost & Sullivan report, based on the digital twin solution revenue in 2023, "51WORLD" is the largest digital twin solution provider in China and the only one-stop digital twin solution provider in the industry.

Previously, "51WORLD" has undergone a total of 8 rounds of financing, ranking first in the amount of financing in the Chinese digital twin solution market, with the last round valuation reaching 4.4 billion yuan. Its historical investors include state-owned Nanning Finance, market-oriented funds such as Lightspeed, Yunjiu, Star VC, and Xie Nuo Investment, industrial investors such as SenseTime Technology and Moore Threads, and has also attracted well-known individual investors such as Ge Weidong and Liang Botao to invest.

The equity structure shows that Li Yi, the company's founder, chairman and CEO, holds 24.7% of the equity.

From the perspective of financial performance, "51WORLD" has a strong revenue growth. From 2021 to 2023, the company's revenues were 126 million yuan, 170 million yuan, and 256 million yuan respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 42.56%. In the first half of 2024, "51WORLD" saw a 12% year-on-year increase in revenue.

As a technology-driven high-tech enterprise, the company has long focused on R & D investment. During the period from 2021 to 2023, its R & D expenditures were 108 million yuan, 134 million yuan, and 103 million yuan respectively, accounting for 85.2%, 79.0%, and 40.2% of the revenue respectively.

By transforming R & D investment into the core competitiveness of products, "51WORLD" has continued to achieve a good gross profit performance. The gross profit margins during the period from 2021 to 2023 were 65.2%, 65.0%, and 54.2% respectively, and the gross profit margin in the first half of 2024 reached 50.0%.

Due to the continuous high R & D investment, the prospectus discloses that from 2021 to 2023 and the first half of 2024, the company's adjusted net loss was 114 million yuan, 132 million yuan, 68 million yuan, and 60 million yuan respectively. However, thanks to the continuous improvement of the product structure and the continuous improvement of operational efficiency, the company's losses are narrowing year by year. As of June 30, 2024, the company held 270 million yuan in cash and cash equivalents, and 78 million yuan in other financial assets, totaling approximately 350 million yuan.

Currently, "51WORLD" has gradually established a three-level business curve. The first curve is the 51Aes Digital Twin Development and Application Platform, dedicated to achieving the digital and intelligent transformation of various industries, covering more than ten sub-sectors such as cities, parks, water conservancy, water affairs, industry, energy, real estate, and education.

Three-level Curve

The second curve, 51Sim, is a leading synthetic data and simulation platform. It uses advanced data-driven simulation technology, distributed cloud simulation technology, end-to-end simulation technology, generative artificial intelligence technology and other core technologies to provide software products and solutions for intelligent driving simulation testing to customers, as well as synthetic data for the training of artificial intelligence systems. It has currently served hundreds of intelligent driving industry customers.

The third curve, 51Earth, carries the brand, technology and product precipitation of 51WORLD for ten years. It aims to build a community that links builders, developers and consumers, and provides a platform, products and economic system to attract global users to participate in the Earth Clone Project and experience diverse application scenarios.

In the industry application layer, the products and solutions of "51WORLD" have been widely used by more than 1,000 large and medium-sized enterprises worldwide, covering more than ten fields such as cities, water conservancy, energy, automobiles, transportation, robotics, entertainment, and society. Its business covers 19 countries and regions around the world.

With its continuous strengthening of R & D investment, focusing on directions such as digital infrastructure, AI synthetic data, and digital earth, continuously upgrading existing products and services, exploring new commercialization potential and multiple growth curves, "51WORLD" will further expand its market share and is expected to achieve long-term high-quality growth.