A well-known unicorn in Suzhou is going for an IPO.
A star unicorn from Suzhou is charging towards the Hong Kong stock market.
Recently, Tiantong Vision applied for listing in Hong Kong. Led by Wang Xi, the company's intelligent driving solutions cover L2 - L2+ and L4 levels, which are mainly used for parking, intelligent driving, intelligent cockpits, as well as Robobus, Robotaxi, and Robotruck respectively.
Supported by Delian Capital, Shengshi Investment, Guozhong Capital, China Unicom Xinwo Fund, BAIC Capital, Beijing Internet of Vehicles Industry Development Fund, CIC - Zhongcai Fund, Shihu Fund, Hengxu Capital, Jinguoyuan Venture Capital, ZF, Longshi Capital, CAS Advanced Industry Fund, OCBC Bank, Horizon Robotics, Jinhong Fund, SenseTime, Linchuang Investment, Wuzhong Financial Holding Group, etc., the valuation of Tiantong Vision has reached 8 billion yuan.
Looking around, the autonomous driving field is witnessing a bustling scene.
In addition to Tiantong Vision, Freetech also recently approached the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Not long ago, Pony.ai and WeRide listed in Hong Kong on the same day. It's not just in the secondary market; financing in the primary market of the autonomous driving field is also increasing. Autonomous driving companies under Didi, Jiushi Intelligence, Neolix, Zhuoyu Technology, etc. have recently completed large - scale financing.
However, it's worth noting that while investors are refocusing on the autonomous driving field, some companies are starting to fall behind in the highly competitive environment. Such a cruel scene is also a wake - up call.
A Star Unicorn Emerges from Suzhou
The success of Tiantong Vision is inseparable from the right timing, favorable location, and good human relations.
Back in 2015, deep learning began to rise globally, enabling computers to surpass humans in image recognition accuracy. At the same time, the booming Chinese automotive industry caught Wang Xi's attention, and he judged that there was huge development potential in vision - based advanced driver - assistance systems.
This sharp insight stems from Wang Xi's rich experience in automotive active safety electronics development. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in automation from Beihang University, he went to the University of Reading in the UK to study the application of machine vision and deep learning in embedded systems.
After graduating with a master's degree, Wang Xi entered the automotive industry. He not only worked as an electronics engineer at TRW Automotive in the UK but also developed automotive electronic products in Australia and founded a company that cooperated with TRW Automotive Group. His rich work experience laid a solid foundation for his entrepreneurial journey.
As the entrepreneurial wave rose in China, Wang Xi, who was convinced of the potential of advanced driver - assistance systems, chose to return to China and started a business with a core team composed of overseas returnee master's and doctoral students from Europe and the United States. Tiantong Vision was officially established in Suzhou in March 2016.
In the view of Tiantong Vision, Suzhou, with its unique industrial ecosystem, attractive policy support, and irreplaceable geographical advantages in the Yangtze River Delta, provides the most suitable soil for intelligent driving enterprises to grow. The local government has provided all - round support to the company, from application scenarios and financial rewards to talent honors.
In addition to developing modular AI perception models, they also started to cooperate with ZF in 2016 to develop a multi - camera - based perception system. While deeply focusing on L2 - L2+ level solutions, the company entered the L4 field in 2019.
At that time, Tiantong Vision provided core software development services for the Yangshan Port 5G intelligent driving heavy - truck project led by a state - owned vehicle manufacturer in Shanghai, achieving the first commercial implementation of an L4 - level solution.
The key to success is that Tiantong Vision has accumulated profound R & D, engineering, and testing verification experience through large - scale mass - produced L2 - L2+ level solutions, which laid a solid foundation for them to develop L4 - level solutions on the same system architecture.
Meanwhile, the high - quality data collected by the L4 - level solutions in real - world operations also feeds back and drives the continuous iteration of the company's L2 - L2+ level products.
Not limited to the domestic market, the company successfully obtained a purchase order from VinFast, an emerging Vietnamese automotive brand, in 2021, providing intelligent driving solutions for it. This also means that Tiantong Vision's technical strength and engineering capabilities have been recognized by the international market for the first time.
As the products are recognized in the global market, Tiantong Vision's revenue has increased from 172 million yuan in 2022 to 483 million yuan in 2024 and reached 157 million yuan in the first half of 2025. Currently, they have obtained more than 2,500 L4 - level solution intention orders for Robobus, Robotaxi, and Robotruck, with a total value of approximately 1 billion yuan.
However, affected by factors such as R & D and fair - value changes, the company is still in a loss state. The adjusted loss has narrowed from 188 million yuan in 2022 to 88 million yuan in 2023 and significantly decreased to 4 million yuan in 2024. In the first half of 2025, their adjusted loss was less than 4.2 million yuan.
In less than ten years, Tiantong Vision has not only developed its solutions from L2 - L2+ level to L4 level but also successfully expanded from the domestic market to the global market, finally growing into a well - known intelligent driving solution provider.
8 Rounds of Financing, Valuation of 8 Billion Yuan
Along the way, Tiantong Vision has completed 8 rounds of financing.
Shortly after its establishment, the company successively received investments from Delian Capital, Shengshi Investment, etc., completing the angel round of financing. In July 2018, they completed the Pre - A round of financing, with Guozhong Capital, China Unicom Xinwo Fund, and BAIC Capital as the investors.
Since around 2015, Delian Capital has systematically sorted out the unmanned driving system, initially mainly focusing on the perception link. In their view, in the entire unmanned driving industrial system, no matter which link of the application is involved, vision is indispensable. After a large number of visits and sorting, this investment institution finally invested in Tiantong Vision.
After completing the Series A financing invested by Hengxu Capital, SAIC North America Capital, and Beijing Internet of Vehicles Industry Development Fund in 2019, Tiantong Vision received 60 million yuan from CIC - Zhongcai Fund, Huacheng Venture Capital, Shihu Fund, Hengxu Capital, Jinguoyuan Venture Capital, and SAIC North America Capital in 2020.
In June 2021, ZF, Zhongyuan, Longshi Capital, CAS Advanced Industry Fund, etc. became their shareholders. In addition to obtaining financial support from ZF, Tiantong Vision also reached a strategic cooperation with them, forming a cooperation model of "capital tie + technological symbiosis".
The benefit for both sides is that ZF has improved the comprehensive competitiveness and cost advantage of its own solutions through Tiantong Vision's perception algorithm capabilities, while Tiantong Vision has achieved a leap from technology to product going global with the help of ZF's engineering experience and global market resources.
In September 2024, they received investments from OCBC Bank, Li'an OCBC Capital, Jimu Capital, and Dehong Enterprise Investment Co., Ltd. In June of the following year, the company completed the Series D financing invested by Horizon Robotics, Jinhong Fund, SenseTime, Yinggang Capital, Linchuang Investment, and Wuzhong Financial Holding Group.
The investment of Horizon Robotics has also provided great assistance to the development of Tiantong Vision. Based on Horizon's multiple domestic processing hardware, Tiantong Vision has jointly developed a series of intelligent driving products, including driving, parking, and fully unmanned driving solutions, front - view integrated machines, and domain controllers.
Before submitting the prospectus for listing in Hong Kong, the company also completed an interest - free convertible loan. By providing 29 million yuan, Zhongli Fund finally became a shareholder of Tiantong Vision.
It's worth noting that during the financing process of Tiantong Vision, Yilian, Lion City Capital, Elite Union, Miracle Creation, Honour View, Lion X Ventures, etc. also became shareholders of the company by buying old shares.
The optimism of many investors has also led to a rapid increase in their valuation. In the "2025 Global Unicorn List" released by Hurun Research Institute, the current valuation of Tiantong Vision has reached 8 billion yuan.
Autonomous Driving Is Booming Again
Looking around, with the approaching of large - scale commercialization, the autonomous driving field has become bustling again.
First, look at the IPO situation. In addition to Tiantong Vision, Freetech also recently approached the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Not long ago, Pony.ai and WeRide, which had already listed on the US stock market, also listed in Hong Kong on the same day.
As a company founded by Zhang Lin, the former vice - president of Geely, when Freetech was established in September 2016, the company controlled by Li Shufu was one of its important shareholders. With the support of Jinshajiang United Capital, Industrial Securities Guoxin Asset Management, Langma Investment, China Internet Investment Fund, Dongfeng - Bank of Communications Automobile Fund, PICC Capital, Changxing Financial Holding, CCCC Fund, Tsinghua Yuanzhi Capital, TCL Venture Capital, BAIC Capital, Horizon Robotics, Hundun Investment under Ge Weidong, and the company wholly - owned by the Finance Bureau of Tongxiang City, etc., the valuation of Freetech exceeds 6.3 billion yuan.
As for Pony.ai and WeRide, these two star unicorn companies in the autonomous driving field have made rapid progress in the capital market.
Led by Peng Jun, a doctoral graduate from Stanford University, and Lou Tiancheng, a doctoral graduate from Tsinghua University, Pony.ai has always focused its entrepreneurial efforts on L4 autonomous driving and has received support from Toyota Motor, BAIC Group, GAC Capital, FAW Group, Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Morningside Venture Capital, China Merchants Capital, Lenovo Star, ComfortDelGro in Singapore, NEOM in Saudi Arabia, and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in Canada.
WeRide, led by Han Xu, a doctoral graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, has also been favored by many investors. Bosch, Renault - Nissan - Mitsubishi Alliance, Nissan, Yutong Group, GAC Capital, GAC Capital Investment, NVIDIA, Qiming Venture Partners, Sinovation Ventures, China Development Financial Corporation, China Structural Reform Fund, The Carlyle Group, China - UAE Fund, IDG Capital, CMC Capital, Cornerstone Capital, Huachuang Capital, Kunzhong Capital, etc. are all their shareholders.
On October 25, 2024, WeRide successfully listed in the United States, becoming the world's first general - purpose autonomous driving stock and the world's first Robotaxi stock. On November 27 of the same year, Pony.ai also rang the bell in the United States, becoming the largest - scale IPO in the US autonomous driving field in 2024. Not long after listing on the US stock market, Pony.ai and WeRide rang the listing bell in Hong Kong on November 6, 2025.
Then, look at the financing situation. My colleague mentioned in "A Company Has Raised C13 Rounds of Financing" that, according to incomplete statistics, since the beginning of this year, the total financing in the domestic autonomous driving field has exceeded 40 billion yuan, indicating a clear "recovery" signal in the market. In 2023, this financing amount was about 20 billion yuan, less than a quarter of the peak in 2021.
So we can see that after Tagezhi Xing, Sinian Zhijia, and Jianzhi Robotics announced the completion of financing on September 29, autonomous driving companies under Didi, Jiushi Intelligence, Neolix, Zhuoyu Technology, etc. also recently received large - scale financing.
Among them, Neolix's Series D financing exceeded 600 million US dollars, becoming the largest private placement financing in the Chinese autonomous driving field so far. The investors include Stone Venture in the UAE, Gao Cheng Capital, Xinchen Capital, CDH VGC, Zhaoxi Capital, Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, Legend Capital, Gao Rong Venture Capital, Shanshui Capital, Hengxu Capital, Yizhuang Science and Technology Innovation Phase II Fund, Huatai Tianfu Digital Intelligence Fund, Yunqi Capital, and a large - scale Internet company.
It's worth noting that while investors are refocusing on the autonomous driving field, some companies are starting to fall behind in the highly competitive environment. According to media reports, Haomo.AI issued a "suspension of work and vacation notice" on November 22, announcing that all employees of the company and its branches would be on suspension of work and vacation starting from November 24, and the resumption time would be notified separately.
This scene also sounds an alarm for many startup companies in the autonomous driving field. The current situation of widespread losses and extremely fierce competition is like the Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of many players. For these players, raising enough funds is not only the key to ensuring their own survival but also the prerequisite for the company to achieve profitability.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Dongshisi Tiao Capital" (ID: DsstCapital), written by Lu Zhigao and published by 36Kr with authorization.