BYD makes a bet, and a post-1985 top student is going for an IPO
The trend of intelligent driving has finally reached the most down-to-earth unmanned mining truck track. While urban intelligent driving is still repeatedly debating "whether it can operate", the mining area has already given an answer with real money: This heavy industry field, once labeled as "niche" and "rustic", has completely welcomed a capital frenzy in 2025. It attracted over 2.9 billion yuan in a single year! Single financing deals often amount to hundreds of millions of yuan. Industrial capital, financial capital, and listed companies have flocked to enter the market, turning a dusty track into a hidden but real golden track.
It was in this capital flood that a company with an unfamiliar name was quickly pushed to the forefront. Recently, Shanghai Bolei Intelligence submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, officially aiming for the Hong Kong stock market. Just before the IPO news was disclosed, the company completed a financing of over 1 billion yuan, among which BYD made a rare move and strategically invested 100 million yuan. What's more conflicting is that behind this industrial intelligent company that is aiming for the capital market, it's not a traditional mining giant but an 85s engineer entrepreneur.
According to conventional thinking, mines and intelligent driving should not belong to the same semantic field at all. The former is filled with dust and has a harsh environment; the latter is high-tech, full of algorithms and sensors. But Bolei's story proves that "two seemingly unrelated worlds" can actually achieve the most mutual success.
1
Attracting 2.9 billion yuan in a year, what are the capital investors betting on?
Capital never flocks blindly. There is a real money-making logic hidden in this seemingly niche track.
At the beginning of January, Bolei Technology announced externally that it had directly raised the financing record in the unmanned mining truck track in the mining area. The cumulative financing exceeded 1 billion yuan, becoming the largest single-cluster financing case in this track in the primary market in that year. Subsequently, it also introduced a strategic investment of 100 million yuan from BYD. One detail is crucial. BYD's investment is not a financial investment but appears on the shareholder list before the IPO, which means that the in-depth binding of the industrial chain has been completed in advance.
Immediately afterwards, Bolei Intelligence submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Although the data is not "sexy", the trend is very clear: The revenue in 2023 was 69.57 million yuan, 171 million yuan in 2024, and directly reached 315 million yuan in the first nine months of 2025; during the same period, the loss increased from 32.48 million yuan to 58.67 million yuan, but the gross profit margin remained stable at around 15%, which is a typical "scale for curve" stage. As of September 2025, the company had 70.8 million yuan in cash on its books, which also explains why it quickly promoted the IPO at the peak of financing.
In the narrative from the perspective of capital, the words "unmanned driving" have a huge spotlight effect, but specifically in the niche track of unmanned mining trucks, many people will ask a question: "How much is the unmanned driving in mines worth?" The answer is unexpected. In the past year, there were more than 10 financing events in this niche track alone, with a total financing amount exceeding 2.9 billion yuan, including Bolei's cumulative financing scale of over 1 billion yuan. This speed and scale are simply an explosive growth compared to the year before last.
An obvious logic is that the technological maturity and economic returns have finally reached a critical point, which is an "emergent result" of the accumulation of unmanned driving technology in the past decade. But the more fundamental factor is that the pain points of the scenario force the market to choose automation. In mining area operations, once a safety accident occurs, not only will people be injured, but production will also stop, which means losses of millions or even tens of millions of yuan.
Traditional mining trucks are manually driven by drivers, which not only poses safety hazards but also cannot achieve all-weather continuous operation. When autonomous mining trucks enter the scene, they solve not just a conceptual problem, but three major pain points: safety risks, recruitment difficulties, and operating costs. More importantly, real data has already proven this: Bolei's revenue in the first three quarters of 2025 increased from about 69.56 million yuan in 2023 and 171 million yuan in 2024 to 315 million yuan, a revenue explosion of 819.9%.
In addition, besides replacing humans with machines, the introduction of "electrification" and "charging/battery swapping solutions" has also significantly reduced the operating costs in the mining area. Whether it's energy consumption or maintenance costs, these will ultimately be clearly reflected in the mining operation ledger. Therefore, when capital sees that this market is transitioning from the "none - existence - mass production" stage to the "large-scale commercialization" stage, its attention naturally focuses.
Since 2025, not only Bolei, but also companies in the same track such as Yikong Zhijia, Great Wall Heavy Industry, and Tuge Zhixing have all completed financing actions, and the single financing amount is concentrated in the hundreds of millions of yuan level. This shows that capital is shifting its focus from "vision investment" to "investment in performance and implementation capabilities". This is an inevitable stage for a mature capital market.
This point is different from the traditional AI and autonomous driving tracks. The mining scenario has been verified by a large amount of real - world data, rather than relying on simulated data or small - scale pilots. Therefore, capital is willing to invest, the mining scenario is willing to use, and the industry is willing to replicate, and these three aspects together form a "self - reinforcing cycle", which is more powerful than a simple technology story.
The 2.9 billion yuan in financing in a year is not invested in a concept but in certainty.
2
A crucial bet by an 85s entrepreneur.
When people mention Hu Xinyi, those who know him well will say "he's quite amazing".
This young man from Zhejiang, born in 1985, graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, went abroad for further studies, and obtained an MBA from China Europe International Business School. Then he joined global top industrial enterprises such as Bosch and Danaher and worked his way up to a senior executive position in the China region. During his days in foreign companies, he lived a very comfortable life. In his free time, he played golf, living like a "winner in life" in the eyes of others.
If he had continued on this path, his life would have been predictable. But in 2015, Hu Xinyi made a decision that puzzled those around him: He quit his high - paying job and founded Bolei Technology with Yang Yang, his dormmate from Jiao Tong University. They chose a direction that seemed "dirty and tiring" - autonomous driving in mines.
In the early days of entrepreneurship, Bolei only had five people, all with technical backgrounds, and each person held multiple positions. The startup capital was Hu Xinyi's own savings. At that time, Bolei had no products, no customers, and no market invitations. Surviving was the only goal. Those days can be summarized in four words: Starting from scratch.
In order to find a breakthrough, Hu Xinyi led the team into the mining areas. They visited the Gobi Desert in Xinjiang, the open - pit mines in Inner Mongolia, and the deep - mountain mines in the south. During the day, they went to the mines to collect terrain data, and at night, they drove to study algorithm models. It was during these "dust - eating" days that Hu Xinyi understood the real needs of mine owners: it's difficult to recruit workers in mines, the labor cost is high, and they are most afraid of safety accidents. Once an accident occurs, a one - day production halt means millions of yuan in losses.
The real turning point occurred in 2023. Before that, Bolei only developed autonomous driving systems, like installing a "smart brain" on traditional mining trucks. But soon, a problem arose: When there was a problem with the truck, the vehicle manufacturer and the software company shifted the blame to each other, and the mine owner became the most troubled person. He quickly realized that in a place like the mine that values results, customers need not a component supplier but a complete solution that can take full responsibility.
So Bolei made a crucial transformation: It launched its own brand "Bolei Electric Bull" and deeply cooperated with Tongli Co., Ltd., the leading domestic mining truck manufacturer. Bolei provides the autonomous driving system and three - electric technologies, while Tongli is responsible for manufacturing the sturdy vehicle body. Bolei has transformed from a software company that "sells brains" to a product company that delivers complete vehicles.
This transformation allowed Bolei to truly grasp the key to the mining industry.
Bolei's "electric + unmanned" solution precisely addresses the cost pain points, helping mine owners save real money. More considerately, Bolei also launched a "separation of vehicle and battery" financial solution. Customers don't need to buy the battery; they just need to rent it. In this way, the threshold for buying an electric mining truck is similar to that of buying a fuel - powered truck.
What really deserves capital investment is not short - term profit but Bolei's "product form selection" in the unmanned mine. The problems in the early stage of the industry are very typical. System providers don't manufacture vehicles, and vehicle manufacturers don't care about algorithms. Once a problem occurs, the responsibility is repeatedly shifted within the chain. Bolei chose to completely change its path in 2023, transforming from "selling systems" to "delivering results". This step directly changed the business logic. When unmanned mining trucks move from "pilot projects" to "standard equipment", whoever can take full responsibility for the results will capture the largest market share.
It's no wonder that BYD is willing to invest 100 million yuan in such a business logic.
3
Under the halo of IPO, the real test is just beginning.
With its outstanding performance and capital support, Bolei Intelligence's IPO path seems smooth. At this point in the story, it's easy to tell a "plain - sailing" narrative. But if one only sees the high growth and star shareholders, it's a major misjudgment of the IPO. Submitting the prospectus is just getting the entry ticket for the next - stage competition.
Despite the astonishing revenue growth rate, Bolei is still in a loss - making state. The data in the prospectus is straightforward. The loss in 2023 was 32.48 million yuan, and it increased to 60.99 million yuan in 2024. It still lost 58.67 million yuan in the first nine months of 2025. Although the gross profit margin increased from 11.3% to 15.1%, profitability is still a long way off.
What's more urgent is the cash flow. As of the end of September 2025, the company's cash and cash equivalents on the books were only 70.8 million yuan. At the current "burn - rate" speed, the pressure on the capital chain is huge. This is actually easy to understand. Mining trucks are not light - asset items. Vehicle manufacturing, deployment, and operation all require a large amount of upfront investment.
What's even more worthy of vigilance is the customer structure. In the first nine months of 2025, Bolei almost concentrated its revenue on a very small number of customers: The top five customers contributed 97.7% of the revenue, among which the first - largest customer alone accounted for 65.0%, and the top two customers together accounted for as high as 78.4%. The risks brought by such high concentration cannot be ignored. In the heavy - equipment and project - based delivery model, this kind of concentration is not an isolated case, but it also means that the company's short - term performance is highly tied to core customers. Once there is a deviation in the order confirmation rhythm, both revenue recognition and cash flow will be greatly affected.
In terms of the supply chain, highly relying on a small number of suppliers also brings instability risks. As of the first nine months of 2025, the procurement amount from the top five suppliers accounted for as high as 84.3%, among which the largest supplier alone accounted for 64.7%, and this proportion was only 36.0% in 2023. In just two years, the dependence on the core supplier almost doubled. In a business model like autonomous mining trucks that highly depends on the coordination of key components and the whole vehicle, the increase in upstream concentration is beneficial for large - scale coordination, but it also simultaneously magnifies the risks of supply interruption, bargaining power, and delivery stability.
Moreover, the unmanned mining truck track is no longer dominated by Bolei alone. In addition to domestic players like Yikong Zhijia and Tuge Zhixing, some international mining giants have also started to enter the market. As more and more capital flows in, price wars and technology wars are almost inevitable. And Bolei's gross profit margin is not very high. The decline in the gross profit margin in the first nine months of 2025 is also a signal. This means that while accelerating expansion, the company still faces pressure in product pricing, cost control, and procurement bargaining power.
The 2.9 billion yuan in capital flood has pushed a hardcore track into the spotlight. BYD's 100 - million - yuan bet is an endorsement of this path; the prospectus submitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is a report card for the market. But listing is not the end; it's the start of a more brutal endurance race.
The mine revolution initiated by an 85s entrepreneur has just begun.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Investor", author: Bifeng. It is published by 36Kr with permission.