Megvii Resumes Process for Shanghai STAR Market IPO

According to the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) on Monday, the registration procedure for AI company Megvii’s issuance of shares has been resumed, with a prospective financing amount of 6.018 billion yuan ($887.5 million) and its sponsor institution named as CITIC Securities.

Founded in 2011, Beijing-based Megvii is an artificial intelligence company focusing on internet of things (IoT) scenarios, providing proven industry solutions across the following three fields: Consumer IoT, City IoT and Supply Chain IoT.

2019 marked the beginning of Megvii’s public listing journey. In August of that year, Megvii submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx). However, later in October, the United States Department of Commerce added Megvii to its export control “entity list,” along with 28 Chinese institutions and companies, restricting them from purchasing key items from the U.S. As a result, Megvii’s procurement of high-end GPUs and special processors was significantly challenged, and it was asked to provide more information during a hearing by the HKEx. In the end, that particular listing plan was aborted.

In 2020, Megvii shifted its focus to the Shanghai Sci-Tech Innovation Board (STAR Market). According to the SSE, in September of 2021, Megvii’s listing application was approved by the listing committee. In March, 2022, due to the validity period of the financial information in the listing documents, its issuance registration procedure was suspended, pending the provision of additional information. The current resumption of the registration process marks a step forward in Megvii’s listing plans.

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According to disclosed data, the firm’s net loss in the first half of 2021 was 1.858 billion yuan, and accumulated losses since 2017 exceeded 15 billion yuan. Megvii plans to invest the funds from this public offering in its basic R&D center construction projects, AI vision IoT solutions, product development and upgrade projects, intelligent robot R&D and upgrade construction projects, sensor research and design projects and the replenishment of working capital.