China's leading rideshare tick (stock code: "02559") was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today at an issue price of HK$6, offering 39.09 million offer shares, raising a net global offering of approximately HK$182 million. The opening price of Tick Travel is HK$5.23, and as of now, the company's market capitalization exceeds HK$5 billion. Dida Travel submitted its prospectus in October 2020, and after nearly 4 years of struggle, it was finally listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the first share of Hong Kong stock sharing.
Since its inception, Dida Chuxing has attracted many institutional and corporate investors, including NIO Capital, IDG, Schunk Capital, BitAuto, Hillhouse, JD.com, and Ctrip. Tick Travel has gone through 5 rounds of financing. In the first year after its establishment, the company received $3 million in Series A financing from IDG Capital. By 2018, the company had carried out four rounds of financing, with a cumulative investment of about 1.8 billion yuan.
After several attempts to go public, Dida Travel has finally officially landed on the Hong Kong stock market, opening a new chapter in its public trading. This listing not only marks the company's entry into a new stage of development, but also witnesses another important milestone in Li Bin's investment territory.
The story of Tick Travel began in 2010 when Song Zhongjie and his team transformed after fierce competition in the group buying field. Starting from the ride-sharing service, Dida Chuxing has rapidly risen in the ride-sharing field and become a leader in this market segment by virtue of its market insight and timely strategic adjustment. With the continuous development of the business, Dida Travel has further expanded into the field of taxis, providing more comprehensive travel solutions.
The success of Tick Travel is not accidental. According to the data disclosed in the prospectus, Dida Chuxing's share of the rideshare market has reached 31.8%, covering 366 cities, with about 15.6 million certified private car owners, and providing services to more than 69.4 million passengers. This series of data not only shows the leading position of Dida Chuxing in the domestic ride-hailing industry, but also reflects its strong market influence and brand recognition. Looking ahead, Dida Travel is planning to leverage its technological advantages to continue to cultivate the ride-hailing and taxi service market. By continuously optimizing algorithms and improving service quality, Tick aims to bring users a more efficient and safer travel experience.
At the same time, Dida Chuxing is also actively exploring new revenue models, including advertising and other services, in order to further expand its revenue sources and market share. Behind Tick Travel is Li Bin's deep insight and firm confidence in the future trend of the travel industry. As he has emphasized on many occasions, true innovation is not only about pursuing short-term market hotspots, but also about sticking to one's own path and focusing on creating long-term value. The development process of Tick Travel is a vivid practice of this concept.
The asset-light model is the magic weapon for the rise of Tick Travel. According to the prospectus, from 2021 to 2023, Dida Chuxing's operating income will be 781 million, 569 million and 815 million yuan respectively. The corresponding adjusted profit was RMB238 million, RMB85 million and RMB226 million, respectively. Among them, the ride-hailing service fee is the most dependent source of income for Tick Travel, accounting for as much as 90%.
According to the prospectus, as a pure information service platform, Tick Travel does not own or lease fleet vehicles, nor does it need to bear any expenses related to holding vehicle assets, and at the same time, because hitchhiking is a travel mode for owners and passengers to share travel costs and mutual benefits, compared with online car-hailing, the platform does not need to pay a large amount of subsidies to facilitate orders.
Li Bin, as the founder of NIO, has a relationship with Dida Chuxing that goes far beyond the average investor.
Li Bin and Song Zhongjie first met in 2015, when Dida Travel was seeking Series B financing. Song Zhongjie was introduced by a friend and met Li Bin, who was still doing Yiche at the time, but he didn't expect much before meeting Li Bin. Song Zhongjie once recalled.
But the truth was beyond Song Zhongjie's expectations. The two sides only talked for an hour at the Kunlun Hotel in Beijing's East Third Ring Road, and Li Bin decided to invest. A week later, Li Bin, who was quite sincere, made another appointment with Song Zhongjie for another meal, and finalized all the investment details such as valuation and amount at the dinner table. So in February of the same year, BitAuto completed the B round of investment in Dida Chuxing, with an investment amount of 20 million US dollars.
Since then, Li Bin has made three consecutive rounds of injections on Dida Travel through BitAuto and Weilai Capital, and Weilai Capital is also the largest institutional shareholder of the latter. Tianyancha shows that in May 2015, Dida Travel received $100 million in Series C financing, which was jointly invested by IDG Capital, Schunk Investment, Zhixin Capital, and BitAuto.
According to people familiar with the matter, the IPO pricing of Dida Travel is based on the valuation in 2018, and the company has achieved positive cash flow in 2019, and there is no refinancing later, and there is no pressure of high valuation financing, which also allows IPO investors to have enough room for appreciation. In addition, the ride-hailing of Tick Travel is fundamentally different from that of online car-hailing, and it belongs to the asset-light model, with the same GTV of about 10 billion, and the gross profit margin of the rideshare is higher.
On the whole, the listing of Tick Travel is very low-key, and the issuance scale is not large, however, Tick Travel has maintained a relatively sincere pricing on the basis of not diluting shareholders' equity.
Li Bin's investment territory is not limited to Tick Travel. He has also invested in star companies such as CATL, Ronbay Technology, and Inceptio Technology, among which Momenta's IPO in the United States has been filed with the Securities Regulatory Commission, which is expected to become another IPO case for him. In addition, new car-making forces such as Li Auto, NIO, and Xpeng have also set foot in the investment field and expanded their IPO territory.
Why are these upstarts so keen to invest?
An important reason lies in the layout of the upstream and downstream supply chain of car manufacturing. When the shortage of core automotive components affects product delivery, car companies become CVCs to invest in improving the stability of the supply chain. In a period of great change when the automotive industry has once again become the commanding heights of technological innovation, the Chinese market contains more opportunities. As Li Bin said:
Today, Dida Travel has been successfully listed, but the road ahead is still full of challenges. How to continue to remain competitive and solve compliance issues will be an important issue for Dida Chuxing. Li Bin and his investment territory continue to expand, and we look forward to more surprises from him.
With the successful listing of Dida Chuxing, Li Bin's investment map has added another fierce general. This is not only a recognition of the past efforts of the Tick team, but also an expectation of its future potential. In the tide of the travel field, the story of Tick Travel and Li Bin continues, and we have reason to believe that more legends are still on the way.