Tsinghua Top Student Launches HK IPO! Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, BYD Are All Shareholders

Author ｜ Zhang Rui

Editor ｜  Zhi Hao

After obtaining filing approval from the CSRC, Momenta's prospectus is here.

Auto News reported on June 23, today, MOMENTA GLOBAL LIMITED (hereinafter referred to as Momenta) submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

▲Momenta Prospectus

According to data in the prospectus, as of February 28, 2026, Momenta has cumulatively secured 180 vehicle model designations, with the installed base of production-ready vehicle solutions exceeding 733,000 units.

As of February 28, 2026, Momenta has established cooperative relationships with 24 global OEMs, including nine among the global top ten OEMs such as Toyota, General Motors, Hyundai-Kia, Volkswagen, and Honda, as well as China's top ten OEMs including SAIC, BYD, GAC, Chery, FAW, Geely, Great Wall, and Dongfeng.

Regarding financial data, in 2025, Momenta's revenue was RMB 2.413 billion, a year-on-year increase of 82.1% compared to 2024, although it still recorded a loss of RMB 3.458 billion, an expansion from 2024.

▲Momenta Major Financial Information for the Last Three Years

Momenta is a Chinese autonomous driving company founded in 2016, adopting a "Two Legs" strategy, based on a data-driven "Flywheel", with a product strategy combining Mass Production with Scalable Robo.

▲Momenta's Booth at the Beijing Auto Show

Momenta mentioned in the listing application that the proceeds from this fundraising are expected to be used to strengthen core infrastructure, expand R&D capabilities, promote R&D investment in next-generation high-level intelligent driving solutions, and are also used for investment in accelerating the commercialization and scaled development of autonomous ride-hailing service solutions.

▲Some Uses of Momenta Funds Raised

I. Cumulative Revenue of RMB 4.481 Billion Over Three Years, 2025 Gross Margin 71.6%

Regarding performance, according to Momenta's listing application documents, Momenta's revenue in 2023 and 2024 was RMB 743 million and RMB 1.325 billion respectively.

▲Momenta Financial Data Summary in Recent Years

In 2025, Momenta's revenue was RMB 2.413 billion, a year-on-year increase of 82.1% compared to 2024. Momenta stated this was mainly due to increased licensing fees and increased technical development service revenue, benefiting from rising customer demand. Momenta's cumulative revenue over three years was approximately RMB 4.481 billion.

▲Momenta Revenue Changes in Recent Years

However, at present, Momenta is still in a loss-making state. Momenta's net losses in 2023, 2024, and 2025 were RMB 2.57 billion, RMB 3.206 billion, and RMB 3.458 billion respectively, with a cumulative net loss over three years of approximately RMB 9.234 billion.

▲Momenta Loss Changes in Recent Years

In 2023, 2024, and 2025, Momenta's gross margin increased significantly, with three-year gross margins of 17.5%, 49.0%, and 71.6% respectively.

▲Momenta Gross Margin in Recent Years

Regarding R&D investment, in 2023 and 2024, Momenta's R&D expenditure was RMB 1.281 billion and RMB 1.508 billion respectively.

▲Momenta R&D Investment in Recent Years

In 2025, Momenta's R&D expenditure was RMB 1.869 billion, a 23.9% year-on-year increase compared to 2024, accounting for 77.5% of total revenue. Momenta stated this was mainly driven by increased R&D activities, including rising infrastructure costs, increased training platform expenses and cloud service fees, Momenta's test fleet operating costs, and increased employee compensation and benefits.

Regarding financing history, as of November 28, 2025, Momenta has completed a Series C-13 financing round, with a post-money valuation of USD 6.185 billion (approximately RMB 41.918 billion).

▲Momenta Financing Information

II. Focused on Developing and Commercializing Intelligent Driving Technology, Cumulatively Awarded 180 Vehicle Model Orders

Specifically looking at the business, Momenta is an autonomous driving company focused on developing and commercializing intelligent driving technology to improve safety and efficiency in the mobility and logistics sectors, specifically including achieving this through production-ready vehicle solutions and scalable autonomous mobility applications.

According to data, whether calculated by sales volume of vehicles equipped with Momenta Urban NOA solutions in the past twelve months ended February 28, 2026, or by the cumulative number of production-ready vehicle models equipped with Momenta Urban NOA solutions as of February 28, 2026, Momenta ranks first among all independent intelligent driving solution providers globally.

As of December 31, 2025, Momenta had cumulatively secured 170 vehicle model designations, including 68 models that have entered formal mass production. At the same time, the installed base of Momenta's intelligent driving solutions on production vehicles exceeded 680,000 units, with cooperative relationships established with 24 global OEMs, including cooperation with China's top ten OEMs such as SAIC, GAC, Chery, FAW, Geely, Great Wall, and Dongfeng.

▲Cumulative Momenta Designated Vehicle Models

In addition, according to data, for the past 12 months ended February 28, 2026, calculated by city NOA sales, Momenta ranked first among global independent city NOA solution providers, with a market share of 64.5%.

▲Ranking of Global Independent Urban NOA Solution Providers

As of February 28, 2026, Momenta has further established a cooperative relationship with Ford, increasing the number of global top ten OEMs with whom Momenta has established cooperative relationships to nine. These include Toyota, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, BMW Group China, Hyundai-Kia, Volkswagen, BYD, and Honda among the global top ten OEMs listed by Fortune Magazine in July 2025.

In addition, as of February 28, 2026, Momenta has cumulatively secured 180 vehicle model designations, an increase from the 170 models as of December 31, 2025. As of the same day, the installed base of Momenta production-ready vehicle solutions exceeded 733,000 units.

In 2023, 2024, and 2025, Momenta's total revenue from its top five customers was RMB 644.3 million, RMB 1.0373 billion, and RMB 1.5082 billion respectively, accounting for 86.7%, 78.3%, and 62.6% of Momenta's revenue respectively. Revenue generated from the largest customer in each year during the track record period was RMB 265.5 million, RMB 255.6 million, and RMB 522.2 million respectively, accounting for 35.7%, 19.3%, and 21.6% of Momenta's revenue respectively.

▲Momenta Major Customers

Specifically regarding products, Momenta provides two solutions: solutions deployed on production vehicles and developing scalable unmanned mobility and logistics businesses, expected to expand to autonomous freight vehicles and autonomous trucking services.

Although production-ready vehicle solutions and autonomous ride-hailing service solutions operate independently, Momenta remains committed to promoting interaction between the two to drive Momenta's "One Flywheel, Two Legs" strategy, which forms a flywheel accelerating technology evolution, supporting Momenta in ultimately achieving scalable fully autonomous driving.

▲Momenta's 'One Flywheel, Two Legs' Strategy

Regarding production-ready vehicle solutions, as a Tier-1 Software Supplier, Momenta provides high-level intelligent driving software solutions that are stable during actual use and compatible with different OEM platforms.

Momenta's software design can be integrated with OEM platforms, ensuring OEMs have full control over system performance, deployment rhythm, and future upgrades while accelerating product launch and improving system overall flexibility.

Through integration with OEM platforms, Momenta customizes solutions for specific vehicle architectures while maintaining high reliability and supporting continuous iterative upgrades. Momenta's main line platform across vehicle platforms also enables Momenta to participate in overseas projects more efficiently, thereby serving OEMs that span multiple regions and vehicle platforms.

Meanwhile, Momenta is working closely with global top OEMs to promote L3-level project implementation, moving towards a new stage of autonomous driving together.

The revenue model for Momenta's production-ready vehicle solutions consists of two parts: 1. Pre-production technical development service fees, where Momenta adapts, validates, and integrates solutions into OEM vehicle models facing mass production; 2. Post-production licensing fees based on sales volume, which are charged once per vehicle integrating the high-level intelligent driving solution.

▲Momenta Production-Ready Vehicle Solution Revenue Model

Regarding autonomous ride-hailing service solutions, currently Momenta focuses on autonomous ride-hailing services. As technology and business environments evolve, Momenta plans to further expand autonomous freight vehicles and autonomous trucking services.

As of the last practicable date, Momenta has obtained commercial operation approval in Suzhou and Shanghai, China, demonstration application license and test license in Wuxi, China, and test license in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

According to data, Momenta cooperates with Mercedes-Benz and UAE national taxi company Lumo to launch the world's first high-end autonomous ride-hailing service.

In addition, Momenta reached a strategic cooperation with Roam in May 2025 to deploy autonomous ride-hailing vehicles based on front-production mass production vehicle platforms, planning to launch commercial operations in Shanghai in early 2026.

At the same time, Momenta has established cooperation frameworks with overseas leading mobility platforms such as Uber and Grab, and plans to launch overseas commercial autonomous ride-hailing services in Abu Dhabi, UAE and Munich, Germany in 2026, and is expected to expand to more cities in regions such as the Middle East, Europe, and Southeast Asia (such as Dubai, Singapore, and selected cities in Germany).

Currently, Momenta has completed system integration with Uber and is testing in Munich. Momenta is also communicating with Grab regarding regulatory approvals and early testing arrangements, while conducting necessary road tests in Abu Dhabi.

According to Momenta's autonomous ride-hailing cooperation model, mobility platforms are usually responsible for user acquisition, order dispatch, customer interface, and fleet operations through their mobility applications. Vehicles are mainly provided through the cooperation between Momenta and vehicle partners (usually OEMs), while Momenta focuses on delivering autonomous driving systems.

III. Committed to Building "Android System" in Autonomous Driving Field, Models Deployed in Multiple Production-Ready Models

Momenta's autonomous driving platform, unlike closed, vertically integrated systems, is committed to building a highly open, modular, and highly generalized intelligent driving ecosystem platform, which Momenta calls the "Android System" in the autonomous driving field.

▲Momenta Autonomous Driving Platform

Momenta Autonomous Driving Platform's modularity and generalization capabilities support seamless adaptation between different vehicle models and autonomous ride-hailing operations, featuring three core characteristics:

1. Openness: Momenta adheres to an open platform strategy, collaborating closely with OEMs and other mobility platforms to flexibly respond to their personalized needs at different development stages and market strategies. Momenta's solutions can adapt to diverse hardware configurations, vehicle platforms, price ranges, and functional requirements.

2. Modularity: Momenta developed a unified platform architecture with standardized interfaces, ensuring consistency of user experience and system compatibility under different vehicle models and hardware configurations, while supporting rapid large-scale deployment.

3. Generalizability: Momenta adopts a "mapless" solution, which does not rely on pre-collected high-definition maps, yet achieves strong generalization capabilities of "can drive wherever there is a road, can drive globally". This provides powerful geographical adaptability, making large-scale deployment possible.

Regarding data-driven algorithms, Momenta's data-driven algorithm model has rapidly iterated to the 6th generation. The R6 model learns in a simulation environment covering diverse driving trajectories. For every trajectory, the model is evaluated based on multiple reward mechanisms covering safety, comfort, and efficiency, achieving continuous optimization of decision-making capabilities by reinforcing optimal behavior and penalizing poor behavior.

The key advantage of the R6 model lies in simultaneously utilizing high-quality and poor driving data: high-quality behavior is reinforced through positive rewards, while poor behavior is explicitly penalized, thereby fully releasing the value of data generated by production-ready vehicles after formal mass production — every kilometer driven can be converted into potential training input. According to Momenta's internal testing data, compared to the previous generation, the R6 model can achieve performance improvements of up to about eight times in some safety-critical scenarios.

With the support of reinforcement learning, the R6 model has achieved significant improvements in safety, compliance with traffic rules, and more intelligent driving decisions. To date, the R6 model has been deployed in multiple production-ready models including Buick Zhijing L7 under SAIC-GM and Chery Fengyun T11. In the future, Momenta plans to expand it to more new models.

IV. 7 Automotive Companies Hold Shares, Founder Has Over 15 Years of Experience in Tech Industry

In terms of equity structure, as of the last practicable date, according to listing rules, Cao Xudong, Xia Yan, Sun Gang, Sun Huan, Jia Sibuo, Li Jun, Zhu Wangjiang, Wang Jinwei, Bigsail Holdings, Lvdou, Shengse, Pine Sky, Creative Circuit Limited, Yijia VC Limited, Tide Bay Limited, and Tycoon Insight Limited constitute a group of controlling shareholders for Momenta.

▲Momenta Equity Structure

Meanwhile, in the list of Momenta's major shareholders, we can see General Motors holds 9.37% and Mercedes-Benz Group holds 6.39%. In addition, it is noteworthy that among Momenta's shareholders, there are a total of 7 automotive companies: SAIC, GM, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, BYD, Hyundai, and Chery.

▲Momenta Major Shareholders List

Among them, Cao Xudong is Momenta's founder, Board Chairman, Executive Director, and Chief Executive Officer. In addition, Cao Xudong is currently a director and/or senior management member of several Momenta subsidiaries, mainly responsible for supervising Momenta's overall management, organizational development, and strategic project development.

▲Cao Xudong

Cao Xudong obtained a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Engineering Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering from Tsinghua University located in Beijing in July 2008, and has over 15 years of experience in the tech industry.

Before founding Momenta, Cao Xudong served as a researcher at Microsoft Research Asia from November 2010 to October 2015, mainly responsible for R&D in areas such as search engines, machine learning cloud services, and cloud storage systems. From November 2015 to August 2016, Cao Xudong served as Executive R&D Director of SenseTime Group Limited, mainly responsible for leading and supervising the R&D of multiple technical innovations including Internet-based facial recognition technology.

Conclusion: Momenta is About to List on HK Stock Exchange

Momenta stated that for Momenta, listing in Hong Kong is not just for fundraising, but also to prove that technology can scale to make money, be mass installed in vehicles, and go global.

According to the prospectus, from 2023 to 2025, Momenta's operating income grew from 743 million yuan to 2.413 billion yuan, tripling over three years with a CAGR of over 80%, cash reserves exceeding RMB 10 billion, leaving space for Robo business (such as autonomous Robotaxi, unmanned Robovan, and autonomous Robotruck, etc.) and going overseas.

If Momenta can successfully list in Hong Kong this time, it is expected to obtain more capital support and increase investment in continuous R&D of core technologies.