BEIJING, February 6 (TMTPOST)— The Hong Kong stock market may get a boost same as that in U.S. spurred by ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.

Image from UBTech Robotics

Chinese AI startup UBTech Robotics Corp., Ltd filed for initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong with Guotai Junan Capital as sole sponsor, on the track to be the first humanoid robotic maker listed in the Asia financial hub. The Shenzhen-based robotics manufacturer ranked first in China and accounted for approximately 20.1% of the education smart service robotic solutions industry by revenue in 2021, according to Frost & Sullivan. The consulting firm estimated to China and the world smart service robotic solutions market to grow from US$22.1 billion to US$67.6 billion at a CAGR of 25.0% between 2021 and 2026, and from RMB46.7 billion to RMB155.8 billion at a CAGR of 27.2% between 2021 and 2026, respectively.

As of September 30, 2022, UBtech serves a broad customer base primarily in China as well as over 40 other countries overseas, including 900 enterprise-level group customers, covering government educational institutions and various business enterprises as well as consumer level general retail customers, and boasts more than 1,500 robotic and AI-related patents including more than 300 overseas patents.

The prospectus showed UBTech maintained sales growth but failed to turn around in the recent years. Its revenue increased from RMB740.2 million to RMB 817.2 million between 2020 to 2021, and the net losses expanded from RMB707.0 million to RMB917.5 in the year. It had net losses of RMB778.0 million in the first nine months of 2022, compared with the loss of RMB607.3 million a year earlier, even it posted revenue of RMB529.7 million, increasing 5.2% from RMB503.7 million of the same period in 2021, according to the prospectus. The startup warned it could continue to incur net losses in the near future including this year, primarily due to our substantial expenditures in relation to R&D expenses, selling and marketing expenses and general administrative expenses.

Despite ongoing losses, UBTech, as one of the leading providers of smart service robotic products and solutions in China, received warm welcome in capital markets these years. It has completed several rounds of funding since founded in 2012, jointly backed by established businesses and investment institutions such as Australian telecom giant Telstra, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the leading commercial lender of the country. Tencent currently holds 6.48% of stakes in UBTech as the company’s largest institution investor, while Xia Zuoquan, cofounder and director of BYD Co., Ltd who invested in 2013 as an angel investor, serves as one of directors and the second largest individual investor with an equity stake of 5.78% now, next to UBTech’s founder Zhou Jian.

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