Black Sesame Technologies, a Chinese startup specializing in chips for autonomous driving, has renewed its application to Hong Kong Exchanges for an initial public offering, according to an official release by the bourse on March 22. Backed by Chinese auto and tech majors including Xiaomi, SAIC, and FAW Group, the eight-year-old startup first filed for a Hong Kong IPO last June, but no progress was made before the prospectus expired in January. Although its revenue nearly doubled to RMB 312 million ($43.3 million) last year, the net loss attributable to owners of the company widened to nearly RMB 4.86 billion from RMB 2.75 billion a year earlier. The gross margin of its self-driving business also declined from 24.2% to 21.4% in the past two years, which the company blamed on the initial cost of packaging facilities for its advanced driving chips and on the favorable prices it offers to Geely due to their long-term collaboration. [Black Sesame prospectus]
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