The Zhitong Finance App learned that on April 16, Go Out and Ask Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Go Out and Ask”) announced that it will open a stock offering today, which will end on the 19th, and plans to officially list on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code “2438” on April 24.
Go ahead and ask about the sale of 84,568,000 shares (depending on whether or not the over-allotment right is exercised). Of these, 76,111,000 shares (subject to redistribution and depending on whether the over-allotment rights are exercised) will be offered internationally, accounting for 90% of the total number of shares initially offered; the remaining 8,457,000 shares (which can be reallocated) will be publicly offered in Hong Kong, accounting for 10% of the total number of shares initially offered. The maximum sale price is HK$4.1, and each lot will be traded for 1,000 units.
China International Finance Hong Kong Securities Limited and CMB International Capital Limited are joint sponsors, joint overall coordinators, joint global coordinators, joint bookkeepers and joint lead managers.
According to this prospectus data, Zhongguancun International Co., Ltd. and Nanjing Economic Development and Innovation Investment Partnership will participate in the offering as cornerstone investors, with a cumulative subscription scale of HK$95 million.
Through traceability of the equity structure, it was discovered that Zhongguancun International Co., Ltd. is wholly owned by Zhongguancun International Holdings Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zhongguancun Development Group. Meanwhile, Zhongguancun Development Group is a state-owned enterprise established by the Beijing Municipal Government.
Another cornerstone investor, Jingkai Juzhi's sole general partner and fund manager, is Xingang Gaotou. The sole limited partner is Nanjing Xingang Hi-Tech Park Development Co., Ltd., which holds 99.0099% of the shares of Jingkai Juzhi and also holds 100% of Xingang Gaotou's shares. Nanjing Xingang High-tech Park Development Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of the Finance Bureau of the Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee that indirectly holds 100% of the shares. The ultimate beneficiary of Jingkai Juzhi is the Finance Bureau of the Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee.
According to this, the Beijing Municipal Government and the Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone Finance Bureau are behind the cornerstone investors introduced this time. The official background appears as a cornerstone investor, which shows that the local government recognizes the compliance development and business prospects of going out to ask. Benefiting from government support and national encouragement, going out to ask is ushering in new historic development opportunities.
In recent years, with the gradual maturity of the three underlying capabilities of computing power, algorithms, and data, generative AI has entered a period of accelerated growth. At the end of last year, ChatGPT achieved 100 million monthly active users in just two months, triggering a global AIGC boom. Meanwhile, in the domestic market, with the support of national policies and the development of related basic technology, China's artificial intelligence industry is about to enter a stage of explosive growth, and AIGC's future commercial space is worth looking forward to.
In this context, if the Hong Kong stock market is successfully listed, it will undoubtedly fill the current investment gap in the Hong Kong market in the AIGC sector.
From a market perspective, benefiting from the development of the AI market, the market size of China's AIGC market has increased from RMB 100 million in 2020 to RMB 400 million in 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 100.8%. The market size is expected to reach RMB 32.6 billion in 2027. According to Insight Consulting's report, the total potential market volume of China's AIGC market is expected to exceed RMB 100 billion by 2027.
Currently, the mainstream opinion in the market is that ecological AIGC high-tech products have a high room for market growth, and the concentration of market share on leading companies will also become an important industry development trend.
One of the important reasons why it has the potential to become AIGC's leading company when it comes to going out is its excellent management background. According to the Zhitong Finance App, I went out and asked the founder Li Zhifei, a computer doctor from Johns Hopkins University. He later joined Google as a scientist in 2010, during which time he hosted the development of Google's mobile offline translation system.
The company's founder's rich experience in high-end technology has also been recognized by investors. Before sprinting into the Hong Kong stock IPO, 7 rounds of financing were carried out. Investors included many world-renowned companies and investment institutions such as Sequoia Capital, Zhenge Fund, SIG Haina Asia, Yuanmei Optoelectronics, Goertek Acoustics, Google, and Volkswagen Group.
Looking at the post-investment valuation, at the time of Series A financing in February 2013, the valuation was 5.1 million US dollars, and in September 2019 it reached 757 million US dollars. Over 6 years, the company's valuation increased 147.4 times.
There are three reasons why it is popular in the capital market and is the target of competition from top investment institutions for support when going out:
First, it has a clear first-mover advantage. As one of the first companies to lay out a multi-modal general model in Asia, we have accumulated deep technical accumulation in the AIGC field, built strong competitive barriers, and have the ability to quickly adapt to steep changes in technology with low R&D costs, extremely cost-effective R&D capabilities, and organizational and operational capabilities to quickly adapt to steep changes in technology.
Second, its ecological layout is comprehensive. Unlike companies in the market that specialize in large cost models (such as Kimi), go out and ask, and rely on the self-developed “sequence monkey” multi-modal large model to create an AIGC multi-modal product matrix covering multiple scenarios, forming a complete AIGC ecosystem closed loop integrating technology, products, and commercialization. This full-stack layout has become its core differentiating advantage.
Third, the founders are extremely farsighted and forward-looking. From voice assistants, to intelligent hardware, to the AIGC big model era, almost every step was laid out before the wave.
It is with its leading technical strength, systematic ecological construction, and forward-looking vision that Goes Out and Queries stands out in the capital market and has won high recognition from investors.
The company simultaneously launched the AIGC product matrix for creators, including four CoPilot applications, as well as an AI digital employee application for the B-side. Currently, the company has more than 15 million users worldwide, covering content creators, businesses and consumers.
The company's revenue from AIGC solutions grew rapidly, showing strong growth momentum. From 2021 to 2023, they were 6.822 million yuan, 398.57 million yuan, and 118 million yuan respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of over 300%. At the same time, its share of revenue also rose sharply from 15.0% in 2021 to 67.7% in 2023. The rise in the AI software business has also spurred an acceleration in the company's gross margin. In three years, the company's gross margin soared from 30.12% in 2021 to 64.3% in 2023.
In recent years, the company has also increased investment in R&D to expand its leading edge. In 2023, the company's R&D expenditure reached 155 million yuan. As of March 26 of this year, the R&D team that went out to ask had reached 55.0% of the company's total number of employees; as of the same day, Go Out and Ask had obtained a total of 681 AI-related intellectual property rights, including 593 AI-related patents approved and 88 AI software copyrights, building a strong technical barrier.
In summary, Go Out and Ask has won the favor of the world's top companies and well-known institutional investors with its outstanding business performance and industry qualifications, which provides a strong endorsement for the company's development. With the deepening development of big model technology into multiple modes, content production is expected to usher in a new era of “big explosion”. This will not only reshape the commercial landscape of the content ecosystem, but also open a new golden period for the commercialization of the AIGC industry.
As a pioneer in commercialization of AIGC, I am already on the cusp of this historic opportunity when I go out and ask questions. With its full-stack ecological layout and the core strength of its multi-modal large model, the company is expected to usher in a comprehensive growth period and valuation increase, bringing rich returns to investors.