VESSEL GLOBAL CAPITAL
GLOBAL CAPITAL INSIGHTS

ISSUE 01 · JULY 2026

CHINA → GLOBAL · AUTONOMOUS MOBILITY

From deep tech
to global scale.

What Hesai’s operating inflection teaches founders about public-market proof, investor communication, and building beyond the IPO.

NASDAQHSAI

Cross-Border Capital
Global Growth
Long-Term Value

A founder can spend a decade turning a difficult technology into a product—and still arrive at the public market speaking the wrong language.

For a deep-tech company, the early story is usually technical: accuracy, range, components, patents and engineering breakthroughs. Institutional investors eventually ask a different set of questions. Can the product ship at scale? Does each new unit strengthen or dilute the economics? Can management convert technical leadership into repeatable revenue, cash generation and governance?

Hesai offers a useful case study. Founded in Shanghai in 2014, the company moved from LiDAR research into automotive and robotics deployment, listed American depositary shares on Nasdaq in 2023, and reported a sharp operating inflection in 2025. The lesson is not that every founder should copy its path. It is that public-market credibility is built when operating evidence catches up with ambition.

“The IPO is a financing event. The durable asset is management’s ability to translate strategy into measurable public-company proof.”

THE MACRO SHIFT

LiDAR is moving from an engineering option to a scaled component of assisted and autonomous mobility.

01Volume

Broader ADAS adoption is increasing unit demand.

02Economics

Scale and product mix are pushing average prices lower.

03Proof

Investors now need margin durability, not shipment growth alone.

HESAI, IN PLAIN ENGLISH

It builds the “eyes” that help machines understand distance and shape.

Hesai designs and sells LiDAR units and related services. Its two principal end markets are vehicles using advanced driver-assistance systems and robotics applications such as autonomous fleets, delivery, logistics and street sweeping.

01Design

Optics, electronics, ASICs and software

→

02Industrialize

Manufacturing and cost engineering

→

03Sell

ADAS and robotics customers

→

04Learn

Field data informs the next platform

The flywheel

Higher volume can spread fixed engineering and manufacturing costs, but mix matters: ADAS products generally carry lower average selling prices than robotics products. Volume only creates value when cost reductions and operating leverage keep pace.

SCALE, MEASURED

FY2025 · RMB unless noted · Company filings

NET REVENUE3.03bn

+45.8% year over year

LIDAR UNITS RECOGNIZED1.62m

vs. ~501,900 in 2024

GROSS MARGIN41.8%

vs. 42.6% in 2024

NET INCOME435.9m

vs. RMB102.4m net loss in 2024

REVENUE PROGRESSION

Commercial scale accelerated.

Revenue rose from RMB1.88bn in 2023 to RMB3.03bn in 2025, while reported unit volume expanded more than sevenfold.

1.882023

2.082024

3.032025

UNIT VOLUME PROGRESSION

Scale accelerated faster than revenue.

Recognized LiDAR volume rose from approximately 222,100 units in 2023 to 1.62 million in 2025. The divergence between unit and revenue growth makes mix, pricing and cost-down execution central to the investment thesis.

222k2023

502k2024

1.62m2025

The debate has shifted from “Can LiDAR scale?” to “Who captures the economics of scale?”

WHAT IS WORKING

Revenue growth accelerated to 45.8% in 2025.
Reported LiDAR units tied to revenue reached about 1.62 million.
Full-year GAAP net income turned positive.
R&D fell to 26.3% of revenue from 41.2% in 2024, showing operating leverage.

WHAT STILL NEEDS PROOF

Gross margin held above 40%, but declined modestly as service mix changed.
Average selling price fell as lower-priced ADAS volume became a larger mix.
Accounts receivable growth weighed on operating cash conversion.
Geopolitical, regulatory, customer concentration and supply-chain risks remain material.

TRANSACTION, SIMPLIFIED

What happened at the IPO?

On February 9, 2023, Hesai priced 10.0 million American depositary shares at $19.00 each. Every ADS represented one Class B ordinary share. The base offering was $190 million before underwriting discounts, expenses and any over-allotment exercise.

INVESTORS$190mBase gross proceeds

⇄

HESAI10.0mADSs at $19.00

NASDAQ GLOBAL SELECT MARKET · TICKER HSAI

SIGNATURE IR ANALYSIS

Four messages management should keep proving.

Volume quality

Separate shipment momentum from the revenue, margin and cash contribution of each product family.

Cost-down cadence

Show how design, ASIC integration, sourcing and factory utilization counter lower ADAS pricing.

Cash conversion

Bridge accounting profitability to operating cash flow and explain working-capital movements early.

Global resilience

Make manufacturing footprint, customer diversification and regulatory readiness a measurable operating narrative.

THE INVESTOR-RELATIONS TEST

Narrative clarityStrong

Operating proofImproving

Cash-flow proofDeveloping

Risk translationCritical

Vessel analytical framework; qualitative, not a securities rating.

THE VESSEL PERSPECTIVE

The public market rewards the organization a founder builds—not only the technology the founder invented.

Hesai’s 2025 results illustrate a milestone that many scaling companies pursue: revenue growth, gross profit expansion and operating leverage arriving in the same period. The next standard is durability. Management teams should build reporting systems before they need them, define segment economics clearly, and treat investor communication as an operating discipline.

For founders preparing to access global capital, three practices matter: translate technical differentiation into measurable customer outcomes; explain how scale changes unit economics; and make governance, controls and risk communication part of the growth architecture. None of this replaces product leadership. It makes product leadership legible to long-term capital.

01 · Build the KPI architecture before the roadshow.02 · Explain mix, not just growth.03 · Treat post-IPO IR as a management system.

ABOUT VESSEL

A long-term partner for the full capital journey.

Vessel Global Capital is a New York-based capital-markets advisory firm helping growth companies prepare for, execute and navigate global transactions. Our approach combines hands-on project leadership, institutional relationships, technology-assisted analysis and a long-term view of shareholder value.

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IPO readiness & executionSPAC / de-SPACCross-border M&ACapital raising & PIPEInvestor relationsGovernance & controlsStrategic advisoryPost-IPO strategy

SELECTED LEADERSHIP

Cross-border operators. Institutional perspective.

CEO

Warren Wang

20+ years across U.S. and Chinese capital markets; EMBA, Peking University Guanghua; experience spanning IPOs, M&A and SPAC transactions.

Senior Advisor

Pengfei Xie

20+ years in asset management; MBA, MIT Sloan; undergraduate degree, Peking University; experience overseeing more than $10 billion.

Chief SPAC Officer

Guojian Chen

Public-company finance, governance and investor relations; finance master’s, UCAS; management bachelor’s, Renmin University.

Profiles summarized from Vessel Global Capital’s published team biographies.

START A CONVERSATION

Ready for the questions that come after “Why now?”

vesselgc.com ↗Contact the team ↗

Hudson Yards · New York, NY

PRIMARY SOURCES

Source notes

IMPORTANT NOTICE

This publication is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute investment, legal, accounting or tax advice; an offer to sell; or a solicitation to buy any security. Vessel Global Capital is not expressing a recommendation or price target regarding Hesai Group or any other issuer. Data is drawn from public sources believed reliable but has not been independently verified. Past performance and historical operating results do not guarantee future outcomes. Readers should conduct their own diligence and consult appropriate professional advisers.

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