VESSEL GLOBAL CAPITAL / GLOBAL CAPITAL INSIGHTSISSUE 05 · JULY 2026

PHYSICAL AI · HONG KONG IPO · FOUNDER PLAYBOOK

What can going public really change for a company?

MOMENTAHKEX: 6880

Momenta’s roughly US$751 million Hong Kong IPO offers founders five answers: durable capital, a cleaner equity story, liquidity, strategic currency and institutional credibility.

An IPO does not turn a technology into a business. It changes the resources, accountability and strategic instruments available to the company building it.

Momenta was founded in 2016 by Cao Xudong and a technical team focused on autonomous driving. By February 2026, its production-vehicle solutions had been installed in more than 733,000 vehicles. The company had relationships with 24 global automakers, including nine of the world’s ten largest, and the prospectus—citing China Insights Consultancy—reported a 64.5% share of independent-provider Urban NOA sales volume for the twelve months ended February 28, 2026.

On July 8, 2026, Momenta began trading in Hong Kong at an offer price of HK$295.60 per share. The base offering raised HK$5.894 billion in gross proceeds, approximately US$751 million, and implied an offer-price market capitalization of HK$69.625 billion—about US$8.9 billion. The transaction matters not only because of its size, but because it shows what a listing can actually change inside a research-intensive company.

Momenta’s roughly US$751 million Hong Kong IPO offers founders five answers: durable capital, a cleaner equity story, liquidity, strategic currency and institutional credibility.

02 / THE MACRO TREND

The IPO is best understood as an operating transformation—not a finish line.

Physical-AI companies must finance long research cycles, convert prototypes into automotive-grade products, support global customers and maintain credibility through uneven accounting results. Public markets can widen the capital base, but they also force management to reconcile technology milestones with cash, margins, governance and repeatable disclosure.

MOMENTA, IN PLAIN ENGLISH

Momenta develops autonomous-driving software for production vehicles and robotaxi services, using deployed vehicles and testing fleets to improve a shared technology foundation.

Develop

Invest in models, data infrastructure, simulation, testing and vehicle-grade software.

Nominate

Win automaker programs and integrate the solution into specific vehicle models.

Deploy

Earn development and licensing revenue as models reach production.

Learn

Use deployment data to improve the shared stack and support higher automation levels.

SCALE + FINANCIAL PROOF

Most recent fiscal year · Company-reported

URBAN NOA SHARE

64.5%Independent providers; TTM Feb. 2026, CIC

INSTALLED VEHICLES

733k+as of February 28, 2026

2025 REVENUE

RMB2.41bn+82.1% year over year

BASE GROSS PROCEEDS

HK$5.89bnHK$5.66bn net of estimated expenses

Does the IPO convert technical leadership into a durable, cash-generative public company?

WHAT IS WORKING

Revenue grew at an 80.2% two-year compound rate from 2023 to 2025.
Gross margin expanded from 17.5% to 71.6% as licensing became more material.
Non-IFRS adjusted loss narrowed to RMB302.8 million in 2025.
Cornerstone and strategic investors provided institutional validation.

WHAT NEEDS PROOF

The company still reported a RMB3.46 billion IFRS loss in 2025.
R&D expense reached RMB1.87 billion, or 77.5% of revenue.
Robotaxi commercialization remains early and capital intensive.
Customer concentration, safety, regulation and global execution remain material risks.

THE DATA, VISUALIZED

The operating evidence behind the thesis.

Comparable periods, explicit units and primary-source definitions. Bar length shows magnitude; labels provide exact values.

REVENUE · RMB BN

Revenue scaled rapidly before the listing

Company revenue by fiscal year; RMB billions.

2023RMB0.74bn

2024RMB1.32bn

2025RMB2.41bn

READ-THROUGHRevenue grew from RMB742.7 million in 2023 to RMB2.41 billion in 2025. Licensing rose to 40.1% of revenue, helping gross margin expand sharply.

Source: Momenta Global Offering Prospectus

GROSS MARGIN · %

Gross margin shows a changing revenue model

Company-reported gross profit margin by fiscal year.

202317.5%

202449.0%

202571.6%

READ-THROUGHMargin increased as more programs reached production and licensing revenue grew. The next test is whether this mix can support R&D while the company moves toward profitability.

Source: Momenta Global Offering Prospectus

ADJUSTED LOSS · RMB BN

Adjusted loss narrowed; IFRS loss did not

Non-IFRS adjusted loss, shown as absolute RMB billions. IFRS 2025 loss was RMB3.46bn.

2023RMB1.09bn

2024RMB0.96bn

2025RMB0.30bn

READ-THROUGHThe adjusted loss fell to RMB302.8 million after excluding share compensation, preferred-share fair-value changes and listing expenses. This is useful operating context, but it is not a substitute for IFRS results.

Source: Momenta Global Offering Prospectus

USE OF PROCEEDS · %

The base proceeds have a defined mandate

Planned allocation of net proceeds; percent of base net proceeds.

Core R&D60%

Robotaxi20%

Production10%

Corporate10%

READ-THROUGHThe prospectus allocates 60% to core R&D and 20% to robotaxi commercialization. The offering is therefore primarily long-duration product and market-building capital.

Source: Momenta Global Offering Prospectus

06 / LONG-FORM ANALYSIS

What the numbers change—and what they still cannot prove.

Going public can replace a short runway with strategic time.

At year-end 2025, Momenta held RMB1.307 billion of cash and cash equivalents while spending RMB1.869 billion on research and development during the year. Cash alone is not the full liquidity picture—the company also held other financial assets—but the comparison captures the financing challenge faced by frontier-technology businesses. Model training, cloud infrastructure, road testing and automotive validation continue long before the business reaches steady-state profitability.

The base offering produced HK$5.894 billion of gross proceeds and HK$5.656 billion of estimated net proceeds. Momenta plans to direct 60% of net proceeds to core R&D, 20% to robotaxi commercialization, 10% to mass-production solutions and 10% to working capital and corporate purposes. That allocation does more than fund a laboratory. It gives management time to coordinate long vehicle programs, higher-level autonomy and a global customer roadmap without treating every development cycle as a new private financing event.

FOUNDER TAKEAWAYRaise enough capital to reach the next strategic state—not merely the next fundraising milestone—and disclose exactly what that capital must prove.

A listing can clean up the balance-sheet story without erasing economic losses.

Momenta reported IFRS losses of RMB2.57 billion, RMB3.21 billion and RMB3.46 billion from 2023 through 2025. A major component was the non-cash fair-value change on preferred shares and other financial liabilities: RMB1.19 billion in 2023, RMB1.97 billion in 2024 and RMB2.84 billion in 2025. The prospectus states that the relevant preferred instruments convert to equity upon completion of the offering, removing a source of recurring liability remeasurement.

That accounting cleanup must be communicated carefully. It does not reverse accumulated losses, which reached RMB18.55 billion at year-end 2025, and it does not make the company profitable. The more useful operating signal is the company’s non-IFRS adjusted loss, which narrowed from RMB1.09 billion in 2023 to RMB302.8 million in 2025. Investors should see both measures, the reconciliation between them and the cash implications of each adjustment.

FOUNDER TAKEAWAYUse the IPO to simplify the capital structure, then make the IFRS-to-adjusted bridge explicit rather than implying that accounting conversion solved profitability.

A public market creates a path to liquidity—but discipline determines its value.

Momenta’s private financing history included venture investors and strategic automakers. General Motors invested US$300 million in 2021, and the pre-IPO shareholder base also included strategic and institutional capital. A listing introduces observable pricing and, after applicable lockups, a mechanism through which early holders may eventually realize part of their investment.

Liquidity is not the same as an immediate exit. Selling pressure, lockups, free float and market concentration affect how that path develops. The allotment announcement itself warned that concentrated ownership could produce substantial price movement with limited trading. Founders should treat liquidity as a governance transition: expectations among employees, strategic investors and long-term shareholders must be managed before the first lockup expires.

FOUNDER TAKEAWAYDesign the post-IPO ownership and communication plan before liquidity arrives; otherwise the cap table can become the market’s narrative.

Public shares become a strategic currency for talent and transactions.

A quoted share price gives a company a visible instrument for employee incentives, acquisitions and partnerships. For a technology business competing for scarce engineering talent, equity can connect compensation with long-term enterprise value. For acquisitions, listed shares can supplement cash and make relative value easier to discuss with a target.

That currency is valuable only when stakeholders trust its durability. Volatile shares, unclear dilution or poorly explained incentive grants can weaken recruitment and transaction credibility. Momenta’s weighted-voting-rights structure also makes governance especially important: the prospectus indicates that the controlling group would hold significant voting power after listing. A public equity program therefore needs disciplined dilution limits, board oversight and communication of how each issuance creates value per share.

FOUNDER TAKEAWAYTreat listed equity as a scarce strategic asset with an explicit dilution and governance framework.

The IPO can act as a credibility seal—but only disclosure keeps it valid.

Momenta’s offering included 14 cornerstone investors spanning global institutions and industry partners. The allotment materials identify participants including GIC, Fidelity, BlackRock-related entities and Mercedes-Benz; strategic names such as BYD also appeared in the cornerstone group described in the prospectus. Together with relationships across 24 automakers and nine of the global top ten, that roster provides third-party validation of the company’s relevance.

The seal is provisional. Public credibility must be renewed through consistent disclosure of nominations, production launches, installed vehicles, licensing mix, safety governance, R&D productivity and cash. Even the strongest market-share statistic needs boundaries: the 64.5% figure covers independent providers of Urban NOA solutions and a specific trailing-twelve-month period; it is not a share of the entire autonomous-driving market. Precision strengthens the story because it lets investors know exactly what leadership means.

FOUNDER TAKEAWAYInstitutional names open the door; precise, repeatable and source-defined operating evidence keeps it open.

07 / TRANSACTION BREAKDOWN

The base deal raised HK$5.89 billion at a HK$69.63 billion valuation.

Momenta sold 19,938,300 offer shares at HK$295.60 each. The allotment announcement reported HK$5.894 billion of gross proceeds and HK$5.656 billion of net proceeds after estimated listing expenses, before any exercise of the over-allotment option. The offer price implied a market capitalization of HK$69.625 billion.

CAPITAL / SECURITIES19.94m shares

⇄

ISSUER / INVESTORSHK$295.60

HONG KONG MAIN BOARD · STOCK CODE 6880 · TRADING BEGAN JULY 8, 2026

08 / SIGNATURE IR ANALYSIS

The messages management should keep proving.

Define market leadership

Keep the provider universe, product boundary, geography and measurement period attached to every market-share claim.

Reconcile profitability

Present IFRS loss, non-IFRS adjustments, operating cash use and gross-margin development in one bridge.

Track deployment quality

Pair nominations and installed vehicles with production launches, licensing revenue and customer concentration.

Govern the capital

Report progress against the 60/20/10/10 proceeds plan and the milestones each investment is intended to reach.

The real IPO product is not the share certificate. It is a new operating contract.

For Momenta, the contract exchanges access to long-term capital and public equity currency for continuous disclosure, governance and market scrutiny. The five benefits in this case—capital, structural clarity, liquidity, strategic currency and credibility—are meaningful precisely because each comes with a corresponding discipline.

Founders should ask what will be observably different two years after listing. More capital is an input. The outcomes must appear in production deployments, licensing economics, safety, R&D productivity and a credible path from adjusted operating progress to reported profitability.

01Raise against a milestone architecture, not a generic growth ambition.
02Show reported and adjusted results together, with cash consequences.
03Use institutional validation as the start of the disclosure obligation.

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PRIMARY SOURCES

Source notes

IMPORTANT NOTICE

This publication is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, an offer to sell, or a solicitation to buy any security. Vessel Global Capital expresses no securities recommendation or price target. Public information is believed reliable but has not been independently verified. Readers should conduct their own diligence and consult appropriate advisers.

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