Manycore Tech Photo: VCG

Manycore Tech Inc, a spatial intelligence unicorn based in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, on Thursday released its global offering document, revealing that the company plans to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) on April 17. 

After its IPO in Hong Kong, Manycore Tech will become the first listed company among what has become widely known as the "Hangzhou Six Little Dragons" of rapidly rising tech start-ups, media reports and analysts said.
 
According to the offering document on the company's website, Manycore Tech intends to globally offer approximately 161 million shares, with a maximum offering price of HK$7.62 ($0.97) per share. This means the firm aims to raise up to HK$1.227 billion, according to media reports. 

Manycore Tech has secured cornerstone investors including Taikang Life Insurance, Sunshine Life Insurance, GF Fund, Redwood, Mirae Asset, Wu Song Capital, Hesai HK and others, according to Manycore Tech's offering document. 

The diverse group of institutional investors - spanning major long-term insurance capital, top public funds, professional private equity firms, international asset managers, and industry leaders - has committed a total of approximately HK$455 million, according to a report by the Securities Times.

The report said that the inclusion of Mirae Asset, one of the largest independent financial groups in Asia, showed the recognition by international long-term capital of the spatial intelligence sector and the intrinsic value of Manycore Tech.

"Manycore Tech's IPO can send a strong signal to global capital: China's AI sector is not only about general large-language models. Hard tech companies operating in vertical domains with strong real-world application scenarios also possess substantial high-valuation potential," Wang Peng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday.

According to media reports, Manycore Tech has established cooperation with several leading enterprises in their respective sectors, such as Hesai Technology, a global leader in lidar solutions, and Shanghai-based robotics company AgiBot, supporting the application of spatial intelligence in fields such as interior design, e-commerce, embodied intelligence, film and television, and extended reality (XR). 

Due to their influence in cutting-edge technology fields, Game Science, DeepSeek, Unitree Robotics, DEEP Robotics, BrainCo and Manycore Tech are collectively known as the "Hangzhou Six Little Dragons," and they are regarded as a microcosm of Hangzhou's and China's scientific and technological innovation strength.

Several of the "Hangzhou Six Little Dragons" have begun their IPO journeys. In addition to Manycore Tech, Unitree Robotics' IPO application for the STAR Market has been accepted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), with the company set to become the first humanoid robot stock on the A-share market, according to a statement by the SSE. 

Other members of the group are reportedly advancing their IPO plans. 

Overall, the IPO processes of the "Hangzhou Six Little Dragons," covering cutting-edge hard tech sectors such as spatial intelligence, robotics, and brain-computer interfaces, have demonstrated the vibrant momentum of China's tech innovation sector, Wang said.

"The entry into the capital markets also indicates that China's high-tech sector is transitioning from the research and development (R&D) stage to the growth and expansion stage," said Wang.

Manycore Tech said in its offering document that about 30 percent of the capital raised from the IPO will be used for global expansion, 20 percent for enhancing the functionality of existing products and launching new products and/or features to meet the needs of real-world physical spaces and virtual environments, among other plans.

More and more Chinese tech companies are actively raising capital to drive R&D, accelerating innovation and expanding their market presence. These compelling investment opportunities are injecting fresh vitality into the capital markets, Pan Helin, a member of the Expert Committee for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Analysts also noted that enterprises such as Manycore Tech are queuing up to list on the HKEX, which indicated the strong momentum of Hong Kong's IPO market for the technology sector.

As of March 31, 40 companies had completed IPOs in Hong Kong, raising nearly HK$110 billion. This represents a year-on-year increase of 489 percent and is the highest figure since 2021, according to CCTV News.