Ma Xiao Star's "outlet" is difficult to do.

Our reporter Huang Lin reports from Zhao Yi.

Zhao Yi Recently, Guangzhou Ma Xiao Zhixing Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ma Xiao Zhixing") landed in the fifth R&D center in Shenzhen to expand the road operation map. However, Ma Xiao Star, which is busy expanding its territory, is currently undergoing changes.

There are market rumors that Ma Xiao Zhixing's plan of "building cars" for passenger cars at the beginning of the year tends to stagnate, and some team members have joined other new forces to build cars. The reporter of "China Business News" contacted the relevant person in charge of Ma Xiao Star about the next car, saying: "Ma Xiao Star will actively evaluate the prospects of various business segments and adjust its business structure accordingly at any time."

In addition, another source pointed out that Ma Xiao Zhixing's R&D team of truck automatic driving has been merged into the R&D team of passenger cars, and some core executives have left their jobs to start businesses, specializing in the field of automatic driving and competing directly with the former company.

For a long time, Ma Xiao Star's go on road trip service has been in a free mode, and its profitability has been questioned. In order to seek more sufficient financial support, Ma Xiao Zhixing announced in June this year that it was considering going public in the United States, but since then, the listing plan has been suspended. How to survive between the return of capital to rationality and commercialization, Ma Xiao Zhixing still needs to explore the unknown tomorrow.

Suspend IPO

Since its establishment, thanks to seven rounds of financing (including Angel Wheel) from Toyota Motor Corporation, Sequoia China and IDG Capital, Ma Xiao Zhixing has accumulated more than 1 1 billion yuan. At present, the money-burning mode of autonomous driving technology companies continues, and Ma Xiao Star is no exception. Only compared with the year when the domestic self-driving track just emerged, the valuation of capital for self-driving technology companies is now returning to rationality, and the investment pace is slowing down.

According to the latest report of Guidehouse Insights, the valuation of Waymo20 18, the top autonomous driving company, is about175 billion US dollars, and this year's latest valuation has shrunk by145 billion US dollars, only about 30 billion US dollars. In addition, Wenyuan Zhixing and Momenta, which also focus on the field of autonomous driving, have not obtained new financing in recent two years. In 20021year, Ma Xiao Zhixing only obtained $6,543.8 billion in C+ round financing, a decrease of more than $600 million compared with 2020.

However, Ma Xiao Star did not emphasize the form of financing. In June this year, Ma Xiao Star announced that it was considering listing in the United States to help provide financial support for the commercialization of its self-driving network car service. Meanwhile, Lawrence Steyn, vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase Investment Bank, served as the chief financial officer of Ma Xiao Zhixing.

Peng Jun, CEO of Ma Xiao Star, once said in an interview: "Autopilot needs long-term investment. This means that all autonomous driving companies need to raise enough funds to support operations. " When asked about the time of listing, Peng Jun once said that listing is just a different way of financing. Obviously, whether it is private financing or public financing, Ma Xiao Star is concerned about the funds at hand. However, the road to listing in the United States is not as easy as expected.

In July, it was reported that Peng Jun had started a roadshow, with an expected valuation of about $654.38+0.2 billion and planned financing of $654.38+0.5 billion. It is worth mentioning that when the C round of financing was completed in May, 5438+065438+2020 10, the valuation of Ma Xiao Zhixing was only about $5.3 billion. After the completion of the C+ round of financing, it is still unknown whether the valuation of Ma Xiao Zhixing can double and exceed $10 billion as expected by Peng Jun.

While the outside world was waiting for Ma Xiao Zhixing to go public, it was reported in mid-August that Ma Xiao Zhixing had suspended its listing plan in the United States due to international relations, overseas policies and other factors. Ma Xiao Star's funds were also exposed, which made it nervous, and the company tried to seek private equity financing.

The reporter sent a letter to Ma Xiao Zhixing on its financing plan, but no reply was received as of press time. In addition, the reporter also learned that Ma Xiao Zhixing is still seeking Hong Kong or A-share listing, but at the same time, how to commercialize it is still a big problem in front of Ma Xiao Zhixing.

It is difficult to commercialize on this scale.

For a long time, the difficulty of commercialization in the field of autonomous driving has been an unavoidable problem in this industry, which not only challenges the patience of investors, but also is an unknown test of the future profitability of autonomous driving enterprises.

Before Ma Xiao Star launched the charging pilot of self-driving travel service in Yizhuang, Beijing on June 25th, 165438, the self-driving travel service of Ma Xiao Star was still mainly based on unmanned driving test, and the self-driving travel service launched in Beijing, California and other cities was also carried out in the form of free rides.

Lou Tiancheng, founder of Ma Xiao Zhixing, once said: "The speed of a company's progress depends on the distance between products and commercial applications, which is the only measure in the second half of autonomous driving." Since the beginning of this year, after the return of capital to rationality, Ma Xiao Zhixing has obviously accelerated the possibility of technology landing.

From April to July this year, Ma Xiao Star simultaneously expanded the scale and scope of go on road trip service in Guangzhou and Beijing, and launched go on road trip service in Shanghai. In addition to the expansion of the city map, Ma Xiao Star also plans to expand its car-making business.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Ma Xiao Star planned to build passenger cars. Earlier in June, according to 36Kr's further information, Ma Xiao Zhixing has set up a vehicle team of more than 10 in Jiading, Shanghai, and initially plans to manufacture passenger cars, but whether it will be put into autonomous driving operation or sold to consumers has not been determined. At the same time, cooperation with car companies is not ruled out. More sources revealed that in order to build a car, Ma Xiao Zhixing also dug people from the new forces of building a car.

But the talent they hired didn't last long. Some former employees of Ma Xiao Star said that employees have left since the planning of passenger cars became clear. According to recent market news, some members of Ma Xiao Star's car-making team of more than 10 people in Jiading have left their jobs and joined the new car-making army.

The relevant person in charge of Ma Xiao Zhixing once admitted to the media that it did recruit some employees with experience in car companies in Shanghai, but the key task was to complete the design and commercialization of driverless products. At the same time, the reply also appeared in the public statement of Ma Xiao Zhixing, which stated: "The relevant design team will focus on the design of the autonomous driving system, not the whole vehicle design."

Affect the changes of the whole body.

Although he denied the rumor of building a car, the change of Ma Xiao's wisdom and behavior could not be concealed. First, Ma Xiao Star will merge the R&D team of truck self-driving into the R&D team of passenger cars.

The layout of Ma Xiao Star truck business was planned as early as 20 18. In 2020, Ma Xiao Star formally established the Truck Division, and registered Ma Xiao Card Company in the same year. In May of this year, Ma Xiao Zhika obtained the license of freight road transportation, and in July, it obtained the license of Beijing Autopilot Test and High-speed Test. At present, the freight has been completed 1.64 thousand tons, and the commercial operation mileage is about 50 thousand kilometers.

In fact, the change of funds forced Ma Xiao Star to adjust its truck business. At the same time, news of the departure of some core members of Ma Xiao Zhika has surfaced one after another. Pan Zhenhao, the former technical director of Zhika, and Sun Zhika's American team established Beijing Qingtian Zhika Technology Co., Ltd., Liu Bocong, who is in charge of Zhika sensing technology, joined the unmanned vehicle team of Meituan, and Sun Haowen, who is in charge of Zhika's domestic autonomous driving PnC Group, joined Qiangua Technology.

In addition, some founding members of Ma Xiao Zhixing were also exposed. It is reported that Zhao Ruixuan, the former vice president in charge of strategic cooperation and financing of Ma Xiao Zhixing, set up another hill and founded Xiang Xing Science and Technology. Xiao Bo, the former founder of Ma Xiao Zhixing, joined Xiang Xing Science and Technology as CTO. It is worth mentioning that the main business object of Xiang Xing Technology is Ma Xiao Zhika, a subsidiary of Ma Xiao Zhixing.

Obviously, the core members and some founding members have engaged in work after leaving their posts, which has formed a direct competitive relationship with Ma Xiao Zhixing, and Ma Xiao Zhixing has turned its trained talents into competitors.

Up to now, the team size of Ma Xiao Zhixing has exceeded 500, but how to retain talents, speed up the commercialization of scale and raise sufficient development funds ... Ma Xiao Zhixing needs a quick decision.