The wave of Chinese concept stocks returning to Hong Kong may be coming again.

After 31 months of trading in the US, Hesai Group has successfully returned to list in Hong Kong.

On September 16, this LiDAR company officially debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Right at the opening, their share price surged over 12% from the issue price of HK$212.8, pushing market capitalization beyond HK$36 billion.

Hillhouse Capital, Taikang Life Insurance, WT Asset Management, Grab, Hung Fook Tong Group, and Commando Global Fund chose to become cornerstone investors for Hesai Group, collectively contributing over HK$1.1 billion to support the company's Hong Kong listing.

The fundraising amount exceeding HK$4.1 billion makes Hesai Group the largest Chinese concept stock return to Hong Kong project in recent years by fundraising scale.

From its founding in Silicon Valley to establishing operations in Shanghai, Hesai Group, under the leadership of three academic achievers - Li Yifan, Sun Kai, and Xiang Shaoqing, spent over a decade growing into the world's largest LiDAR supplier and became the first company this year to achieve dual listing on both US and Hong Kong markets.

This development carries significant "barometer" implications, not only indicating that the channel for Chinese concept stocks returning to Hong Kong has reopened after nearly two years, but also potentially driving more Chinese concept stocks to list in Hong Kong.

**Three Academic Stars Create a Mega IPO**

The story of Hesai Group begins with three academic achievers.

Born into an engineering family, Li Yifan enjoyed building various things from childhood. After being recommended to Tsinghua University, he studied in the Department of Precision Instruments. In his junior year, a Silicon Valley company selected Li Yifan and sponsored his studies in America, setting the wheels of destiny in motion.

After graduating with a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013, Li Yifan worked at Western Digital, where he eventually met Sun Kai, who had undergraduate degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a PhD from Stanford University, and Xiang Shaoqing, who had undergraduate degree from Tsinghua University and master's degree from Stanford University.

At that time, Sun Kai was working as a research assistant at Stanford University, exploring how to use laser and new detection technologies to build ultrafast and high-sensitivity molecular detection systems. As for Xiang Shaoqing, he was already an iPhone hardware system integration engineer at Apple, participating in prototype design for multiple iPhone generations.

Despite attractive compensation, they were not content with their status quo and gradually developed entrepreneurial ambitions while pursuing bigger and more interesting endeavors. To solve domestic gas detection challenges, Li Yifan, Sun Kai, and Xiang Shaoqing founded Hesai Group in October 2014, initially developing detection equipment for the natural gas industry, and eventually establishing the company in Shanghai.

In Li Yifan's view, Chinese entrepreneurs face significant difficulties starting businesses in Silicon Valley, while Shanghai is rich in technological innovation resources, with an open and vibrant innovation and entrepreneurship atmosphere that brings together the highest quality resource elements, making it ideal land for entrepreneurs to realize their ambitions. "Choosing to start a business in Shanghai was the best decision we made."

Although they secured funding in a short time, due to the limited overall market for their chosen entrepreneurial direction, Hesai Group still faced slow business growth difficulties. In an extremely anxious state, they explored various solutions and successfully identified the LiDAR field, which offered large total market size, high technical barriers, and standardized products.

"We held meetings together, discussing what products we could make to change the world, and ultimately we believed that autonomous driving could change the world, with LiDAR being the most critical sensor," Li Yifan once revealed. Although gas detection and ranging work on different principles, they share commonalities in core issues like remote sensing optical path design and electronic signal processing, with similar professional talent requirements.

Thus, when the market was still developing 16-line products, Hesai Group launched China's first 32-line hybrid solid-state LiDAR in October 2016. Six months later, the company released China's first 40-line hybrid solid-state LiDAR, gaining increasing recognition in the industry.

Li Yifan once stated frankly, "Orders can explain everything." Massive orders indeed demonstrated their strong capabilities to the outside world. By September 2022, Hesai Group had cumulatively delivered 100,000 LiDAR products and became the world's first LiDAR company to achieve monthly shipments of 10,000 units.

With recognition from customers like Li Auto, Zeekr, and Leapmotor, the company's product sales continued to rise, selling 501,900 LiDAR units in 2024 alone. As products gained popularity, their revenue grew from over 1.2 billion yuan in 2022 to over 2 billion yuan in 2024.

According to Frost & Sullivan, if calculated by revenue scale, Hesai Group has ranked first in the global robotics market for three consecutive years starting from 2022. In the second quarter of 2025, the company's revenue reached 706 million yuan. More importantly, they achieved net profit of 44 million yuan, successfully breaking the previous pattern of continuous losses.

Their commercialization progress continues to accelerate. On September 15, the company announced further deepened cooperation with a leading US Robotaxi company, signing LiDAR orders worth over $40 million. As the sole LiDAR supplier for this partner, Hesai Group will complete order delivery by the end of 2026.

Even more noteworthy is that from listing on US markets in February 2023 as "China's first LiDAR stock" to becoming the first company this year to achieve dual listing on US and Hong Kong markets in September 2025, Hesai Group has chosen to dance with the times at critical moments.

**Lightspeed and Qiming Ventures Bet Big with At Least 9 Funding Rounds**

During its growth process, Hesai Group completed at least 9 funding rounds, backed by a large group of investors.

Lightspeed China Partners, Prospect Avenue Capital, DCM Ventures, Gatepoint Capital, Pangu Venture Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Detong Capital, Hillhouse Venture, CPE, ZhenFund, Baidu, Bosch Group, Xiaomi Group, Meituan, and others have all provided extensive support for the company.

Back in 2014, after seeing the company's products, Prospect Avenue Capital made an investment decision. At that time, Li Yifan, referencing a movie scene, suggested writing the investment amount and company valuation on paper. After the other party agreed, both signed on the spot. Although this paper had no legal effect, it greatly encouraged the startup company.

Ultimately, Prospect Avenue Capital, DCM Ventures, and PreAngel provided 10 million yuan as angel investors for Hesai Group. Since the initial focus was laser gas detection, they had almost no revenue for a long time. Only after shifting focus to LiDAR did the company gain increasing attention from investors.

Lightspeed China Partners founding partner Mi Qun was among them. In the company's founding year, Li Yifan had emailed him seeking funding, but Mi Qun judged the laser gas detection market was not large enough and ultimately chose not to invest. Learning that Hesai Group had begun making LiDAR with mechanical radar samples in customer testing phases, he proactively contacted Li Yifan and became the first investor to directly test solid-state radar product prototypes.

In May 2018, Hesai Group announced completion of a 250 million yuan Series B round led by Lightspeed China Partners and Baidu. From then on, Lightspeed China Partners consecutively led 5 funding rounds for the company, with cumulative investment exceeding $100 million, becoming their largest institutional investor. Li Yifan once publicly stated that the three most correct decisions since starting the business were: returning to China to start a business, making LiDAR, and taking Lightspeed's investment.

With Lightspeed China Partners and Bosch Group as co-lead investors, ON Semiconductor, Qiming Venture Partners, Detong Capital, Singapore's Axiom and others chose to follow, enabling the company to complete a $173 million Series C round in January 2020, setting a new record for the highest single funding round in the LiDAR industry.

Having always focused closely on the autonomous driving field, Qiming Venture Partners invested in WeRide in 2017 and began deeply understanding the upstream and downstream industry chain based on that company. In their view, the most critical, expensive, and technologically sophisticated component on an autonomous vehicle at that time was LiDAR.

Qiming Venture Partners founding managing partner Gary Rieschel once revealed that they began "scanning" the LiDAR industry, including visiting multiple LiDAR companies in the US with different technological approaches and at different stages, ultimately selecting Hesai Group from numerous enterprises.

In November 2021, Hesai Group announced completion of over $370 million Series D funding, with investors including Hillhouse Venture, Xiaomi Group, Meituan, CPE, Cathay Capital, Lightspeed China Partners, and Qiming Venture Partners. With the final pre-IPO funding round finalized, their valuation soared to $2 billion.

Since listing in the US in February 2023, the company's market value has continued to fluctuate under the influence of macroeconomic environment and market demand factors, ultimately achieving impressive performance with gains exceeding 56%.

**Is Another Wave of Chinese Concept Stocks Returning to Hong Kong Coming?**

With Hesai Group officially listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the company has become the first Chinese concept stock to return to Hong Kong in nearly two years.

The core objective for choosing to list in Hong Kong is to improve the stability and security of company stock trading, creating maximum value for shareholders and protecting their interests. "This is our primary strategic consideration."

For Hesai Group, whose business is in a rapid global growth phase, the Hong Kong market has both international perspective and deep understanding of Chinese tech companies' business models and potential. "We believe we can achieve more reasonable valuations here and better showcase Hesai's value to global markets, supporting our internationalization strategy."

Examining the reasons closely, the complex macroeconomic environment is an unavoidable topic. Whether facing lawsuits in the US or being targeted by short-selling institutions, the series of issues Hesai Group faced after listing undoubtedly sounded alarm bells for numerous Chinese concept stocks.

The most direct result is that with slight disturbances in the external environment, company stock prices tend to face significant impact, leading to undervaluation situations.

In March 2025, the company's stock price finally returned to its issue price after experiencing a long downturn. At that time, Li Yifan stated in an interview that he hoped every investor who bought Hesai Group stock with real money would make profits. "When the company's stock price was below the issue price, I felt pressure."

From Hesai Group's experience, one can sense that Chinese concept stocks face considerable pressure. Similarly belonging to the autonomous driving industry and also listed in the US, Pony.ai and WeRide, whose stock prices remain volatile, may have deeper understanding of Hesai Group's situation.

Facing a changing environment, returning to Hong Kong for listing has become an important means for many Chinese concept stocks to reduce risks, gradually becoming a trend starting from 2020. However, in recent years, as the path for Chinese concept stocks returning to Hong Kong has stagnated, this trend has significantly slowed.

Until Hesai Group successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, indicating that the channel for Chinese concept stocks returning to Hong Kong has been reopened and may drive more Chinese concept stocks to return to Hong Kong. Earlier, the market had circulated news about companies like Pony.ai and WeRide preparing for Hong Kong listings. This also means a new wave of Chinese concept stocks returning to Hong Kong may emerge in the future.

Recently, the China Securities Regulatory Commission has expressed its stance encouraging high-quality Chinese concept stock companies to return to mainland China and Hong Kong markets. To help Chinese concept stocks list in Hong Kong, the Securities and Futures Commission and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited are also actively preparing and making Hong Kong their preferred listing destination.

"Our consistent attitude is hoping that all companies coming to list in Hong Kong are high-quality enterprises," Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited CEO Bonnie Chan stated in an interview. "Every enterprise has its uniqueness, and if they need flexible handling to overcome certain issues, we will work hand-in-hand with them to solve problems."

The waters of Victoria Harbor are warming, and new chapters are rapidly opening.