In 2024, when the first batch of 18C special technology companies including XTALPI and Black Sesame Intelligence landed on the Hong Kong stock market, market enthusiasm for hot sectors like AI, semiconductors, and autonomous driving made these companies the "darlings" of capital markets. However, entering 2025, the tide has turned dramatically - the Hong Kong stock market has yet to complete a single 18C company IPO, and among the 12 companies that have submitted applications, Hidi Intelligence and Wuyi Vision remain unable to break through listing bottlenecks despite second submissions. This sudden shift from capital favor to IPO freeze reflects the profound contradiction between special technology companies' commercial validation and market expectations, while exposing multiple risk factors hidden beneath the glamorous facade of hot sectors.
On September 1, 2024, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's reforms to Chapter 18C for special technology companies officially took effect. The reform lowered minimum market capitalization standards for prospective special technology listing companies, specifically divided into two categories: the minimum market cap for commercialized companies was reduced from HK$6 billion to HK$4 billion, while for non-commercialized companies it was lowered from HK$10 billion to HK$8 billion. Commercialized companies refer to special technology companies with audited revenue of at least HK$250 million in the most recent accounting year (meeting the commercialization revenue threshold); non-commercialized companies are those that have not reached this threshold at listing. This adjustment is a temporary policy implemented for three years, from September 1, 2024, to August 31, 2027.
**Three Listed 18C Companies Rapidly Raise Funds Post-IPO? Active Secondary Market Performance Still Shows No Fundamental Improvement**
Currently, the Hong Kong stock market has 3 listed 18C companies and 12 companies that have publicly submitted applications. All 3 listed companies completed their listings under the pre-reform market cap standards: XTALPI was a non-commercialized company at listing with a market cap of HK$18 billion; Black Sesame Intelligence and Dobot were both commercialized companies with listing market caps of HK$15.9 billion and HK$7.5 billion respectively, all exceeding pre-reform standards (HK$10 billion for non-commercialized companies, HK$6 billion for commercialized companies).
Leveraging Hong Kong's lightning placement mechanism and the recovery momentum of the Hong Kong secondary market, the 3 listed 18C companies began "fund-raising" activities within six months to one year after listing. Among them, XTALPI raised a total of HK$3.22 billion through two placements, three times its IPO fundraising scale. The two placements were separated by only one month, clearly capitalizing on market windows for accelerated financing: the second placement price was HK$6.10 per share, a 43% premium over the first placement price of HK$4.28 per share; the fundraising scale increased from HK$1.13 billion to HK$2.09 billion. Comparing the fundraising purposes of both placements reveals that the January 2025 funding plan was relatively specific, while the February 2025 purposes were merely simplified reductions based on the previous round - further demonstrating the company's "money-grabbing" intent and reflecting hasty fundraising planning.
Black Sesame Intelligence has shown the worst post-market performance among the three 18C companies, with a decline of 31% since listing. The company issued a positive profit forecast on February 17, 2025, then leveraged this momentum to launch a placement on February 19. However, the placement price (HK$23.20 per share) was at a 17% discount to the IPO price (HK$28.00 per share). After the placement, the stock price continued to fall, reaching a low of HK$14.50 per share, nearly 38% below the placement price; the latest closing price of HK$19.30 per share remains below both IPO and placement prices. This performance may be related to the vagueness of earnings disclosure: the 2024 positive profit forecast showed expected annual revenue of RMB 450-500 million (44%-60% year-over-year growth), with net profit attributable to equity holders of no less than RMB 100 million (compared to a loss of RMB 4.855 billion in 2023); actual results showed 2024 revenue of RMB 474 million and profit of RMB 313 million, basically meeting forecasts, but adjusted net loss for the year reached RMB 1.304 billion (expanded from 2023), key information not mentioned in the forecast, creating a gap between actual performance and market expectations.
Dobot presents a unique "high stock price, weak performance" characteristic: as the company with the smallest IPO market cap (about HK$7.5 billion), its gains since listing have reached 188%. The company conducted a placement on July 15, 2025, with an issuance scale of about HK$1.04 billion and a price of HK$54.30 per share, a 189% premium over the IPO price. However, its overall performance remains lackluster: the first annual report after listing showed company revenue of RMB 374 million, up 30.3% year-over-year, with adjusted net loss of RMB 95 million, narrowing by only 7.7% year-over-year. Typically, companies issue forecasts to alert markets when significant performance changes occur, but as of August 22, Dobot has not yet released a performance forecast for the first half of 2025, possibly indicating no significant improvement in performance. Additionally, the company's R&D investment is significantly lower than the other two: 2024 R&D expenses were only RMB 72 million, accounting for 19.2% of operating revenue, while Black Sesame Intelligence and XTALPI's R&D expense ratios reached 302.6% and 157.0% respectively. As a special technology company, adequate R&D investment is key to maintaining core competitiveness, and Dobot's current R&D level raises questions about whether it has deviated from its special technology attributes.
**2025 18C IPO Market Remains Cold; Hidi Intelligence and Wuyi Vision Show No Major Progress After Second Submissions**
Despite the high activity levels of the 3 listed 18C companies in equity financing and secondary trading, and subsequent applicant 18C companies closely following hot concepts like robotics, AI, and autonomous driving, the actual market expansion situation is far from as optimistic as conceptual speculation suggests. After the 18C reform implementation, although 12 companies have submitted prospectuses, none have completed listings in 2025 so far. This is particularly stark against the backdrop of Hong Kong IPO fundraising reaching a 4-year high in 2025, making 18C IPO issuance appear even more subdued, contrasting with reform expectations.
Overall, all 12 submitted 18C companies had 2024 revenue exceeding HK$250 million, meeting the commercialization threshold, and can list with a minimum market cap of HK$4 billion. However, even with lowered thresholds, companies with weak fundamentals, unclear commercialization paths, or inappropriately high or low previous round valuations still face challenges in Hong Kong IPOs. For example, from the commercialization threshold perspective, the Hong Kong Exchange's 18C rules require audited revenue of at least HK$250 million in the most recent period, and 9 of the 12 companies only just reached the commercialization threshold in 2024 before rushing to list, with the stability of their commercialization paths yet to be verified. Only three companies - Wuyi Vision, SEER Robotics, and Reconova - have met commercialization requirements for two consecutive years.
Currently, Hidi Intelligence shows the fastest progress: the company first submitted its prospectus on November 7, 2024, received regulatory feedback on January 3, 2025, and submitted a second prospectus on May 8, 2025, updating 2024 performance. The company's 2024 revenue grew 207% year-over-year to RMB 410 million, but losses further expanded to RMB 580 million, growing 124% year-over-year. This "revenue growth without profit improvement" model has undoubtedly raised market concerns. Additionally, in the latest C+ round financing in February 2024, Hidi Intelligence achieved an overall valuation of RMB 9 billion - existing shareholders hope to maintain or even achieve a premium on this valuation at IPO, while IPO investors reference the HK$4 billion threshold for calculations, leaving the company's valuation in a difficult position.
Wuyi Vision also submitted a second prospectus on May 3, 2025, updating full-year 2024 performance, but the company has not received regulatory feedback, suggesting potential ongoing pressure in regulatory communications. Notably, while the company recorded slight revenue growth and slight loss narrowing in 2024, one of the main improvement methods was actually reducing R&D expenses and decreasing R&D personnel: the company's 2024 R&D investment was only RMB 58 million, down 43% year-over-year, and R&D team personnel decreased from about 250 in January 2023 to about 118 in December 2024. This approach of "sacrificing innovation for short-term performance" contradicts the core attributes of special technology companies.