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

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

On September 16th, this LiDAR company officially debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Upon opening, their stock price surged over 12% from the issue price of HK$212.8, pushing the market cap above HK$36 billion.

Hillhouse Capital, Taikang Life Insurance, WT Asset Management, Grab, Hongda Group, and Commando Global Fund became cornerstone investors in 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 project to Hong Kong in recent years.

From its founding in Silicon Valley to settling in Shanghai, Hesai Group, under the leadership of three academic leaders Li Yifan, Sun Kai, and Xiang Shaoqing, grew over a decade to become the world's largest LiDAR supplier and the first "US+HK" dual-listed company this year.

This development carries significant "barometer" meaning, 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 Leaders Create a Super IPO**

The story of Hesai Group begins with three academic achievers.

Born into an engineering family, Li Yifan loved building various things from a young age.

After being admitted to Tsinghua University, he studied in the Department of Precision Instruments.

In his third year, a Silicon Valley company selected Li Yifan and sponsored his studies in the US, setting the wheels of fate in motion.

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

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 ultra-fast and highly sensitive molecular detection systems.

As for Xiang Shaoqing, he was already an iPhone hardware system integration engineer at Apple, participating in prototype designs for multiple iPhone generations.

Despite lucrative positions, they were not content and gradually developed entrepreneurial ambitions.

To solve domestic gas detection challenges, Li Yifan, Sun Kai, and Xiang Shaoqing founded Hesai Group in October 2014, beginning research and development of detection equipment for the natural gas industry, ultimately establishing the company in Shanghai.

In Li Yifan's view, entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley is extremely difficult for Chinese people, while Shanghai has abundant technological innovation resources and gathers the highest quality resource elements, making it ideal ground for entrepreneurs to realize their ambitions.

"Choosing to start a business in Shanghai was the best decision we made."

Despite securing financing quickly, the limited overall market for their chosen entrepreneurial direction led Hesai Group into slow business growth difficulties.

In an extremely anxious state, they sought solutions through various means and successfully identified the LiDAR field, which had large market potential, high technical barriers, and standardized products.

"We met together to discuss what products could change the world, and ultimately we believed that autonomous driving could change the world, with LiDAR being the most critical sensor."

Li Yifan revealed that although gas detection and ranging principles differ, they share commonalities in core issues like remote 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 bluntly, "Orders tell the whole story."

Massive orders indeed demonstrated their formidable 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 clients like Li Auto, Zeekr, and Leapmotor, the company's product sales continued rising, 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, based on revenue scale, Hesai Group has ranked first in the global robotics market for three consecutive years since 2022.

In the second quarter of 2025, the company's revenue reached 706 million yuan.

More importantly, their net profit reached 44 million yuan, successfully breaking the previous pattern of continuous losses.

Their commercialization progress continues accelerating.

On September 15th, the company announced further deepening cooperation with a leading American 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 the US stock market in February 2023 as "China's first LiDAR stock" to becoming the first "US+HK" dual-listed company in September 2025, Hesai Group has chosen to dance with the times at crucial moments.

**Speed of Light and Qiming Ventures Place Bets: At Least 9 Funding Rounds**

During its development and growth, Hesai Group completed at least 9 funding rounds, backed by numerous investors.

Lightspeed China Partners, Prospect Avenue Capital, DCM China, InnoSpring, Pangu VC, Qiming Venture Partners, Detong Capital, Hillhouse Venture, CPE, ZhenFund, Baidu, Bosch, Xiaomi Group, Meituan, and others all provided extensive support to 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, proposed 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 China, and PreAngel contributed 10 million yuan as angel investors in Hesai Group.

Since the initial focus was laser gas detection, they had almost no revenue for a long period.

Only after shifting focus to LiDAR did the company gain increasing investor attention.

Lightspeed China Partners founding partner Mi Qun was among them.

In the company's founding year, Li Yifan emailed him seeking funding, but Mi Qun judged the laser gas detection market insufficient and ultimately chose not to invest.

Learning that Hesai Group began making LiDAR and had mechanical radar samples in customer testing phases, he proactively contacted Li Yifan and became the first investor to request direct testing of 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 investments exceeding $100 million, becoming their largest institutional investor.

Li Yifan once publicly stated that the three best 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 co-leading, and ON Semiconductor, Qiming Venture Partners, Detong Capital, Singapore's Axiom and others following, the company completed 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 on autonomous driving, Qiming Venture Partners invested in WeRide in 2017 and began deeply understanding the industry's upstream and downstream based on that company.

In their view, the most critical, expensive, and technically sophisticated component on an autonomous vehicle at that time was LiDAR.

Qiming Venture Partners founding managing partner Gary Rieschel revealed that they began "scanning" the LiDAR industry, including visiting multiple LiDAR companies in the US with different technical 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 cap has fluctuated under the influence of macroeconomic environment and market demand factors, ultimately achieving impressive performance with gains exceeding 56%.

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

With Hesai Group's official Hong Kong debut, the company became the first Chinese concept stock to return to Hong Kong in nearly two years.

Their core goal for choosing Hong Kong listing is to improve stock trading stability and security, creating maximum value for shareholders and protecting their interests - "this is our primary strategic consideration."

For Hesai Group, whose business is in a global rapid growth phase, the Hong Kong market has both international perspective and deep understanding of Chinese technology 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."

Upon closer examination, the complex macroeconomic environment is an unavoidable topic.

Whether facing litigation in the US or being targeted by short-selling institutions, the series of problems Hesai Group faced after listing undoubtedly sounded alarms for numerous Chinese concept stocks.

The most direct result is that with any external environmental disturbance, company stock prices tend to suffer significant impact, resulting in undervaluation.

In March 2025, the company's stock price finally returned to its issue price after experiencing a prolonged trough.

At that time, Li Yifan stated in an interview that he hoped every investor who bought Hesai Group stock with real money could make profits, adding that "when the stock price is below the issue price, I feel pressure."

From Hesai Group's experience, one can sense that Chinese concept stocks face considerable pressure.

Also in the autonomous driving industry and similarly listed in the US, Pony.ai and WeRide, whose stock prices remain volatile, may have deeper feelings about Hesai Group's situation.

Facing a changing environment, returning to Hong Kong has become an important means for many Chinese concept stocks to reduce risks, gradually becoming a trend since 2020.

However, in the past two years, as the path for Chinese concept stocks returning to Hong Kong stagnated, this trend significantly slowed.

With Hesai Group's successful Hong Kong debut, the return channel for Chinese concept stocks has reopened and may drive more to return to Hong Kong.

Earlier, market rumors circulated about companies like Pony.ai and WeRide preparing for Hong Kong listings.

This suggests that a new wave of Chinese concept stocks returning to Hong Kong may emerge.

Recently, China's securities regulator expressed support for encouraging quality Chinese concept stock companies to return to mainland China and Hong Kong markets.

To help Chinese concept stocks list in Hong Kong, Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing are actively preparing to make Hong Kong their preferred listing destination.

"Our consistent attitude is hoping that all companies coming to list in Hong Kong are quality enterprises."

HKEX CEO Bonnie Chan candidly 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."

Hong Kong waters are warming, and new chapters are accelerating.