Heart Capital Congratulates Hesai Technology on Its NASDAQ Listing | Heart Capital News

On the evening of February 9, 2023, Beijing time, Hesai Technology, a global leader in the lidar industry, officially listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "HSAI."

Yan Han, Founding Partner of Heart Capital, and partner Yang Tao extended their sincere congratulations to Hesai Technology. "Since 2018, we have firmly believed in and continuously invested in Hesai Technology. We are honored to witness Hesai's growth as members of the investment team," said Yang Tao. "Hesai's IPO lets the world see the rise of China's advanced manufacturing, and lets China see the rise of post-85 entrepreneurs."

Hesai Technology's three founders represent a new generation of young entrepreneurs. CEO Yifan Li and CTO Shaoqing Xiang earned their undergraduate degrees from Tsinghua University, while Chief Scientist Kai Sun graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Before founding Hesai, all three had already achieved remarkable success in their respective fields. After completing his PhD at UIUC in the United States, Yifan Li served as a principal engineer at Western Digital, holding over 100 patents in robotics, motion control, sensors, and advanced manufacturing. During his doctoral studies at Stanford University, Kai Sun focused on lasers and novel detection technologies, and later held a position at Stanford after graduating. Shaoqing Xiang graduated top of his class from Tsinghua before pursuing a master's degree at Stanford, then worked at Apple's headquarters in the United States, contributing to the prototype design, technology development, and overseas production line setup for multiple generations of iPhone.

Hesai Technology founders, from left to right: Kai Sun, Shaoqing Xiang, Yifan Li

In 2012, when these three ambitious young men met, the seeds of entrepreneurship were planted. Over the past decade, the company has focused on lidar technology R&D, continuously breaking through technical bottlenecks. To achieve breakthroughs in high performance, low cost, and high reliability for lidar, Hesai established a chip division to design its own chips, building industry moats from the ground up through chip-based technology. In 2022, Hesai Technology became the world's first automotive lidar company to achieve mass production with monthly deliveries exceeding 10,000 units.

A decade of honing a single sword — this company founded by three post-85 entrepreneurs has, through uncompromising technology, ample production capacity, and an unwavering pursuit of excellence, shown the world the power of Chinese technology.

Hesai Technology is a global leader in the lidar industry. Its products are widely used in passenger and commercial vehicles supporting advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), as well as autonomous driving vehicles. Hesai's lidar technology also empowers various robotics applications, such as unmanned delivery vehicles and logistics robots operating in enclosed areas. With exceptional R&D capabilities and deep technical expertise across core lidar domains including optics, mechanics, electronics, and software, Hesai's products have been successfully validated by the market, with cumulative deliveries exceeding 100,000 units by the end of 2022. Hesai integrates manufacturing processes into its R&D design workflow, enabling rapid product iteration while ensuring high performance, high reliability, and cost-effectiveness. Its customers include top global automakers, autonomous driving companies, and robotics firms across more than 90 cities in 40 countries.

Founded in 2022, Heart Capital is a China-based early-stage venture capital fund focused on technology and digitalization, established by Yan Han, formerly a founding partner at Lightspeed.

The Heart Capital team consists primarily of founding partners, the chief financial officer, and core investors from Lightspeed China, alongside seasoned industry investors from Cainiao and Baidu. The team's past investments include Series A investments in Full Truck Alliance (NYSE: YMM), Xpeng Motors (NYSE: XPEV, HK: 09868), as well as FinVolution (NYSE: FINV), 06810.HK, RoboSense, World Logistics, LandSpace, Lanhu, Micro-nano Starry Sky, and Starfield, among others.

Rooted in China with a global outlook, Heart Capital is dedicated to finding world leaders who will disrupt the future. The firm champions the value of "people" and "heart," and looks forward to accompanying more young Chinese entrepreneurs onto the world stage.