Chinese start-up Manycore Tech, operator of the world’s largest spatial design platform, has applied for an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, three years after its attempt to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange lapsed.
Manycore’s IPO filing, jointly sponsored by JPMorgan and CCB International, did not provide the amount it intends to raise in Hong Kong. A Bloomberg report last year said the company was eyeing US$200 million in potential proceeds.
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Citing data from research firm Frost & Sullivan, Manycore touted its position as “the world’s largest spatial design platform, as measured by the number of average monthly active users in 2023, and also the largest software provider in China’s spatial design industry as measured by revenue” in the same year, according to the start-up’s filing on Friday.
Spatial design deals with a more conceptual and analytical approach to studying how spaces affect human behaviour and social interaction. By comparison, interior design focuses more on the practical and aesthetic elements that make spaces functional and visually appealing.
Founded in 2011 by three Chinese graduates of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Manycore has raised funds from major investment firms including IDG Capital, Hillhouse Investment and Coatue Management. Manycore’s valuation reached US$2 billion after a funding round in 2020, according to furnishing industrial media 77d.
The proposed IPO of Manycore, which operates primarily under a subscription model, is likely to further burnish the credentials of Hangzhou – home to e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding – as a pre-eminent tech hub in China, along with Shenzhen in southern Guangdong province. Manycore is the first of Hangzhou’s little dragons to file for public listing. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
A section of the facade of Manycore Tech’s office building in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province. Photo: Sina alt=A section of the facade of Manycore Tech’s office building in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province. Photo: Sina>
Official data shows that in 2024, Hangzhou’s “core digital economy industries” contributed 630.5 billion yuan (US$86.7 billion), up 7.1 per cent year on year, accounting for nearly a third of the city’s gross domestic product.
Powered by an infrastructure built on graphics processing units, advanced AI applications and synthetic virtual-data generation, Manycore enables users to convert design ideas into instant visual experiences, while preserving intricate details, according to its filing. The firm’s platform can automatically transform user-uploaded files, such as computer-aided design drawings, advertisement layouts and graphic designs into photorealistic images and immersive 3D design schemes.
In 2024, Manycore’s platform generated more than 640.6 million images including floor plan visualisations, e-commerce product images, lighting effect images and other content with optimised renderings.
The company’s revenue for the nine months ended September 30 last year reached 552.9 million yuan, up from 486 million yuan in the same period in 2023. Losses in the January-September period last year narrowed to 422.1 million yuan, from 489.5 million yuan in the same period in 2023.
Offering both free and paid subscription, Manycore’s products amassed average monthly active users of 2.7 million in 2024. Its enterprise customers reached 45,500 at the end of September last year, up 11 per cent from a year earlier. Individual users rose 6 per cent to 413,900 during the same period, according to the company’s filing.
In 2021, Manycore filed for an IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, but did not proceed any further. At the time, the Chinese government cracked down on the country’s Big Tech sector. The previous year, the dual listing of Alibaba affiliate Ant Group in Hong Kong and Shanghai was scuttled. Beijing also conducted a cybersecurity review of ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing after it went public in the US in June 2021. Didi delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in 2022.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Source: finance.yahoo.com