Leapmotor nabs 4.5 billion yuan in new financing round

The newly-closed financing round was led by China Capital Investment Group, and also attracted China Securities, CITIC Dicastal, as well as the State-owned Assets Supervisions and Administrations Commission of Hangzhou Municipal Government. The governmental arm poured up to 3 billion yuan ($463.149 million) in this funding round.

Leapmotor said the collaboration it formed with the aforesaid investors will contribute to a faster product R&D, branding promotion, and sales network expansion.

The startup plans to file for an IPO in the second half of this year, and is expected to go public at the end of 2021 or in early 2022.

As of July 2021, the EV manufacturer delivered a total of 26,148 new vehicles in total. For the first seven months of this year, Leapmotor received 28,055 new vehicle orders, 6,540 of which were generated in July.

The company said last month it expected its annual sales to reach 62,400 units this year and aimed to sell 800,000 vehicles per year by 2025. Supported by the Hangzhou municipal authority, Leapmotor is striving to crack the first-tier ranks of Chinese NEV startups at a faster pace.