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.
