Ehang 216 due diligence report.
Hatchworks has conducted due diligence on Ehang 216, an autonomous quadcopter drone that focuses on public transportation, tourism and sight-seeing, medical evacuation, and short distance logistics. It’s owned by a private Chinese company called ‘’Ehang’’ that develops unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and passenger drones. It plans to do an IPO soon with a $100M offering of depositary shares. Although, the valuation has not yet been announced.
The company was founded in 2014. Their latest funding round was in 2015, when it raised $42M in a Series B round. A total funding amount of $52M was attained.
Ehang has recently been awarded its unmanned aircraft system (UAS) safety certificate from the China Academy of Civil Aviation Science and Technology (CAST). This gives the company a Level II certificate for its Ehang 216 model. Another advantage of Ehang is that they are currently partnered with FACC, an Austrian aerospace company owned by Chinese aerospace group AVIC that plans to start mass production of the autonomous drone soon. They’re estimating 300 drones by mid-2021.
However, it is worth noting that in the first half of 2019 they had a net loss of $5.5M and a net operating cash outflow of $5.8M. Thereby, Ehang isn’t a profitable company yet. Another big concern is that Ehang had to stop selling drones in the US and Germany due to heavy competition and the ongoing trade war. As a result, Ehang’s subsidiaries in those countries went bankrupt.
According to our analysis, Ehang is not yet profitable. In addition to that, the company has recently lost two very important subsidiaries, has limited customers and no public financial statements. Therefore, Hatchworks sees no reason to become bullish at this stage.
(Not enough information to get a valid Hatchscore.)
What is the Ehang 216?
The Ehang 216 is a two-seater, an upgraded version of the Ehang 184, designed to address the urban transportation needs by providing on-demand air taxi services. The maximum flight range is 35km. The aircraft is targeted for autonomous flying, to be monitored from an Ehang or its customer command-and-control centre.
Investors:
- GGV Capital.
- ZhenFund.
Advisors and Bookrunners:
- Morgan Stanley.
- Credit Suisse.
- Needham & Co.
- Tiger Brokers.
What are the risks?
- Overexposure. Being reliant on just a few clients is very dangerous. Two clients account for 66% of Ehang’s overall revenue.
- Lack of security. This potentially increases the risk of a cyber attack inside Ehang’s operating systems or command-and-control centres.
- Competition. The unmanned aircraft industry is seeing a steady rise in effective competition.
Competitors:
- DJI.
- Yuneec.
- Parrot.
- Volocopter.
Management team:
- Huazhi Hu: CEO.
- Derrick Xiong: CMO.
The Hatchwork Team
Legal Disclaimer — This report summary has been generated as a result of Hatchworks’ proprietary company vetting and filtering system. The level of due diligence conducted on investible assets conducted ranges from mediocre to significant, the latter being the case where Hatchworks has explicitly taken strategic positions in. By no means is the information in this file to be relied on as investment advice; this includes Hatchworks’ algorithmic composite score known as ‘Hatchscore’. Hatchworks has not received any compensation for this research. For more information you can reach us at info@hatchworksvc.com. This report is not for distribution in the United States of America. It is closed to U.S citizens. If you are a U.S. citizen, you should delete this report or return to sender.
