Is Pony.ai Stock Publicly Traded?

Pony.ai, a Chinese autonomous-vehicle manufacturer, has a value of $5.3 billion after a new infusion of funding from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board. The newly available funds will be used to focus on research and development. 

Pony.ai isn't a publicly-traded stock. The other current investors who have a role in this funding round are Fidelity China Special Situations PLC, 5Y Capital (formerly Morningside Venture Capital), ClearVue Partners, and Eight Roads, according to TechCrunch. 

Pony.ai is a Chinese automotive startup that has worked in the autonomous vehicle space over the past four years. The company operates in China and California. Pony.ai has raised over $1 billion since it was founded. In February, Toyota announced its plan to pour $400 million into the company.

Pony.ai is building an “agnostic virtual driver” that would work in a variety of vehicles and operate in ridesharing and logistics networks, according to TechCrunch. BotRide, which is its robotaxi service, has been piloted in California and China.

Shifting from transporting people to packages was an important adjustment that the company made during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pony.ai also partnered with YamiBuy to provide last-mile delivery service autonomously to Irvine customers.  

A new $267 million in funding to Pony.ai is being led by an innovation fund within the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board. The additional funding brings the company’s value to $5.3 billion. 

The TIP (Teachers’ Innovation Platform) is an arm of the pension plan that focuses on “late-stage venture and growth equity in companies that use technology to disrupt incumbents and create new sectors.” 

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is a global investor and one of the world’s top pension plans. It's known for making responsible and strategic investments on behalf of its members. 

The investment group is made up of multiple teams that each focus on a distinct asset group of investments. The teams include Capital Markets, Equities, and the Teachers’ Innovation Platform. 

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board invests in a wide variety of stocks. Currently, the holdings include Microsoft, Blackberry, Tesla, Alibaba, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Visa, 3M, TD Ameritrade Holding, Apple, Fitbit, and Clorox. 

Pony.ai hasn't declared its intention to go public in the near future yet, so there isn't a date for the IPO. 

NIO specializes in electric vehicles and competes with Pony.ai. With headquarters in Shanghai, NIO debuted on the NYSE in 2018. The company's sales and stock price declined severely in 2019. The second quarter of 2020 brought a record performance and some of NIO's highest deliveries.

NIO stock has been performing well during the COVID-19 pandemic. The EV popularity in China continues to help the company. The Motley Fool includes NIO among its top growth stocks, even though it isn't the largest EV maker in China. NIO will likely post its third-quarter results on Nov. 17. 

In pre-market trading as of 8:55 a.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 9, NIO's stock price was $41.64.