Manycore Tech, a spatial intelligence unicorn, also known as one of Hangzhou's "six little dragons", on Thursday launched its initial public offering in Hong Kong, aiming to raise up to HK$1.2 billion for an expansion.

According to documents released on its website, the company plans to issue more than 161 million shares, with 10 percent of them being allocated for retail investors in Hong Kong and the other 90 percent for global investors.

With the price range set at between HK$6.72 and HK$7.62 per share, that means the firm aims to raise up to around HK$1.22 billion.

The company noted that the entry fee for a board lot of 500 shares would be around HK$3,848.

It added that the share sale would run between today and next Tuesday and that it would debut next Friday under the stock code 00068.

For its global offering, Manycore noted it had secured a group of cornerstone investors, including Taikang Life Insurance, Sunshine Life Insurance, asset managers GF Fund, Goldstream Investment and South Korea's Mirae Asset, Hesai Group among others, which in total subscribed to about HK$455 million worth of shares.

Manycore added that it planned to allocate about 30 percent of the net proceeds for its international expansion, 20 percent for rolling out new products and features, another 20 percent for marketing and sales, and 20 percent for investments in core technologies and infrastructure and 10 percent for corporate operation capital.

At a press conference, the company's chief financial officer, Shen Bei, noted that Manycore has an average of 2.5 million active users each month, making it the largest software provider in the interior spatial design industry on the mainland, with a market share of 23.2 percent.

He said he believes there is huge potential for the company to further grow its business overseas, as its international revenue only accounts for about 10 percent of the total, despite jumping almost 30 percent year on year in 2025 to 74 million yuan.

Shen also said tensions in the Middle East will have a limited impact on the company's global expansion drive, as it mainly serves international users in places such as Southeast Asia, South Korea and North America.

Also speaking at the event was the company's co-founder and chairman, Huang Xiaohuang, who said the capabilities of AI are still far from reaching their limits, and that the company will focus on allocating resources and funds into developing spatial intelligence.

The "six little dragons" refer to a group of rising start-ups in Hangzhou that gained traction in the country since last year, putting the eastern city as an emerging technological innovation hub.

Other than Manycore Tech, the other "little dragons" are AI darling DeepSeek, robotics firms Unitree Robotics and Deep Robotics, video game developer Game Science, and neurotechnology company BrainCo.

While Manycore's IPO launch is expected to make it the first of the "little dragons" to go public, several others are also advancing their listing plans.

Meanwhile, Gpixel Changchun Microelectronics also launched an IPO in Hong Kong to raise about HK$2.6 billion with the issue of around 65 million H-shares. It also expects to get listed next Friday

The fabless company specialises in designing and developing CMOS image sensors, which are chips that turn light into digital images to enhance the performance and imaging quality of industrial, scientific and cinema cameras.

The two companies are coming to market as a growing number of mainland firms, particularly technology ones, are seeking to list in the SAR, driven by strong investor optimism and a rally in the AI and chip-related stocks since last year.



Edited by Thomas McAlinden