Chinese Electric Scooter Startup NIU Files IPO

Another week, another announcement that a Chinese tech company will go public on a U.S. stock exchange. This time around, it’s Chinese electric scooter startup NIU, which looks to raise up to $150 million when it premieres on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol NIU. We briefly crossed paths with NIU last year for our feature on street-legal electric scooters. Now, let’s take a ride with this Chinese electric scooter company and see where it takes us.

A Chinese Electric Scooter that is Smart

Founded in 2015, NIU is incorporated in the Cayman Islands (not suspicious at all), but with offices in Beijing and Hong Kong. It has raised $45.5 million, including a $25.5 million Series B in March, mainly from hometown VC firms. It offers several different lines of smart electric scooters, mainly in China, but is pushing hard into Europe, as well as Southeast Asia. The “smart” part is all about an app that provides real-time info about the e-scooter, such as daily riding habits, and other things like anti-theft alerts and directions to the closest charging station.

In return, NIU collects 462