(Yicai) Aug. 30 -- Hozon New Energy Automobile, one of China’s top five electric vehicle startups, has secured CNY7 billion (USD961.6 million) in pre-initial public offering funding.

Hozon, also known as Neta Auto, has completed a crossover financing round, the Shanghai-based carmaker said yesterday, without providing any further details. A crossover round is typically the final financing before a company goes public.

Hozon closed several fundraisers between September 2017 and July last year, raising at least CNY15 billion (USD2.1 billion), according to data on corporate information platform Qichacha. Participants included Contemporary Amperex Technology, Shenzhen Capital Group, Sanliuling Technology Group, HD Capital Beijing, and Zenity Mobility.

Hozon announced in July 2020 that it would file for an IPO on Shanghai's Nasdaq-like Star Market and planned to finish the listing in 2021, though no progress has been reported since. According to a media report in early June, the carmaker considered filing to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that same month, but it later rebutted the report.

Hozon ranked first among Chinese auto startups last year, selling 152,000 Neta-branded vehicles. But deliveries fell 6.1 percent to 72,500 in the first seven months of this year from a year earlier. Valued at CNY18 billion, Hozon also ranked 386th among the world's 1,361 unicorns, the Global Unicorn Index released by Hurun Research Institute showed in April.

The other four leading Chinese EV startups have all gone public, with Nio, Xpeng Motors, and Li Auto listing on multiple exchanges.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev