On 4 October, the Chinese “flash delivery” or courier delivery provider BingEx Limited (FLX, 闪送, also operates the brand FlashEx) was officially listed on Nasdaq. The IPO was priced at 16.50 USD per ADS and the company received a valuation of 1.17 billion USD when it started trading. BingEx raised 75.90 million USD through the IPO.
Founded in 2014, BingEx is one of the leading 1-to-1 express courier service providers in China. It started as a same-city 1-to-1 instant delivery service for valuable items like files and keys to avoid the already stiff competition of delivery services. It now has over 2.7 million couriers and has recently become profitable again after making losses in 2021 and 2022, earning 110 million RMB (15.59 million USD) in profit in 2023.
In the first half of 2024, BingEx already made a profit of 124 million RMB (17.58 million USD) with a 2.29 billion RMB revenue (324.62 million USD). On 13 September, it was reported that BingEx had already submitted its application to be listed on the Nasdaq to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Its share prices surged up to 19.02 USD per share on the first day but has since dropped to 15.15 USD on 8 October.
Since the pandemic, with e-commerce and delivery giants from Meituan and Ele.me to JD.com and Freshippo all moving into the “local life” sector where same-city instant delivery is key, the once niche market that BingEx excels in has become more crowded. Pundits pointed out that the profit from 2023 was mostly due to government subsidies to the sector. In its 10 years of existence, BingEx has received 8 rounds of funding including a series D++ funding of 125 million RMB (17.72 million USD) in March 2021. Hopefully for BingEx, going public can help the company gain more investment to compete in the now fiercely competitive market.
