Navya relies on the stock market to satisfy its great ambitions in autonomous shuttles and robot taxis. The young Lyon sprout announced Wednesday to have recorded its basic document with the Authority of financial markets, with a view to an introduction on the Euronext market in Paris. “We want to raise funds to strengthen our investments in R & D, as well as in marketing and sales,” said Christophe Sapet, the president of Navya. “In addition, a Initial Public Offering would allow us to increase Navya’s international visibility, especially in the United States and China “.
Without steering wheel or pedals
Co-founder of Infogrames and Infonie, Christophe Sapet embarked on the Navya adventure in 2014 by buying back the assets of the insolvent company Induct, part too early in the niche. Since then, it has sold 67 autonomous shuttles (as of March 31) and presented a robot taxi last November , whose first experiments should be launched in the second half of this year (15 vehicles, divided between the Confluence district in Lyon, Perth in Australia, and a US city still to choose).
“Vehicles thought from the outset to be autonomous: they have no steering wheel, no pedals,” says the leader, ensuring being one of the only companies in the world (with its competitor Toulouse EasyMile) to be able to deliver such machines keys in hand. “We want to take advantage of this advance,” he continues, well aware that he will soon compete with other players deep pockets, like Waymo (Google).
Balance at the end of 2019
Manufacturing since one year its shuttles in its factory of Venissieux, in the region of Lyon and near Detroit in the United States, Navya seduced customers all over the world (Greater Lyon or Ile-de-France Mobility in France, the University of Michigan in the United States, Postbus in Switzerland, Tepco in Japan or Christchurch Airport in New Zealand).
The company hopes to triple its turnover this year to 30 million euros, and is counting on a Gross operating income (EBITDA) at the end of 2019. “Today, our revenues come from 90% of the sale of vehicles, but we hope to increase the share of services, such as the fleet management platform or maintenance,” says Christophe Sapet.
Hyperexcitation on the sector
Hoping to remove the obstacles still present on its route (slowness of shuttles, restrictive regulations, opposition of taxis, etc.), Christophe Sapet targets 40% of a market of autonomous shuttles estimated at 4,200 units in the world in 2021 – or, a turnover of 480 million euros.
In the meantime, he will have to brave market conditions that have reduced several candidates to the stock market in recent weeks. “There is currently a hyperexcitation on the sector in the world,” he said, referring in particular to the injection by Softbank, $ 2 billion in the General Motors autonomous vehicles division. “We’ll see, but we’re optimistic,” he says.
Still held at a little over 50% by the Bruno Bonnell fund, Robolution, Navya also counts on its capital partners like Valeo and Keolis (15% each), as well as Gravitation (Charles Beigbeder) and Cap Decisif Management (Ile Region -de-France), for nearly 5% each.