Nearthlab, a company that develops autonomous flight drones based on physical artificial intelligence, set its final IPO price at 41,200 won, the top of its indicative range of 30,000 to 41,200 won, the company said on the 11th.
The price was fixed following a book-building process for institutional investors, in which 1,795 domestic and overseas institutions took part, producing a subscription rate of 743.5 to 1. That puts total proceeds at about 37.5 billion won ($27 million) and the company's expected market capitalization after listing at around 238 billion won ($172 million). Some 98.0% of the demand was bid at or above the top of the range.
Nearthlab built its core physical AI technology and validated its autonomous flight capabilities in the global market for wind turbine inspection before moving into defense in earnest in 2024. It has since built a set of global references centered on its counter-drone hard-kill solution KAiDEN and its swarm-strike solution XAiDEN, including exports to Singapore and the United Arab Emirates and a rapid-demonstration project with South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration. In the second quarter of this year, sales from the UAE XAiDEN project were booked, and on a preliminary basis the company posted revenue of about 16.9 billion won and operating profit of about 700 million won, achieving a quarterly operating surplus.
Nearthlab will hold a subscription for retail investors on the 12th and 13th before making its debut on the Kosdaq market on the 24th. The company plans to use the proceeds to bring production infrastructure in-house, expand its workforce and fund research and development. The production infrastructure investment in particular will proceed in stages from next year through 2028. Samsung Securities is the lead underwriter for the listing.
"Even amid high market volatility, Nearthlab's technological competitiveness and global growth potential were highly valued," CEO Choi Jae-hyuk said. "Using this listing as a starting point, we will strengthen our global production and commercialization base and rapidly expand our presence in the overseas defense market, centered on KAiDEN and XAiDEN."
