Tenways rushes for a Hong Kong IPO: Holding the "Chinese brand conquering the European market" success story, but isn’t making as much money as contract manufacturing?

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In the past few years of the wave of Chinese manufacturing going global, the two-wheel travel sector witnessed an unprecedented capital frenzy.

The pandemic changed many consumers’ exercise habits, and what was once seen as a niche product—electric assist bicycles (E-bike)—suddenly leaped across the category divide to become the darling of hot money in the primary market.

Among the massive overseas bike financing wave, the most eye-catching “top student” was E-bike brand Tenways, which focused on the mid-range European market.

During the short window period of surging hot money from 2021 to 2023, Tenways completed several rounds of financing in one breath, successively receiving bets from Hillhouse, Tencent, and L Catterton (LV’s investment arm).

With the support of star investors, Tenways' performance has begun to take shape, with revenue reaching 60.635 million euros (equivalent to 485 million RMB) in 2024.

With the backing of prominent firms and the expectation of big returns, Tenways’ parent company, Radvance Cayman Limited (hereinafter referred to as “Tenways”), has launched a sprint to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Although revenue has begun to scale, Tenways faces no shortage of challenges.

On one hand, if Tenways fails to go public before 2028, repurchase obligations may be triggered by the signed betting agreements with many shareholders, with liabilities exceeding 100 million euros.

On the other hand, although Tenways’ E-bikes are sold for over ten thousand RMB each, affected by scale and marketing, profitability is not impressive—adjusted net profit in the first three quarters of 2025 was only 1.244 million euros.

How to cross the scale threshold is the harsh battle Tenways must face next.

Capital Realization Period

The pandemic in 2020 ignited a global boom in the electric bicycle industry.

On the demand side, the pursuit of safe social distancing revived cycling culture across Europe and America, not only causing explosive sales but also pushing the main battlefield toward higher-priced electric assist bicycles (E-bike).

On the policy side, many European and American governments fueled this boom further with real subsidies. In 2020, California and Washington launched E-bike subsidy policies, including 6.5% sales tax exemption and up to 50% purchase discount. That year, Italian government reimbursed 60% for bicycles, up to 500 euros.

Investment institutions moved quickly, betting big and pushing these Chinese E-bike companies onto the global fast lane.

2021-2023 were undeniably years of meteoric growth for Chinese E-bikes going overseas. Tenways took in hundreds of millions from Hillhouse, Tencent, and LV; Urtopia secured nearly $10 million from Lightspeed China and DCM; Aventon, with support from GL Ventures and Sequoia China, reached a valuation of $590 million.

Now, the moment of phased acceptance has arrived. As the first Chinese E-bike company to start IPO proceedings from the previous wave, Tenways was able to hand in its paper first thanks to a “heavy channel investment, mid-range pricing” competitive strategy.

In channel layout, unlike many overseas companies that “ride on” Amazon to quickly scale up, Tenways took a relatively “heavier” route.

For E-bikes that are high-priced and focus on experience, offline test rides and maintenance are unavoidable hurdles. Tenways covered 1,400 European stores to build a physical sales network.

The dealer network composed of independent stores and retail chains is Tenways’ main revenue source, contributing 38.93 million euros in the first three quarters of 2025, about 70% of total revenue.

For products and pricing, Tenways chose to go abroad with its own brand, precisely targeting the gap in the “mid-range advanced” market.

According to use scenarios, Tenways’ products are divided into city, hybrid, and cargo E-bikes; city E-bikes are the main revenue driver, contributing over 70% in the first three quarters of 2025.

The retail price of main models now is between 1,799 and 2,199 euros (approx. 14,300 to 17,500 RMB).

This pricing strategy is essentially a “positioning battle” to dodge the sharp edge of old industry giants. For example, Germany’s high-end brand Haibike, with over 30 years of history, prices its E-bikes at 6,000 to 10,000 euros; Dutch century-old brand Gazelle’s E-bikes are basically above 3,000 euros.

Although Tenways’ prices are lower than local brands, by going out with its own brand and leveraging China’s complete supply chain, it maintains a certain gross margin—31.8% in the first three quarters of 2025.

This figure leaves many OEM companies far behind.

Take Tianjin Fuji-ta Bicycle Industry Co., Ltd., currently sprinting for an IPO on SSE, as an example: Its main business is manufacturing bicycles for brands like Specialized and Decathlon, and its E-bike gross margin in the first half of 2025 was only 18.82%, more than 10 percentage points lower than Tenways.

Carrying Heavy “Betting” Burden

On the surface, Tenways’ prospectus tells a great overseas “brand premium” story, but behind the high gross margin, net profit margins remain relatively limited.

Calculated by adjusted net profit for the first three quarters of 2025, Tenways’ net profit margin was only 2%. In contrast, Fuji-ta, still earning hard money as an OEM, kept net profit margin stable at 7-8% over the past three years.

One reason is that, as a brand, Tenways takes on more upfront marketing costs, eroding profits—sales expenditure in the first three quarters of 2025 was 10.61 million euros, accounting for 19.6% of revenue.

Another reason is overall sales volume remains relatively limited, insufficient to form a sizable scale effect.

In 2024, Tenways’ total sales were 41,100 units, accounting for only 0.07% of the total European market sales.

Ironically, Tenways’ “brand influence” in the prospectus is supported by third-party data showing "second highest social media mentions in Europe."

This reflects the awkward position of Tenways in the industry.

In fact, compared to OEMs that reliably earn processing fees by producing to order, building a brand means every bike’s profit is squeezed by long channels, expensive customer acquisition, and unscaled production lines.

Challenges for Tenways also include that industry leaders like Ninebot, rich and powerful, after long periods of observation, have finally decided to dive into E-bike competition.

"In fact, Ninebot started studying E-bike products back in 2014, but it took us 11 years to really dive deep," Ninebot founder Gao Lufeng told media last year. "E-bikes were still niche early on; if we entered then, the business wouldn’t make sense. When annual sales hit 10 million units, that’s when we saw the timing was right."

For this, Ninebot cooperated with an operator to launch over 15,000 shared E-bikes at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and announced plans to become No. 1 in the field within five years.

With intensifying competition, some underfunded E-bike companies have been squeezed out.

Earlier this year, North America’s well-known E-bike brand Rad Power Bikes, following bankruptcy proceedings, was hastily acquired for less than 100 million RMB.

As a company founded just five years ago, Tenways also has limited financial strength. As of the end of September this year, cash and cash equivalents totaled 19.71 million euros.

On fundamentals, Tenways’ growth is slowing down.

In the first three quarters of 2025, Tenways’ E-bike sales growth rate was only 6.3%, significantly lower than the over 20% increase for full-year 2024; prices also declined, with city and hybrid E-bikes averaging 1,144 and 1,414 euros, down 3.21% and 7.82% year-on-year, respectively.

The "betting agreement" is an ever-present sword hanging overhead.

According to agreements with external shareholders, if Tenways fails to go public before 2028, a repurchase obligation may be triggered. As of late September 2025, this redemption liability has reached 118 million euros.

Internal deadline and slowdown pressure, external giants encroaching and industry reshuffling. For Tenways, sprinting for IPO now is a race against time. Catching the window before China’s industry giants fully take over overseas, quickly securing capital from the secondary market and defusing the hundred-million-euro betting bomb may be the only way to survive this harsh elimination round.

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