KOSDAQ lists on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, targeting the automotive aftermarket digital intelligence upgrade opportunity

Open Auto Digital Intelligence platform for China’s auto aftermarket filed for a listing application with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday (April 2), with China International Capital Corporation serving as the sole sponsor. In terms of operating and financial performance, the company’s business conditions have continued to improve. In 2025, it achieved transaction volume (GMV) of approximately RMB 7.6 billion and total revenue of approximately RMB 930 million, representing a year-on-year growth of 25.3%, demonstrating solid business expansion capabilities. The overall gross margin has consistently remained at a relatively high level in the industry; in 2025 it reached 28.3%, reflecting the company’s efficient cost control capabilities and its high-quality product and service structure, laying a solid foundation for long-term sustainable development.

With China’s vehicle ownership continuing to expand, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles rising, and vehicle owners’ requirements for transparent repairs, genuine parts, and high-efficiency services increasing, the auto aftermarket is gradually moving from a traditional, fragmented distribution model into a new stage centered on data, standards, and platform coordination. Open Auto’s entry point is precisely the construction of digital intelligence infrastructure in this round of industrial upgrading.

Large aftermarket scale, but long-term fragmented pain points

The prospectus shows that in 2025, the total size of China’s auto aftermarket was approximately RMB 1.6 trillion, and it is expected to grow to approximately RMB 2.2 trillion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 7.4% from 2025 to 2030.

Compared with the upstream (pre-installation) market, the auto aftermarket has features such as a long supply chain, many participants, a complex SKU range, and highly dispersed demand. From OEMs and auto parts manufacturers, to auto parts distributors, and then to auto service store operators and end vehicle owners, the entire distribution chain involves many links. Long-term issues such as information asymmetry, low cargo sourcing efficiency, markups at multiple layers, and uneven service quality have persisted. Especially in an environment with multiple brands and multiple models, repair scenarios often exhibit typical “long-tail” characteristics, making it difficult for traditional supply chains to efficiently serve demand in a standardized way.

This also means that although the auto aftermarket is large in scale, for years it has lacked a truly digital intelligence platform that can connect upstream and downstream. Whoever can aggregate dispersed demand and standardize goods and services will have the opportunity to build deeper infrastructure capabilities in this track.

New energy and intelligentization expand demand, opening up room for industry upgrading

From industry trends, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles and intelligent cars continues to increase, bringing new structural opportunities to the aftermarket. On one hand, new energy vehicles place higher demands on digital intelligence coordination and professional identification capabilities in repair, maintenance, and parts services. On the other hand, as cars evolve from mere transportation tools into intelligent terminals and mobile living spaces, demand arising around repair, maintenance, upgrades, customization, and the vehicle usage experience is becoming more diverse.

More importantly, as automotive products become increasingly intelligent, after-sales services are no longer just “repairing cars” themselves; they now encompass detailed processes such as fault diagnosis, parts identification, fulfillment tracking, service certification, warranty management, and customer reach. This means that in future competition in the aftermarket, the key is not only who can sell more parts, but also who can organize the supply chain more efficiently, manage service processes more transparently, and connect vehicle owners’ needs more accurately.

Clear policy direction; digital intelligence and standardization become the main line

Policies also provide support for the industry. In 2026’s government work report and the “14th Five-Year Plan” outline (15th Five-Year plan wording in the source), they clearly proposed to advance the construction of a digital China in depth, continue to increase support for the digital-intelligence transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, and promote large-scale, commercialized application of artificial intelligence in key industries. At the same time, by focusing on digital transformation of the auto industry, standardized development of the auto aftermarket, and digital-intelligence upgrading of the supply chain, support is provided to build a standardized and traceable industrial service system. Open Auto’s business direction closely aligns with policy directions such as公开ing auto repair technical information, parts circulation traceability, repair file management, transparent repairs for insurance claims, and co-building industry standards and credit systems. The company also mentioned that its related layout involves parts data standards and a network for parts circulation and traceability.

Against the backdrop of stricter market supervision and vehicle owners’ rising requirements for post-sales transparency, the auto aftermarket is shifting from a past focus mainly on transaction matchmaking to a new stage that balances quality assurance, post-sales tracking, and the development of a credit system, clearly defining an upgrade direction for the entire industry toward digital intelligence, standardization, and traceability.

The key lies in building digital-intelligence infrastructure

Open Auto’s strategic advancement is also related to the industry operations and technical background accumulated by management over the long term. Mr. Jiang Yongxing, the company’s founder, chairman, and chief executive officer, is mainly responsible for overseeing the group’s overall strategic planning, business operations, and management, coordinating the company’s development direction and the implementation of core business. Before founding Open Auto, Mr. Jiang worked at Huawei for many years, gaining extensive experience in technology R&D, marketing, and business operations. For Open Auto, Mr. Jiang’s management background that combines technology, product, and industry operations perspectives provides support for promoting the construction of a digital intelligence platform for the auto aftermarket.

In terms of its business model, Open Auto is not a traditional single auto parts e-commerce business in the conventional sense. Instead, it builds a scalable digital-intelligence infrastructure around the auto aftermarket. The prospectus shows that the company has already formed a service network of “1 digital-intelligence foundation, 2 industry standards, and 3 platform products,” and it has built an end-to-end ecosystem based on the “F2B2b2C” business model. Specifically, the platform products include the auto parts procurement platform “KaiSi Select” for the supply side, the one-stop transaction platform “KaiSi Auto Parts” for auto service storefronts, and the store digital-intelligence certification system “KaiSi Zhentan” for end-service scenarios. At the same time, it extends into smart store management systems, logistics, advertising, and other digital-intelligence value-added services.

As of December 31, 2025, Open Auto’s platform has connected with 10 OEMs, 75 auto parts manufacturers, more than 12,000 auto parts distributors, and more than 375,000 auto service stores, with a total SKU volume of over 48 million. Leveraging its efficient supply-chain integration capabilities and broad channel coverage, the company continues to drive digital-intelligence upgrading in the auto aftermarket.

The key to this model is that the company is not just handling a single transaction node, but embedding goods, services, fulfillment, and data capabilities into the industrial chain at the same time.

For upstream auto parts manufacturers, Open Auto’s platform can help them reach the end market more efficiently, and at the same time, relying on real transaction data accumulated on the platform, it can accurately predict the quantity, frequency, and geographic distribution of auto parts demand—guiding manufacturers to plan production more precisely, improve delivery capability, and shorten new product improvement cycles.

For distributors, Open Auto’s platform builds diversified procurement channels covering multiple types of products such as original equipment (OEM) parts, branded parts, and factory parts. It also enables fast and precise auto parts matching through intelligent search tools, while ensuring timely recovery of payments and optimizing capital turnover efficiency. In addition, through AI sales agents, Open Auto analyzes sales and inventory data to help distributors scientifically plan procurement, effectively improving overall operating efficiency and inventory turnover rates.

For auto service stores, Open Auto’s platform not only provides high-quality auto parts products and comprehensive warranty services, but also helps stores improve repair efficiency and lower technical barriers through tools such as AI procurement agents and AI Repair Masters. At the same time, leveraging digital-intelligence operational tools, stores can achieve standardized upgrades in user acquisition, retention, and management, fully improving operating efficiency and user experience.

For vehicle owners, Open Auto’s platform provides protection for genuine parts to ensure that the repair process is transparent throughout, and it builds a trustworthy service system—making vehicle owners’ driving experience safer, more secure, and more convenient.

Standardization, digital intelligence, and AI capabilities

If we look at product competitiveness, Open Auto’s advantage is not only selling inventory—it is digitizing the most difficult-to-standardize and most difficult-to-track parts in the aftermarket.

First, it is the capability for standardizing goods and services. In the current aftermarket, there are issues such as genuine and counterfeit being hard to distinguish, mismatches between what is listed and what is actually shipped, and uneven service quality. The company continuously promotes two sets of industry standards for goods and services, aiming to transform vague descriptions of parts quality, compatibility, warranty commitments, and service capabilities into identifiable and verifiable standardized information, thereby improving key foundational capabilities.

Second, it is supply-chain coordination and fulfillment capability. In the materials, the company states that it has already carried out digital-intelligence coordination with multiple auto parts factories. By integrating demand forecasting models with ERP and warehouse-and-delivery systems, it improves delivery efficiency and supply-chain turnover capability. This means that the platform’s value is not only front-end matchmaking, but also transforming dispersed, low-frequency, long-tail demands into manageable supply plans.

Third, it is AI and data asset accumulation capability. In this highly vertical professional scenario of the aftermarket, data such as VIN, work orders, repair case records, parts matching, and fault handling have very high barriers. The materials show that Open Auto is combining relevant data assets with AI tools, extending into scenarios such as intelligent parts transactions, work-order identification, and repair-solution assistance. This also enables the platform to expand from a transaction platform into intelligent industry tools.

From a transaction platform to an industry network; the market highlight is the platformization depth

It is worth noting that since its establishment, Open Auto has received support from multiple investment institutions, including Sequoia, Shunwei, Source Code Capital, Fosun, Huaye Tianceng, H Capital, and Greater Bay Area Shared Home, as well as the favor of industry capital Bosch and several rounds of investments.

For the capital markets, Open Auto’s investment value is not only the aftermarket track itself, but also whether the company can prove that it possesses platform-based, network-based, and infrastructure-building capabilities. In other words, market attention may not just be about the scale of a single business. Instead, it focuses on whether it can build a more “sticky” role within the industrial chain: it can connect upstream brands and factories to enable precise supply-chain matching, and it can also reach downstream auto service stores and vehicle owners to form an end-to-end industry coordination ecosystem.

In the process of China’s auto industry moving from manufacturing advantages to service and data advantages, the digital-intelligence upgrading of the auto aftermarket has become the next direction worth watching. For Open Auto, if it can turn the digital-intelligence systems it builds into a mature framework that can be replicated at scale, the company’s future value positioning in the auto aftermarket may not be limited to a single platform company, but more closely resembles an industry-level participant in digital-intelligence infrastructure.

Based on proven successful practices in the domestic market, Open Auto is accelerating the rollout of overseas expansion plans. With its own advanced supply-chain capabilities and specialized digital-intelligence expertise, it is building a global after-sales service network with broad coverage and rapid response, to support the upgrading of the global auto aftermarket.

Contact: Hong Kong Economic Times Advertising Department, Listed Company Group | annteam@hket.com