smart is owned by Mercedes-Benz and Geely Holding together, since 2020.

32 years, two owners

The year is coloured by whoever held it at the time.

1. 1994 Micro Compact Car AG, the company behind the smart brand, was founded in Biel, Switzerland, on 27 April 1994 as a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and the Swatch parent SMH.
2. 2019 Mercedes-Benz and Geely Holding agreed to run the smart brand through a jointly owned company, and smart Automobile Co., Ltd. was set up.
3. 2020 The smart brand was moved out of Mercedes-Benz into smart Automobile Co., Ltd., a 50:50 joint venture with Geely Holding formally established in January 2020 with headquarters in Ningbo.
4. 2024 Outside investors took shares in SMART MOBILITY PTE. LTD., the Singapore holding company above smart Automobile Co., Ltd., when it completed a Series A share issue of 250 to 300 million US dollars led by Tianqi Lithium, whose Hong Kong subsidiary subscribed 150 million dollars for 17,605,633 Class A shares, about 2.83% of SMART MOBILITY after the round. The subscription agreement was signed in Chengdu on 13 September 2023, and Tianqi Lithium reported the deal completed by 28 March 2024. Mercedes-Benz Group listed its holding in SMART MOBILITY at 50.00% at the end of 2023 and 43.46% at the end of 2024, so Mercedes-Benz and Zhejiang Geely Holding were both diluted below half of SMART MOBILITY and remained its main shareholders. Tianqi Lithium and the other investors are not in the dataset.