Major Funding Events in China AV Industry in August
There were eight major funding events in the China autonomous driving industry this month, which corresponded to my last post well — each application scenario had at least one player getting new funding.
Inceptio announced on August 3 that it has completed series B funding round of $270 million from a list of investors, among which JD Logistics, Meituan, and PAG were the lead. The funding was intended to accelerate the development of “Xuanyuan”, Inceptio’s full stack autonomous driving solution for long haul trucks. In July, the company just showcased two production models equipped with “Xuanyuan” that are co-developed with Dongfeng and Sinotruk respectively.
EQ (Yikong) announced the completion of series B1 funding round led by Zijin Mining with all existing shareholders co-invested. The funding would be used to expand the technical team, purchase mining equipment, and speedup product development.
Qcraft announced a series A+ funding round of $100 million led by YF Capital and Genesis Capital on August 16. The company is currently devoted to three product lines: Longzhou ONE, a mini-robobus circulating in last few miles, Longzhou SPACE, a new bus model to be launched, and ADAS solutions to full-size buses.
Nullmax, an ADAS supplier for passenger vehicles, announced the completion of series A1 funding round led by FutureX Capital. Earlier in June, the company disclosed that it won a sizable order from a leading domestic OEM and the vehicle model carrying Nullmax solutions will be available in 2022.
Neolix announced the completion of series B funding round led by CICC Capital and SoftBank Ventures Asia on August 18. The company has established cooperations with 100+ dining and retail enterprises like Pizza Hut and KFC to provide delivery and retail services using autonomous vans in more than 10 cities. With new funding in place, it aims to expand the operation and build a service network of over 1000 vehicles by the end of the year.
Boonray received new funding of over RMB 200 million from SPIC Capital. As the next step, Boonray will be working closely with SPIC (State Power Investment Corporation) to develop electric autonomous mining trucks and to build fleets at SPIC-operated open-pit mining sites. Founded in 2015, Boonray has developed full stack intelligent solutions for mining scenarios as well as photovoltaic power stations and city management.
Fabu announced on August 19 that it has raised RMB 100 million in series B+ round from Cowin Capital and Dyee Capital. The funding would be used to deploy its “vehicle, road and cloud integrated” solutions in port transportations and urban logistics.
VIPioneers has completed series B1 funding round of over RMB 200 million led by the fund under China Reform Holdings Corporation. The company has developed a full stack smart mining solution named “YUGONG” that is applicable to almost all equipment models, multiple types of minerals, and common mining techniques (open-pit and underground). It has achieved commercialization in more than 20 mining areas by providing solutions and being involved in operations.
Last but not least, Deeproute.ai, a robotaxi and smart port player, was reported to have added Alibaba to its list of shareholders. Details on the company’s new funding round can be expected soon. Meanwhile, we got a sneak peak of Alibaba’s new auto strategies.
