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DeepWay, a Chinese language autonomous driving startup backed by Baidu, mentioned on Tuesday that it has raised RMB 460 million (round $67.2 million) in a Sequence A led by Qiming Enterprise Companions and joined by a number of veteran funding corporations.
Why it issues: DeepWay manufacturers itself as China’s first electrical automobile startup that designs autonomous vans from scratch for freight supply, slightly than one thing based mostly on an present truck mannequin with minor adjustments, which the corporate claims results in extra built-in self-driving tech and reduces manufacturing prices.
- DeepWay can also be the primary startup with authorization from Baidu to conduct “white-box testing,” which implies it has working information of the latter’s self-driving know-how. By comparability, a tester hardly ever is aware of a lot concerning the inner design and implementation of an autonomous driving system throughout black-box testing.
Particulars: Collectively based by logistics service supplier Shiqiao Group and tech big Baidu in late 2020, the two-year-old agency is now valued at RMB 3 billion by the newest fundraising spherical, which was led by Qiming, Chinese language tech media outlet QbitAI reported, citing firm insiders.
- Different buyers embrace Lenovo Capital, an funding arm of the namesake tech titan, and Vlight Capital, an early backer of EV maker Nio, in line with an announcement (in Chinese language) on DeepWay’s public WeChat account.
- DeepWay mentioned that the “body-in-white,” as automakers name a automobile’s primary skeleton, of its first truck mannequin, had rolled off the meeting line at its manufacturing facility within the jap metropolis of Yancheng in July.
- Small-scale supply is scheduled for December. The corporate is focusing on gross sales of 1,000 roborigs subsequent yr, when the automobiles shall be able to driving themselves on Chinese language highways with a security driver behind the wheel.
Context: A number of autonomous truck firms have gotten off the beginning grid early within the self-driving race in China, however the progress in direction of absolutely autonomous freight driving has been sluggish.
- Nasdaq-listed TuSimple reported a $732.7 million annual loss and $6.3 million in income in 2021 with the departure of a longtime government and delayed manufacturing of economic vans at full driverless Degree 4 operation from 2024 to 2025. The agency is reportedly in talks with Geely to promote its China division.
- JD and Meituan-backed Inceptio mentioned in March that it raised $188 million in a Sequence B+ co-led by Sequoia Capital China and Legend Capital, one other of Lenovo’s enterprise capital arms. The corporate claimed its self-driving vans with a human operator traveled 2 million kilometers (1.24 million miles) on public roads in 18 months as of April.
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