A fleet of WeRide robotaxis are pictured. The corporation has been screening its robotaxis in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou since 2019.
WeRide
GUANGZHOU, China — Autonomous driving enterprise WeRide has lifted new cash valuing the firm at $3.3 billion bucks.
The Nissan-backed commence-up did not disclose the sum elevated but reported it totaled “hundreds of hundreds of thousands” of bucks from enterprise money traders which includes IDG Money and Sky9 Money. A selection of other backers and current traders participated in the round.
Tony Han, CEO of WeRide explained in a statement that the new funding would be used for investigate and growth, and commercialization “with the intention of delivering significant-scale autonomous mobility in the coming long term.”
WeRide is one particular of the lots of providers centered in China pushing aggressively to just take a guide in the autonomous driving place globally.
In 2019, it opened a robotaxi undertaking in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou, the place it is headquartered. Associates of the community have been ready to use the assistance due to the fact last 12 months in a sure area of the town.
In April, WeRide acquired a allow from the California Department of Motor Autos (DMV) to conduct driverless tests on public streets in San Jose.
The corporation is competing with other start off-ups this sort of as Pony.ai, which lifted $267 million in November, and AutoX. Larger sized technologies companies together with online huge Baidu and ride-hailing organization Didi, are also discovering the room.
WeRide’s most up-to-date funding round comes off the back of a $310 million dollars injection in January.
WeRide’s CEO previously informed CNBC that he predicts the substantial-scale software of robotaxis will choose put between 2023 and 2025. He explained that WeRide will start off to make revenue from the company in 2025.
The firm does not really manufacture autos. Alternatively, it sells the autonomous driving techniques to other automakers.