Pony.ai, a US-headquartered autonomous driving software producer backed by corporates Toyota, FAW Group, Kunlun Tech, Comcast and Legend Holdings, has secured $100m in series C-plus funding, DealStreetAsia reported today.
The government-owned Brunei Investment Agency and state-backed investment bank Citic Group’s Citic Private Equity Funds Management provided the capital, according to a Pony.ai WeChat post cited by DealStreetAsia.
Founded in 2016, Pony.ai has developed perception, control and mapping software for use in driverless vehicle systems, in addition to hardware. It was valued at $5.3bn as of a $267m series C round in November 2020.
The series C round was led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s TIP fund and backed by carmaker FAW Group, 5Y Capital, Clearvue Partners, Eight Roads and Fidelity China Special Situations – the last two subsidiaries of investment and financial services group Fidelity.
Automotive manufacturer Toyota invested $400m to lead a $462m round for Pony.ai in February 2020 valuing it at $4bn, mobile game developer Kunlun Tech having provided $50m for the company at a $1.65bn valuation the year before.
Pony.ai had closed a $214m series A round in 2018 that included Comcast Ventures, a subsidiary of mass media group Comcast, and Legend Star, part of conglomerate Legend Holdings, at a post-money valuation of almost $1bn.
Eight Roads, ClearVue Partners, 5Y Capital, Green Pine Capital Partners, China Merchants Capital, Redpoint Ventures China, Delong Capital, Sequoia Capital China, DCM Ventures, Hongtai Capital, IDG Capital, Puhua Capital, Polaris Capital, Silicon Valley Future Capital and Adrian Cheng also took part in the 2018 round.
