Mobile game developer Kunlun Tech has invested $50m in China-based autonomous driving software developer Pony.ai in return for a 3% stake, according to a stock exchange filing on Wednesday.
Founded in 2016, Pony.ai is working on software for vehicles that is intended to achieve Level 4 autonomy, where a passenger can leave the driving process almost entirely to an artificial intelligence system.
The company has been conducting road tests for the technology in California, in the US, as well as the Chinese cities of Beijing and Guangzhou.
The investment values Pony.ai at approximately $1.65bn and comes after it closed a $214m series A round in July 2018 at a reported valuation of almost $1bn. It had achieved a $112m first close six months earlier.
The first tranche was co-led by Legend Capital, the venture capital firm formed by conglomerate Legend Holdings, and Morningside Venture Capital, with participation from Legend Holdings subsidiary Legend Star and Comcast Ventures, the corporate VC arm of mass media group Comcast.
IDG Capital, Hongtai Capital, Puhua Capital, Polaris Capital, DCM Ventures and Silicon Valley Future Capital were also among the participants in the first close.
The additional funding came from Eight Roads, part of investment and financial services group Fidelity, as well as ClearVue Partners, DCM, Green Pine Capital Partners, China Merchants Capital, Redpoint Ventures China, Delong Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Morningside Ventures, Hongtai Capital and Adrian Cheng.
Sequoia China and IDG Capital contributed to the round as existing investors, having previously supplied an undisclosed amount of seed capital for Pony.ai.
Photo courtesy of Pony.ai.
