US-based autonomous truck developer TuSimple disclosed yesterday that it has raised $95m in a series D round led by internet company Sina that also featured investment firm Composite Capital.
The round was closed in December 2018 but remained undisclosed until now. It valued TuSimple at $1bn pre-money.
Founded in 2015, TuSimple operates a commercial fleet of fully autonomous trucks out of Arizona, though it also maintains two offices in China. The vehicles are aimed at the logistics industry and ship cargo between clients’ warehouses in the city of Tucson.
TuSimple is putting the money toward commercial activities, as it looks to expand its fleet to more than 50 vehicles by June 2019 and move into the neighbouring state of Texas. It will also fund product development including joint production initiatives with suppliers, sensor developers and original equipment manufacturers.
The company has now raised $178m in total. Sina previously participated in a $55m series C round for it in November 2017 that was led by Fuhe Capital with backing from Zhiping Capital.
Sina had already led TuSimple’s $20m series B round in August 2017 with participation from Nvidia GPU Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for graphics technology producer Nvidia.
Colin Xie, vice-general manager of Sina’s investment department, said: “TuSimple consistently reaches their milestones on and ahead of schedule and we are confident that they are poised to bring the first commercial self-driving trucks to market.
“We are focused on finding the global leaders in artificial intelligence and TuSimple is ahead of the pack. The combination of technical excellence and an impressive leadership team has propelled the company into unicorn status.”
Photo courtesy of TuSimple.
