Automotive manufacturer Toyota Motor Corporation invested $400m in US-based autonomous driving software developer Pony.ai yesterday as part of a $462m round that valued it at slightly more than $3bn.
The company did not reveal the other participants in the round, which comes in the wake of approximately $464m in earlier funding.
Pony.ai has developed a software platform intended to form the basis for an autonomous taxi system and has been testing it through a pilot scheme in the Chinese city of Guangzhou since late 2018. It began piloting a robotaxi service in the US in November 2019.
Toyota formed a strategic partnership with Pony.ai in August 2019, with the two agreeing to test versions of the carmaker’s Lexus sport utility vehicles fitted with Pony.ai’s driving system on public streets in Beijing and Shanghai.
The latest investment will herald a strengthening of the relationship between the companies, which will seek to jointly develop driverless car technology and urban mobility services.
Pony.ai closed a $214m series A round featuring Comcast Ventures and Legend Star, corporate venturing subsidiaries of mass media group Comcast and conglomerate Legend Holdings, in mid-2018 at a valuation of almost $1bn.
The round included investment group Fidelity’s Eight Roads Ventures, the Legend Holdings-formed Legend Capital, ClearVue Partners, Green Pine Capital Partners, China Merchants Capital, Redpoint Ventures China, Delong Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Morningside Ventures, DCM Ventures, IDG Capital, Puhua Capital, Polaris Capital, Silicon Valley Future Capital, Hongtai Capital and Adrian Cheng.
Mobile game developer Kunlun Tech subsequently provided $50m in funding for the company in April 2019 at a $1.65bn valuation.
Photo courtesy of Pony.ai.
