China-headquartered autonomous driving software producer WeRide has increased the size of a series B round led by bus producer Yutong Group from $200m to $310m, Caixin Global reported today.
Yutong invested $200m in WeRide last month and the round included MC Capital Partners, CDB Equipment Manufacturing Fund, Hengjian Emerging Industries Fund, Zhuhai Huajin Capital, Tryin Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Sinovation Ventures and Kinzon Capital, according to a company statement.
WeRide is working on driverless car technology that is intended to bring level 4 autonomous driving functionality to vehicles, meaning it will supervise the driving while allowing the human passenger to take control should they wish.
The company launched an autonomous taxi service in the city of Guangzhou in 2019 and it had provided some 150,000 lifts by the end of 2020.
The extension comes after the Chinese government’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology drafted regulations earlier this week enabling any autonomous vehicle developer to apply for a permit allowing them to test their technology on public roads.
WeRide – then known as Jingchi – secured $52m in a 2017 pre-series A round led by Qiming Venture Partners and backed by graphics chip producer Nvidia’s corporate venturing unit, Nvidia GPU Ventures, and undisclosed others.
The company then closed a series A round of undisclosed size in early 2019 that included artificial intelligence software producer SenseTime, motor technology manufacturer Johnson Electric and Alliance Ventures, the fund formed by carmakers Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi.
The corporates were joined in the series A round by financial services firm Agricultural Bank of China’s ABC International unit, Atop Capital, Idinvest Partners, Qiming Venture Capital, Hanfor Capital, OceanIQ Capital and Xiaopeng He.
