China-based autonomous driving technology producer WeRide confirmed today it has raised $310m in series C funding from investors including Alliance Ventures, the investment firm formed by carmakers Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi.
The round also featured China Structural Reform Fund and Pro Capital. The company said last month the round included IDG Capital, Homeric Capital, CoStone Capital, Cypress Star, Sky9 Capital, K3 Ventures, CMC Capital Partners, Qiming Venture Partners and Alpview Capital, valuing it at $3.3bn.
WeRide is developing software and retrofittable hardware designed to help vehicles reach level 4 of autonomous driving, where the vehicles drive automatically but users can still opt to take control.
Nissan’s chief operating officer, Ashwani Gupta, said: “As China stands at the forefront of helping define the future of mobility, we are delighted to partner with WeRide to bring even more innovative technologies and services to enrich people’s lives in China.”
Qiming Venture Partners led the company’s $52m pre-series A round in 2017, investing alongside Nvidia GPU Ventures, a subsidiary of graphics chip producer Nvidia, as well as undisclosed other participants.
WeRide added an undisclosed amount in an early 2019 series A round featuring Alliance Ventures, artificial intelligence software producer SenseTime and motor equipment maker Johnson Electric.
Financial services firm Agricultural Bank of China’s ABC International subsidiary also took part in the series A round, as did Qiming Venture Capital, Hanfor Capital, Atop Capital, Idinvest Partners, OceanIQ Capital and Xiaopeng He.
Bus manufacturer Yutong Group invested $200m to lead a $310m series B round for the company in January this year that included Qiming Venture Partners, MC Capital Partners, CDB Equipment Manufacturing Fund, Hengjian Emerging Industries Fund, Zhuhai Huajin Capital, Tryin Capital, Sinovation Ventures and Kinzon Capital.
