Chinese autonomous driving startup Momenta confirmed it had completed its latest fundraising round, bringing in US$500m in fresh capital from investors, according to local reports.
Momenta has raised more capital than any other autonomous driving company in China. The latest round included investments from Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, SAIC Motor, Bosch and local internet giant Tencent.
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The company was established in 2016 and specialises in high definition (HD) automated mapping systems used in autonomous vehicles. It said it plans to test driverless vehicles in 2022 and make its systems available for series production vehicles thereafter. It expects to become profitable by 2024.
CEO Cao Xudong said in a statement: "This round of financing marks an important new milestone for the company on the path to integrating our technology on vehicles worldwide.
"The company has always pursued a very strongly data driven approach to autonomous driving. In the past years, our focused strategy has enabled us to create products which have been widely recognised by our customers across the automotive industry."
The autonomous driving sector is gaining momentum in China with more companies looking to compete in the driverless taxi sector. Pony.ai, another Chinese startup, raised US$462m last month, lifting its market capitalisation to over US$3bn. Baidu last week received permission from the city of Cangzhou in Hebei province to carry paying customers in its autonomous taxis.
Consulting firm Mckinsey said it expected China to become the largest market for autonomous vehicles worldwide with mass deployment expected in the next decade.
It suggested self-driving vehicles could account for around two-thirds of paid taxi journeys in the country by 2040.
