China’s self-driving car startup WeRide has raised more than $600 million investment over the past five months, according to reports by Chinese medias on the 24th.
According to the media, WeRide announced the previous day that it received an additional $310 million in investment from existing shareholders Renault of France, Nissan of Japan and Mitsubishi Motors.
WeRide said it plans to inject the funds into research and development to commercialize Level 4 (l4), which automatically drives vehicles under certain conditions.
In 2018, WeRide received $30 million in investment from Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi for the first time, and this is the second time.
Besides Renault Consortium, Chinese government investment funds also invested funds. Through a series of funding, WeRide corporate value was estimated at $3.3 billion.
WeRide was launched in 2017 and is considered one of the most promising startups in China’s autonomous driving technology field.
Headquartered in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, WeRide has operated a driverless robo taxi since November 2019, carrying more than 60,000 passengers over 150,000 times a year.
The total autonomous driving distance of WeRide surpassed 5 million kilometers.
In China’s self-driving industry, Baidu, the largest search engine, is leading the development of technologies in solidarity with large car makers at home and abroad.
On top of that, startup Pony.ai is running a robo-taxi in China and the United States and is chasing after it.
As competition for self-driving technology development intensifies, WeRide is aiming for an edge in competition by strengthening its partnership with Nissan and others.
