Chinese autonomous driving player Yihang raises Series B
Yihang.ai, a Chinese autonomous driving technology provider, has received RMB220 million ($32.2 million) in Series B funding led by a fund managed by China International Capital Corporation (CICC).
Existing backer Matrix Partners China re-upped, while Source Code Capital and CICC Alpha – a separate direct investment platform that focuses on new economy industries – came in as new investors. According to AVCJ Research’s records, Future Capital committed seed funding to Yihang in 2016 and then Matrix and Zenity Holdings provided the Series A the following year.
The three-year-old company’s founder, Yuxing Chen, ran the smart car project at the University of California Berkley’s vehicle dynamics and control laboratory. Other core team members have backgrounds in vehicle engineering with leading car makers and computer research.
Yihang claims to be the only Chinese autonomous driving start-up to receive mass production orders from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Its flagship product is Autopilot, a navigation system scheduled for launch in June 2019 that is capable of level 2.5 automation – between partial automation, which involves driver assistance, and conditional automation, where the driver responds to requests for intervention. The company is conducting R&D on level four capabilities.
A string of Chinese autonomous driving start-ups have received PE and VC funding in expectation that the country will play a significant role in the development of solutions in this area. They include Roadstar.ai, Pony.ai, and Jingchi.
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