China's Momenta secures new funding, claims $1b valuation
Momenta, a Chinese developer of autonomous driving technology backed by a number of VCs, has announced a fresh funding round of undisclosed size at a valuation of $1 billion.
Backers included NIO Capital, a unit of local electric vehicle maker NIO, and Pagoda Investment. Strategic investors including Tencent Holdings, government funds from Shanghai and Suzhou, China Merchants Group, and CCB International also participated.
Momenta develops software for on-board sensors in driverless cars that enables navigation and vehicle control systems. According to a statement, it has independently created a full suite of deep-learning algorithms for autonomous driving capabilities such as perception, mapping, and data-driven path planning.
Last year, Cathay Innovation, a VC affiliate of Cathay Capital Private Equity, extended a Series B round for the company that had initially secured a $46 million commitment led by NIO Capital. Other previous investors include GGV Capital, Shunwei Capital, Blue Lake Capital, Sinovation Ventures, and Zhen Fund.
Autonomous driving has become a popular investment segment in Asia on the back of various social and economic themes such as smart city development. However, the industry faces a number of significant challenges such as regulatory hurdles, safety concerns, and cultural barriers to adoption.
Recent investment includes a $45 million round last week for sensing technology provider RoboSense and a $32 million round in August for Yihang, which claims to be the only Chinese autonomous driving start-up to have received mass production orders from original equipment manufacturers.
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