China autonomous driving developer Momenta raises $500m
SAIC Motor, Toyota Motor Corporation, Robert Bosch, Yunfeng Capital, and Temasek Holdings are among the investors in a $500 million Series C funding round for Chinese autonomous driving technology developer Momenta.
Additional contributions came from the likes of Mercedes-Benz, GGV Capital, Shunwei Capital, Tencent Holdings, and Cathay Capital. The company is said to have raised more than $700 million to date. It achieved unicorn status on raising a round of undisclosed size in 2018.
The company primarily provides sensor systems for L2 and L3 driving, where there is partial or conditional automation with the driver able to override. It now has an L4 offering – the car is fully autonomous in certain environments, but it still needs a driver in the seat – as well. Footage of an L4 road test was released last year along with a description of plans for large-scale deployment.
Momenta’s existing product suite includes Mpilot, mass-production sensors and software for use in highway driving, valet parking, and driving in crowded urban areas. In each case, cameras are integrated with high-definition maps and forecasting technologies. It generates data from 22,000 vehicles with an estimated 2 billion kilometers in annual driving capacity, and these are used to improve L4 unmanned navigation algorithms.
Momenta refers to the L4 product as "flywheel L4." The idea is that by creating an automated closed-loop comprising mass-production data and algorithms, the flywheel will turn faster and faster, propelling Momenta towards large-scale implementation. The company claims to have begun L4 R&D in mid-2019, released a prototype by year-end, and taken a further six months to install it across a variety of vehicles for road tests. This was achieved with a team one-tenth the size of most competitors.
Momenta has agreements with top-tier global and domestic carmakers to install Mpilot on vehicles that will go into mass production in 2021-2023. Following the release of autonomous robotaxi technology last year, there are plans for unmanned trials in 2022. It expects to achieve profitability on the robotaxis in 2024 and begin L4 mass production shortly thereafter.
“We have created leading industry-leading autonomous driving products that have been recognized by customers worldwide. This latest financing represents a new milestone. With the addition of these global partners and capital, we will inject more power into the flywheel and take Momenta’s ‘two-legged’ product strategy from China to the world,” Xudong Cao, the company’s CEO, said in a statement.
Cao founded Momenta in 2016, having previously worked for Microsoft in R&D and for Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) specialist SenseTime. Shunwei, ZhenFund, Blue Lake Capital, and Sinovation Ventures were among Momenta’s earliest investors in 2016, AVCJ Research’s records show.
In 2017, the company secured $46 million in Series B funding led by Nio Capital, an investment firm controlled by Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Nio. It also featured Daimler, the parent of Mercedes-Benz, Shunwei, Sinovation, and Unity Ventures. Cathay led a Series B extension, with participation from GGV, later the same year.
The 2018 funding round featured Nio Capital, Pagoda Investment, Tencent, China Merchants Group, CCB International, and government funds from Shanghai and Suzhou.
Pony.ai and WeRide are regarded as the Chinese equivalents to Google-owned Waymo in autonomous driving. Both were spinouts from Baidu and both are leaders in L4 technology. They face a concerted challenge from newcomer Didi, a local ride-hailing platform that claims to be the only company globally with more than 100 billion kilometers of autonomous driving data.
All three have closed funding rounds this year. Pony.ai secured a $100 million Series C extension – which took the overall round to $367 million – last month, a matter of weeks after WeRide announced it had closed a $310 million Series B. Meanwhile, Didi’s autonomous driving unit received $300 million in funding. Toyota is an investor in Momenta and Pony.
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