China autonomous sanitation vehicle maker raises $250m
CowaRobot, a Chinese autonomous driving technology developer with an initial focus on sanitation vehicles, has raised $250 million in Series C funding.
The investors were not disclosed. CowaRobot secured a RMB37.5 million ($5.8 million) Series A round from Wuhu Yuanda Venture Capital and Empower Investment in 2016, according to AVCJ Research. SBCVC, Infore Capital, and China Creation Ventures provided a Series B in 2018.
The new capital will go towards product R&D and domestic expansion. The company wants to accelerate the advancement of three business lines: municipal sanitation, cargo delivery, and robotaxis.
Founded in 2016, CowaRobot established a joint venture with leading local environmental sanitation player Zhonglian to invest RMB1 billion ($154 million) in autonomous sanitation vehicles. Products have been rolled out in 17 cities.
The company entered the light truck space in 2019, collaborating with Jiangling Motors on a self-driving delivery vehicle, which has since achieved commercialization. Last year, CowaRobot formed partnerships with BAIC and Chery covering autonomous delivery vehicles of different specifications.
Robotaxis are another recent addition. The company has a fleet in Shanghai and is conducting trials. It expects to have more than 100 vehicles by the end of this year.
Supplementary business lines include unmanned vehicle rental services and data services. Overall revenue has grown three-fold for three consecutive years and is on course to exceed RMB500 million in 2021.
KuwaRobot has 1,000 employees, half of them in R&D roles. It has a broad target to deploy 1,000 autonomous vehicles in 20 cities across 10 provinces in 2021.
Private equity investment continues apace in China's autonomous driving industry. Deeproute.ai and Momenta both recently closed funding rounds of $300 million. While Deeproute develops its own vehicles - and now sits in China's robotaxi top tier with Pony.ai and WeRide - Momenta is a technology supplier to car manufacturers.
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