AVCJ

Ince leads $30m round for China’s PhiGent Robotics

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  • Larissa Ku
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Beijing-based autonomous driving solutions provider PhiGent Robotics has raised a USD30m Series A round led by Ince Capital. Previous investors such as Atypical Ventures, 5Y Capital, and GSR Ventures re-upped.

Founded in August 2021, the company has already closed three funding rounds. 5Y Capital led a pre-Series A in October of last year, which followed an angel round led by Atypical in August, according to AVCJ Research. Horizon Robotics, which designs chips for use in autonomous driving, is a strategic investor and helps PhiGent with commercial landing.

The new capital will go towards core technology development, mass production implementation, and wider commercial deployment.

PhiGent specialises in 3D vision radar for autonomous driving. 3D vision provides more comprehensive information on environmental perception than two-dimension signals.

However, a technical debate continues within the autonomous driving industry as to whether vision radar is preferable to light detection and ranging, known as LiDAR. LiDAR is generally considered safer, but it is also more expensive. Waymo uses LiDAR while Tesla founder Elon Musk is a vocal advocate of vision radar.

Several Chinese LiDAR technology developers have received VC funding. Last year, Hesai Technology closed a USD 300m Series D round led by GL Ventures after aborting an attempt to list on Shanghai's Star Market. Meanwhile, Innovusion raised USD 66m in an extended Series B round.

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