Sequoia leads Series A for China automotive chipmaker
SiEngine Technology, a China-based developer of chips for the automotive industry, has raised around CNY 1bn (USD 148m) in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital China.
Other investors include semiconductor investment specialist China Fortune-Tech Capital, Bosch Group-controlled Boyuan Capital, and Yuexiu Industrial Investment Fund Management. Shanghai Guosheng Group, Vision Knight Capital Partners, Hundreds Capital, and Cedarlake Capital also took part.
It has been described as the largest fundraising round in China's chip design field this year. The proceeds will be used for the mass production of existing products and R&D into next-generation automotive-grade high-computing power in-vehicle chips.
SiEngine was established in 2018 by EcarX, a smart mobility solutions provider backed by Geely Auto Group and the China unit of global central processing units designer Arm. EcarX announced in May that it would list in the US through a USD 3.82bn merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
SiEngine, which received strategic funding from state-owned automaker FAW Group in March, is registered in Hubei Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone. It has branch offices in Beijing and Shanghai.
The company focuses on high-end automotive system-on-a-chip (SoC) - an integrated circuit that brings together all or most components of a computer or other electronic system. SiEngine aims to cover all three major automotive chip application fields: smart cockpit multimedia SoC, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and in-vehicle central computing chips.
In June 2021, the company taped out the first domestically produced car-grade 7-nanometre smart cockpit chip. It was officially launched last December and is poised to enter mass production in the second half of this year.
SiEngine benchmarks itself against the most advanced products in international markets and claims to have made breakthroughs in high-end domestic substitution.
“We have a clear product and market positioning, strong industry background, and support from industry partners, so our design is highly coherent with real customer demands and we can quickly seize on market opportunities,” said Kai Wang, the company's CEO, in a statement.
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