Baidu-backed autonomous truck developer raises $67m

Lenovo Capital & Incubator Group, Vlight Capital, CCB Trust, Empowtech Capital, Bocom International, and Huagai Capital also participated. The company is now valued at CNY 3bn on a post-money basis.

The proceeds will be used to support R&D, the production of smart new energy heavy-duty trucks, the iteration of autonomous driving technology in high-speed scenarios, intelligent hardware and software development, and the acceleration of commercial applications.

DeepWay’s Shengxiang Star vehicle will begin trials on open roads in December 2022, with mass production to start in June 2023. The plan is to deliver 1,000 smart new energy heavy-duty trucks next year.

The company was founded in December 2020 by Baidu, an early mover in China’s autonomous driving space, in conjunction with truck logistics company Shiqiao. Baidu provides full-stack autonomous driving R&D capabilities, while Shiqiao helps with commercial landing and data accumulation.

Alex Zhou, partner at Qiming, said his firm follows the “iron triangle principle” while choosing investees in the smart electric vehicle space. There is a focus on three key capabilities: developing and mass production of vehicles; building leading intelligent driving platforms; and in-depth understanding of transportation scenarios and capacity operations.

"DeepWay's core team comes from excellent truck factories, logistics enterprises and autonomous driving companies. The rare combination, rich experience, and achieved milestones fully demonstrate that DeepWay is the company that best meets this iron triangle principle. We expect DeepWay to become the leader of smart trucks in China and even the global market," Zhou said.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Technology
• Early-stage
• China
• Electric Vehicles
• automobiles
• autonomous driving
• Baidu
• Lenovo Capital
• Qiming Venture Partners
• Huagai Capital
• CCB
• BoCom