Lightspeed backs China autonomous driving industry supplier Daisch
Lightspeed China Partners has backed Daisch, a domestic supplier of high-precision products for autonomous driving, as the sole participant in a Series A round.
The proceeds - approximately CNY 100m (USD 14m) - will be used to strengthen supply chain and delivery capabilities, broaden the company's product range, and drive market expansion, according to a statement.
Founded in January 2015, Daisch focuses on inertial navigation systems (INS), which operate without external signals or references. They rely on a series of motion and rotation sensors to continually calculates an object's position based on starting point, direction, and speed.
While INS has wide aerospace and military applications, rolling it out in the mass-production automotive space is complicated by issues around production efficiency and performance consistency. Daisch claims to have resolved these problems by developing an efficient production process and dedicated algorithms.
The company said that its products are pre-installed in more than 10 vehicle models under JAC Volkswagen - a new energy vehicle joint venture between Volkswagen and JAC Automobile, electric vehicle manufacturer Leapmotor, and Hongqi, a luxury car brand owned by FAW Group.
Daisch’s first plant claims a production efficiency 15 times greater than the industry average. A second plant is under construction.
“There is inelastic demand for INA in the autonomous driving industry because of the complex driving environment. It is gradually becoming a mainstream solution for mass-produced vehicles," said Xi Zhu, a partner at Lightspeed.
"Daisch has solved the problems of large-scale performance consistency. We expect the company to deliver rapidly and iteratively in this field, empowering the autonomous driving industry with more products."
INS - and the use of artificial intelligence in these systems - is a point of focus for Advanced Navigation, an Australia-based smart vehicular automation. The company recently received a USD 68m Series B round led by KKR.
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