China autonomous driving player HoloMatic raises $42m

The Series C was launched in 2021, receiving an initial investment from GAC Capital, a division of auto giant GAC Group. GAC Capital joined an extension in 2022 with participation from Chaos and Guangzhou Huadu District Gongyou Asset Investment Holding. The overall round amount to more than CNY 1bn, according to a statement.

Founded in 2017, HoloMatic was founded in 2017 and raised seed capital the same year from Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI). A Series A came in 2018 led by Sequoia Capital with participation from IDG Capital and BAI. V Star Capital, Chaos Investment, IDG Capital backed a third round in 2020, according to AVCJ Research.

HoloMatic started with a vision to deliver Level 3.5 production-ready autonomous driving functions. These cars can handle the majority of driving situations independently, although a human driver can still request control. Level 3 cars can perform self-drive but require intervention in hard conditions. Level 4 is considered to be fully autonomous driving.

GAC Group has invested CNY 400m in the start-up since they began collaborating. HoloMatic has pre-installed its autonomous driving technology in several GAC models, including the electric sport-utility vehicle Aion LX Plus and two SUV models: Trumpchi Emkoo and Trumpchi E9.

HoloMatic claims to provide a comprehensive solution for car manufacturers across domain controller hardware, underlying infrastructure software, and upper-layer application software. It addition to GAC, clients include Chery Automobile and Dongfeng Motor. Mass production is expected to be achieved within the year.

Lower-level autonomous driving solutions – also referred to as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) – have proven more attractive to investors than robo-taxis in the recent term.

Earlier this year, Prosperity7 Ventures, a unit of Saudi Arabia state oil giant Saudi Aramco, invested in Hyperview, a China-based autonomous driving technology provider focusing on ADAS solutions. Meanwhile, Mogo Auto, a Chinese autonomous driving solution provider focusing on "vehicle-road collaboration" raised a CNY 580m round featuring Tencent Holdings.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Technology
• China
• Transportation
• automobiles
• GAC