SAIC Motor’s mobility division is raising 1 billion yuan (about $148 million). As reported by TechCrunch on August 16, 2022, Series B fundraising was held with its technology partner Momenta, Gaoheng Management Consulting and other institutions. In this case, SAIC Mobility claims to be worth more than $1 billion. Momenta did not specify the size of its investment.
first tests in 2021
Momenta and SAIC Mobility have been collaborating since last year to develop autonomous driving technologies. At the end of last year, they deployed robotic taxi services in Shanghai and Suzhou: unmanned vehicles could be ordered on the SAIC mobile application. These two tests, which lasted over a hundred days, included 60 autonomous vehicles. There is a safety driver on board who can regain control if necessary.
SAIC reports daily order volume of around 20 trips per vehicle, and an overall user satisfaction rate of 98%. About 80% of passengers have used the service twice or more since their first experience, the partners reported in June. The next step for the two partners is to obtain a commercial license allowing them to sell races. The two companies have already said they want to deploy 200 autonomous vehicles across China by 2022.
Billions of investments
Chinese startup Momenta has raised about $1.3 billion in 2021 through multiple seed rounds. It is backed by investors such as Toyota, Daimler and Bosch. It develops both advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), designed for mass production and sold to manufacturers or large equipment manufacturers, and autonomous driving technologies.
In China, startups seeking to develop marketable self-driving technology have spent billions of dollars in recent years. Baidu just recently announced that it has received a license allowing it to charge for rides aboard its autonomous vehicles without a security operator, neither in the driver’s seat nor in the passenger seat, through its Apollo Go platform. To catch up with Baidu, SAIC and Momenta will have many affairs.