DiDi Autonomous Driving, the self-driving technology arm of DiDi Global, said it will bag up to $149 million from state-affiliated investors including GAC Capital, the wholly-owned subsidiary of automaker GAC Group; and Guangzhou Development District Investment Group.
The self-driving arm said it will continue its investment in R&D as well as accelerate its product implementation and the commercial adoption of autonomous driving technology, according to a company release on Thursday.
The news comes five months after the firm announced to set up a joint venture with GAC AION New Energy Automobile, a subsidiary of GAC Group to set up a joint venture to mass produce electric robotaxi in May. The first model is expected to be adopted by DiDi’s ride-sharing network by 2025.
Previously, the autonomous driving unit snapped $300 million in a funding round led by investment firm IDG Capital, with the participation of the Russia-China Investment Fund, Guotai Junan International, and CCB International, among others in January 2021, per Reuters.
DiDi Autonomous Driving currently operates robotaxi services in certain areas of Guangzhou and Shanghai through a mixed dispatching model that combines both autonomous driving vehicles and human driving.
Despite DiDi Global’s long dominance in China’s ride-hailing market, a slew of players have risen to expand their market share over the recent years including Ruqi Mobility, the ride-sharing platform under Chinese state-owned automaker GAC Group; and Geely’s Cao Cao Mobility.
Most recently, local ride-hailing firm T3 Chuxing completed its extended Series A round at 1 billion yuan ($139.9 million), led by local investment firm Hongtai Aplus in August. The firm, which boasts being China’s second-largest ride-hailing platform, differentiates itself by targeting the younger generation — over 70% of T3’s 200 million registered users were born after 1985 and 1990, local media reported, citing public data.
The firm, backed by state-owned automakers FAW Group, Dongfeng Motor, and Changan Automobile Group as well as Chinese tech juggernauts Tencent and Alibaba, is pushing a pre-IPO financing round prior to its public listing plan on the Hong Kong bourse and the “A-shares market”. However, the firm did not divulge the timelines for the pre-IPO round and listing.