Chinese artificial intelligence firm Horizon Robotics has secured a $600-million Series B financing jointly led by SK China, SK Hynix and several automotive groups.
The funding round values Horizon Robotics at $3 billion, the company said in a statement.
The investment was joined by China Oceanwide Group’s Oceanwide Capital, CMBC Capital, CLSA’s CSOBOR Fund, Oceanpine Capital, as well as existing shareholders including Morningside Venture Capital, Hillhouse Capital, V Fund Management and Linear Venture.
The round will enable Horizon to invest in product and technology development, and bring new commercialisation opportunities, the firm added.
In late 2017, Intel Capital led a $100-million Series A financing in Horizon.
Horizon said, two of the top three semiconductor giants were important shareholders of the firm, while several top automotive groups have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in it.
“The concept of co-designing hardware and software for edge computing embraced by Horizon Robotics since ‘Day 1’ has become an important trend in the field of artificial intelligence. The key strategic partners and resources introduced in this financing round will further accelerate the pace of R&D and commercialisation for us,” said Yu Kai, founder and CEO of Horizon Robotics.
The company has been active in enabling autonomous driving, smart cities, smart robotics and other AIoT devices.
In 2017, Horizon Robotics successfully commercialised one of the world’s first edge AI processors on a mass production level, Journey, which focuses on autonomous driving, and Sunrise, which focuses on AIoT.
In 2018, the company continued to release the Matrix platform for autonomous driving, and XForce platform for edge AI computing. By the end of 2018, Horizon Robotics also deployed Navnet, a crowd-sourced high-precision and high-definition mapping and positioning solution based on Matrix.
“SK Group has a leading and solid foundation in the fields of 5G networking, autonomous driving and smart city. We believe that our strategic collaboration with Horizon Robotics can stimulate more innovation, promote complementarity and optimization of the industry positioning of both sides, and bring new development to the autonomous driving and telecommunication industries,” commented Wu Zuoyi, president of SK China.
Horizon Robotics’ telecoms and automotive partners include Audi, Bosch, Chang’an, BYD, SAIC Motor, Guangzhou Automobile Group, SK Telecom, BeLLE, Yonghui Supermarket and Longfor, among others.
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