China-based internet car solution provider Banma Technologies has secured as much as 3 billion yuan ($434 million) from its majority shareholders such as Alibaba, Alibaba Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital, SAIC Motor and CMG-SDIC, according to an announcement.
In 2018, Banma had raised its first round to the tune of 1.6 billion yuan ($247 million) led by CMG-SDIC with the participation of Yunfeng Capital and SAIC Capital’s venture arm Shang Qi Capital.
Banma said it will use the corpus to spruce up its R&D, among others.
Alibaba Group and SAIC Motor jointly set up Banma in 2015, marking their foray into the smart auto industry. Banma offers comprehensive intelligent automobile solutions and digital transportation services in the automobile sector.
The company claims to have served over three million auto users.
Going forward, it will continue to focus on digitalization of transportation thereby ramping up man-machine co-driving and vehicle-road collaboration schemes, according to its official website.
Of all the investors, Yunfeng Capital has been actively in involved in the country’s smart auto sector. It has investments in Hong Kong-listed electric vehicle maker Xpeng, AI chip designer Horizon Robotics which had garnered $400 million Series C2 round funding in January this year, and online trading platform Chehaoduo Group, among others.