Sequoia Capital China has led a Series A funding round of close to 1 billion yuan ($148.2 million) for auto tech startup SiEngine Technology, per an announcement.
The fresh capital will allow SiEngine to invest in the delivery of its existing products at scale as well as the next-phase R&D of auto-grade chips with high computing power, investment bank Index Capital, the exclusive financial adviser to the deal, posted on its WeChat official account on Tuesday.
Boyuan Capital, an investment platform built by German technology group Robert Bosch for investments in China, semiconductor-focused China Fortune-Tech Capital and ex-Alibaba Group CEO David Wei’s Vision Knight Capital backed the Series A round. Other participating investors include Shanghai Guosheng Capital, Hundreds Capital, Cedarlake Capital, YUEXIU Industrial Investment Fund Management, ICBC International and Neusoft Capital.
SiEngine was founded in 2018 by UK semiconductor and software company Arm Ltd’s China joint venture, ARM China, and ECARX Holdings, a Chinese auto tech startup backed by Geely Holding Group chairman Li Shufu. It is headquartered in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei Province, with R&D centres in Beijing and Shanghai.
The startup provides holistic solutions for high-end automotive system-on-chips (SoCs), which integrate all or most components of a vehicle’s electronic system. Its offerings range from automotive chips to compatible software and hardware with three major product lines covering smart cockpit multimedia SoCs, autonomous driving chips and in-vehicle central computing chips.
The startup showcased its first product, a smart cockpit SoC called “SE1000”, in December 2021. SE1000, powered with 7-nanometre processing technology, features a high-performance and low-energy consumption, in-vehicle infotainment system with embedded artificial intelligence (AI) capable of delivering smart audio-visual experience and advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) functions. SiEngine said it expects to mass-produce SE1000 in the second half of this year.
SiEngine is now developing “AD1000”, a 7-nanometre automotive chip product that enables Level 2+ to Level 5 autonomous driving systems. It plans to achieve the mass production of AD1000 by 2024.
In March, the startup completed a strategic investment from FAW Group, as it targeted to work with the Chinese state-owned traditional automaker in developing automotive chips and upgrading FAW’s vehicles with smart cockpits and self-driving technology. The investment sum is said to be hundreds of millions of Chinese yuan.