Pony.ai, The Chinese autonomous vehicle startup and related newcomer to the industry is now valued at $ 5.3 billion after a fresh injection of $ 267 million in funding.
The round was led by TIP, an innovation fund within the Ontario Teacher Retirement Plan Board that focuses on late-stage growth and venture capital investments in companies that provide disruptive technology. Existing partners Fidelity China Special Situations PLC, 5Y Capital (formerly Morningside Venture Capital), ClearVue Partners and Eight Roads also participated in the round.
The new funds will be used primarily for research and development, according to the company.
Pony.ai has won over investors, OEMs and tier-one suppliers during its four years of existence. The company, which operates in China and California, has raised over $ 1 billion since its founding, including $ 400 million from Toyota. Pony has several partnerships or collaborations with car manufacturers and suppliers, including Bosch, Hyundai and Toyota.
Pony is building what he describes as an agnostic virtual driver for vehicles of all sizes, from small cars to large trucks, and to operate on both ride-sharing and logistics (delivery) service networks. The company said in 2019 that it was working with OEMs and suppliers to apply its automated technology to the long-haul trucking market. But he is perhaps best known for his work around robotaxis.
The company launched ridesharing and commuter pilots in Fremont and Irvine, California, and Guangzhou, China. Last year, a fleet of electric and autonomous Hyundai Kona crossovers equipped with an autonomous driving system from Pony.ai and the ride-hailing platform from Via began hauling customers on public roads. The robotaxi service, called BotRide, was not a driverless service, as there was always a human safety driver behind the wheel. The BotRide pilot project ended in January 2020.
The company then began operating a public robot taxi service called PonyPilot in the Irvine area. Pony shifted that robotic taxi service from transporting people to parcels as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world. In April, Pony.ai announced that it has partnered with the Yamibuy e-commerce platform to provide autonomous last mile delivery service to Irvine's customers. The new delivery service was launched to provide additional capacity to deal with the wave of online orders triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, Pony.ai said at the time.
