Chinese transportation company, DiDi recently announced that it has completed a $500mn fundraising round for its self-driving unit. The funding round was led by Masoyoshi Son-led SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.
The ride hailing giant said in a statement that the round marked the first time DiDi’s self-driving business had brought in external funding since it became a standalone unit last year. It was reportedly also the single largest fundraising round in China’s self-driving sector.
The company plans to use these funds to further invest in research and development of its autonomous driving technology as well as testing. It will also accelerate the deployment of its services with the new capital.
The company said that it has gained open-road testing licences in California, Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou. It first began to develop and test autonomous-driving vehicles in 2016.
According to a Reuters report, the fundraising comes as SoftBank has been selling off other stakes to raise cash for stock buybacks aimed at supporting the price of its shares as its tech investments falter. Some of the Japanese firm’s investments, including Uber and India-based hotel chain OYO, have been hugely impacted by lockdowns in the coronavirus pandemic.
Autonomous driving technology has remained popular with investors even amid the pandemic. Waymo, the self-driving unit of Alphabet Inc this month raised an additional $750 million in its first external investment round, while China’s Pony.ai raised $462 million from investors led by Toyota Motor in February.
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