GM invests $300 million in Chinese self-driving startup Momenta- PingWest

GM invests $300 million in Chinese self-driving startup Momenta- PingWest

GM invests $300 million in Chinese self-driving startup Momenta

September 25, 2021 0:34 am

American automaker General Motors said Thursday it will invest $300 million in Chinese self-driving startup Momenta.

Details: 

"The agreement between GM and Momenta will accelerate our deployment of next-generation solutions tailor-made for our consumers in China," said Blissett. China is the biggest market for GM. Last year, it sold around 3 million vehicles in the country.

Founded in 2016, Momenta is one of the most promising Chinese startups in the autonomous driving industry. In March, the Beijing-headquartered startup raised $500 million in Series C financing led by China's largest automaker SAIC, Toyota, and Bosch. Other investors in the funding round include Daimler AG, Singaporean sovereign fund Temasek, Alibaba-backed Yunfeng Capital, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun's Shunwei Capital, and Tencent.

Besides its partnership with Momenta, GM is also developing autonomous driving technologies through its subsidiary Cruise.

Context: China's self-driving industry is gaining momentum with the influx of massive investment. Pony.ai raised $400 million from Toyota in February and received more than $1 billion in investment within five years. WeRide bagged $310 million in June. The four-year-old company has raised more than $600 million in the last five months.

Momenta positions itself as a software algorithm provider, offering customers diverse levels of self-driving software. By taking a two-legged approach, selling semi-automated software while investing in research for next-gen self-driving tech, the company expects to achieve large-scale L4 level autonomous driving services.

Before founding the company, its CEO Cao Xudong served as the executive R&D director of the Chinese AI unicorn SenseTime. Earlier, he worked as a scientist in the computer vision team of Microsoft Research Asia.

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