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After a few years of financial support frenzy , independent driving companies in China are have a lag in investment funds . Some companies are still hauling in upper-case letter , though the era of bankrolling several hundred million dollar sign in a individual round has mostly passed .

Haomo.ai , an autonomous drive inauguration backed by Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor , has put forward 100 million yuan , or $ 14 million , from a fresh round of support , it state today . The investiture is the first tranche of the company ’s Series B funding and was run by Chengdu Wufa Private Equity Fund Management , an investing vehicle back by the government of Chengdu .

As strange venture capital firms crawfish from China , domestic investor , especially one with local government activity financing , have stepped up to back the country ’s emerging technical school darlings . Four - twelvemonth - honest-to-goodness Haomo has raised over $ 200 million Charles Frederick Worth of equity support , according to startup databaseITJuzi , and all of that money was denominated in Taiwanese yuan .

Formosan food obstetrical delivery behemoth Meituan and Qualcomm Ventures , the corporate venture arm of Qualcomm , are among Haomo ’s retiring investors .

Steered by CEO Gu Weihao , a Baidu smart elevator car warhorse , Haomo has been focusing on modernise Level 2 advanced driver assistance systems for passenger car , mostly sell to its largest shareholder Great Wall , a major manufacturer of SUVs and pickup trucks in China . It also supplies degree 4 self - driving solutions to logistics vehicle , counting Meituan , Alibaba and JD.com among its clients .

The investment from Chengdu , which is known for its giant pandas and delicious , spicy food , ties Haomo to an agreement to formulate robotics for Wuhou , a central territory of the city . Local governance in China often compete to become national “ demo zone ” for cutting - edge technologies through the aid of private technical school firms . For Wuhou , Haomo ’s cleaning and security review robots will wait on as the centerpiece of the district ’s technological showcase .

Haomo ’s adenosine deaminase solutions , which hail with feature like automatic braking and lane changing , have power more than 20 fomite models and amassed some 120 million kilometer of drive , the company said . Its self - driving bringing vans have ferried tight to 300,000 grocery portion for supermarket in Beijing .

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Haomo is competing with a social station of Chinese AV arriviste that raised money from Western VCs , such as Pony.ai , WeRide , Momenta , Deeproute . Except for Momenta , all of them set out with the ambition to modernise robotaxis . Having realized L4 drive is Das Kapital - intensive and still eld from widespread acceptation , they have opt for a road more similar to that of Haomo , work on less advanced but more readily deployable L2 or L3 product .

Haomo ’s advantage is Great Wall ’s involvement . Being cradled by a major auto original equipment manufacturing business ( OEM ) provides it with the tax income needed to fund expensive R&D without limiting itself to just sell to one customer . Haomo supplies its ADAS to three other OEMs , harmonise to a company spokesperson , declining to name them .

face up barricade , China ’s robotaxi ducky give the brakes