Autonomous Driving Speeds up in China as Startups Including HoloMatic Receive Significant Financing and Business Orders

BEIJING, CHINA / ACCESSWIRE / August 3, 2021 / While the global economy has been suffering from the impact of covid-19 since 2020, the autonomous driving market has shown an upward trend in defiance of the headwind. The autonomous driving market in China has been far more active than any other countries in terms of investing and financing. In the commercialization of autonomous driving technology, the ‘China speed’ is also amazing.

According to statistics, there were over 60 investments and financings related to autonomous driving in China in 2020, which amounts to 46.33 billion yuan according to disclosures, an increase of 136.9% compared to 2019. The momentum continues in 2021. In the first half of the year, there were 69 financings related to autonomous driving, which totals 65.2 billion yuan according to disclosures. In July alone, numerous autonomous driving companies have announced the completion of another round of financing, including HoloMatic, CalmCar and SemiDrive.

It is worth noting that, unlike the U.S. autonomous driving market where hot money goes to the leading companies such as Waymo and Cruise, the investments and financings in the Chinese market are more fragmented and the number of companies that receive financing is also higher. Many investment institutions are not keen to bet on giants, but prefer startups with solid technical strength, clear series production roadmaps and balanced and robust core teams. HoloMatic, who just completed the B1 round of financing, is a perfect example.

Founded by Dr. Kai Ni in 2017, HoloMatic is dedicated to creating a series production solution for autonomous driving driven by local data. As a pioneer in the field of autonomous driving in China, Dr. Kai Ni previously founded Baidu’s autonomous driving team. Since its founding, HoloMatic has been adhering to the ‘progressive series production roadmap’ and has explored an approach to series production that ‘provides an uninterrupted experience of autonomous driving from L2+ to driverless’: install L2+ autonomous driving system in passenger cars to quickly collect a large amount of autonomous driving data that is used to drive the upgrade of algorithm and continuously expand the operational domain of the system, so as to realize fully autonomous driving in the end.

The clear approach to series production adopted by HoloMatic has not only gained the approval of investors, but also cleared the way for the commercialization of autonomous driving. The company recently announced that it has reached an agreement with GAC R&D Center to provide autonomous driving systems for GAC’s vehicle platform. The systems will be installed on various passenger cars of GAC and these cars are expected to enter the market as early as 2022.

As of the end of 2020, 27 cities in China have designated roads for autonomous vehicle testing. According to the plan of the Chinese government, by 2025, the sales of L2 and L3 intelligent connected vehicles (ICV) should account for at least 50% of the annual total and L4 ICV should enter the market and become commercially available in certain scenarios and areas.

Thanks to the diverse and multi-level market demand and strong government support, the autonomous driving startups in China obviously have a promising prospect. Outstanding startups such as HoloMatic have no shortage of financing and orders and are able to attract the best talent, even executives from global automotive giants. Recently, Jiang Jingfang, an important personage in the field of autonomous driving in China, joined HoloMatic to take charge of the series production of autonomous driving products. She was formerly the head and senior vice president of Bosch ADAS business unit in China. The application of ADAS created by her team has led to the development of ADAS in China. The participation of industry veterans, to some extent, mirrors the vibrancy of autonomous driving in China.

Contact: Yang Xing
Email: yangxing@holomatic.com

SOURCE: HoloMatic

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