Technology Author:Muriel Meng Editor:Yiru Qian Dec 19, 2023 04:42 PM (GMT+8)

Behind the electrification and intelligence of automobiles lies the strong support of OTA (Over-The-Air) services.

Basic software

Recently, Shanghai ABUP Technology Co., Ltd. (Chinese: 上海艾拉比智能科技有限公司) has completed a funding round of nearly CNY 100 million, with Qiming Venture Partners as the investor. This is ABUP's third funding round completed within this year, with a total funding amount close to CNY 200 million.

ABUP aims to expand its overseas market and product line with the funds raised, while transitioning to become an automotive intelligent software technology product and service provider.

ABUP specializes in providing OTA products and solutions to the automotive industry, such as Firmware Over-The-Air (FOTA), Software Over-The-Air (SOTA), Diagnosis Over-The-Air (DOTA), and Internet of Things (IoT) upgrade solutions (IOTA). Additionally, based on ABUP's OTA cloud platform services, it provides big data services to customers and users.

As a Chinese independent OTA innovation company, ABUP focuses on OTA technology R&D, with a core team that has over 10 years of experience. The company currently has nearly 400 employees, with over 80% of them being research and development personnel with abundant R&D experience. Furthermore, ABUP actively participates in the formulation of national and regulatory standards, ha applied for over 100 related patents and software copyrights in the OTA field, and has obtained international software certifications such as CMMI Level 3, Aspice L2, and ISO 27001.

Currently, ABUP's customers in the automotive sector include more than 40 vehicle manufacturers, including SAIC-GM, SAIC Motor Corporation, SAIC Maxus, Great Wall Motor, Geely Auto, SAIC Volkswagen, BYD, BAIC Motor, BAIC New Energy, Yutong Bus, Dongfeng Xiaokang, Dongfeng Jingang, Huachen Auto, and JAC Motors. These customers cover various fields such as passenger cars, commercial vehicles, new energy vehicles, car-sharing models, and overseas sales, providing OTA system construction services to over 100 vehicle models.

In recent years, with the increasing popularity of intelligent and connected vehicles, software-defined cars have become a goal pursued by the industry. Embedded functionality with subsequent enablement through OTA upgrades has become a common practice among automotive companies. ABUP has benefited significantly from this trend.

According to Sun Rongwei, the founder of ABUP, the company has maintained high-speed growth even in a year when the industry's overall growth rate has slowed down. Additionally, ABUP is expanding its diversified business and transitioning from an OTA solution provider to an automotive intelligent software technology product and service provider. Specifically, in terms of products and services, ABUP has evolved from a single OTA business line to a matrix-like business combination of "standard products + comprehensive services + content ecosystem" based on deep industry layout.

"In the era of software-defined cars, our core product is to provide automotive manufacturers with secure and stable OTA upgrade services."

On the ecosystem cooperation side, ABUP has entered into a strategic partnership with Tencent to provide various applications, including AiQuTing, Tencent Suixing, Tencent Video, Music, News, Conferencing, and WeChat for automakers. In the Internet of Things field, ABUP has already served over 40 industries, with over 1,000 customers and more than 100 million terminal devices, resulting in billions of upgrade instances.

Ye Guantai, Partner at Qiming Venture Partners, stated, "With the popularization of electric and intelligent vehicles, OTA is one of the core technologies of smart cars. The penetration rate of automotive OTA has reached 49% in 2022 and is expected to reach 78% by 2025. As a leader in China's OTA industry, ABUP has served over 40 vehicle manufacturers and more than 100 vehicle models. ABUP has been chosen by the top ten independent Chinese brands. ABUP is also the only OTA company in China that serves both traditional automakers, new energy vehicle companies, joint ventures, and foreign brands. In the future, new features such as online diagnostics will alsobe added to ABUP's product line, which will help improve the user experience and enhance the competitiveness of automakers."