The autonomous trucking pioneer has carried out its Series B financing round, disclosing the funding amount for the first time since its angel investment.
Plus.ai (智加科技) just made a bundle. The smart lorry producer raised USD 200 million from unknown investors in its Series B round of funding on August 21.
This is the sixth venture financing event in the company's history. It has so far received hundreds of millions of yuan from various investors including Sequoia Capital China, Mayfield Fund, Manbang Group (满帮集团), China Growth Capital (华创资本), and GSR Ventures (金沙江创投).
Founded in 2016, the producer of self-driving trucks has been actively investing in R&D. It was among the first batch of firms that obtained carte blanche to develop and test autonomous vehicles from both the American and Chinese governments.
The Cupertino-based smart truck maker announced in June that it had created an artificial intelligence and computer vision system with a stated perception range of 1,600 meters, which was also successfully tested. It is apparently a decent weapon to keep up in the fierce scene of AI trucking. Meanwhile, Waymo, the undisputed global leader in the industry, can boast only 300-meter-far computer vision built into its lorries.
After this latest financing round, Plus.ai secured its position as one of the leading companies in the sector. Its closest peer TuSimple (图森未来) recently collected USD 200 million as well, according to the local media.