May 8, 2023

08 May, 2023 Autonomous driving software provider Mushroom Chelian Information Technology has bagged 580 million yuan ($83.9 million) in a Series C2 round, the firm announced on Saturday. The round saw the participation of state-affiliated investor Chengdu Science and Technology Innovation Investment Group; Hong Kong-listed automobile financier platform Yixin Group; internet giant Tencent, among others. The firm intends to use the proceeds on product iteration as well as mass adoption of its autonomous driving solutions. Founded in 2017, the Beijing-headquartered firm specialises in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication technology that enables autonomous vehicles to share real-time information such as location, speed, and roadway infrastructure via wireless connectivity. The firm offers autonomous vehicles, AI stations, and cloud services to form an autonomous driving system that claims to increase driving safety. It targets municipal governments as its major clients. So far, the firm claims that its solutions have been adopted across major cities and provinces such as Beijing, Sichuan, Hunan, Shandong, Jiangsu, among others. The firm did not disclose details of its previous financing round prior to its Series C extended round. It secured $120 million in a Series A round in February 2019 led by Tencent. Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com, China-focused fund manager Bertelsmann Asia Investments (now known as BAI Capital), and Yixin Group, are among some of the participating investors.