Pony.ai, a self-driving tech unicorn led by former Baidu and Google self-driving car executives, on Tuesday announced a strategic investment from Chinese state-owned vehicle manufacturer FAW Group.
The Beijing company, whose CEO is based in its U.S. headquarters in Fremont, didn’t disclose the amount FAW invested, but said it is the the first strategic investment by a Chinese state-owned vehicle manufacturer into an autonomous-technology company.
Reports from China last week said that Pony.ai was raising over $300 million from FAW and Ontario Public Service Employees Union Pension Trust at a valuation of about $6 billion.
The company earlier this year raised $462 million in a round that valued it at about $3 billion in which Toyota Motor Corp. invested $400 million. It was joined by existing investors who include Sequoia Capital China and IDG Capital.
Pony.ai was founded in the Bay Area in 2016 by CEO James Peng, a former executive at China’s Baidu, and Chief Technology Officer Lou Tiancheng, a former Google and Baidu engineer.
Both executives work from the company’s Fremont facility.
As part of the funding deal, Pony.ai said that its technology will be used in a platform for FAW’s Red Flag-branded electric cars and it will also work with the FAW unit that sells trucks.
Pony.ai since April has offered delivery of meals to vulnerable populations using its autonomous vehicles in Fremont and Irvine, where it also has a facility. It said it has delivered more than 15,000 meals since then as part of that program.
Source: www.bizjournals.com