Ruqi Mobility, a ride-hailing
platform operating under Chinese automobile giant GAC Group, has raised one
billion yuan – about $153 million – in Series A financing.
The funding was led by GAC Group
with participation from Pony.ai, WeRide, SPARX, Ruisheng
Asia and others. The company is also backed by Tencent.
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Founded in 2019, Ruqi Mobility says
it will use this round of financing to accelerate the development of its
Robotaxi autonomous vehicle services. The company says it aims to build a fleet
of more than 200 vehicles this year and eventually grow that to more than 1,000
vehicles.
The company is also developing an open platform to accelerate the
development and operation of autonomous vehicles across the industry.
Two of the investors in this round,
WeRide and Pony.ai, are global leaders in autonomous driving technology.
Jiang Hua, CEO of
Ruqi Mobility, says Robotaxi will “truly become a service ... because of this,
two world-leading autonomous driving technology companies have chosen to invest
strategically in Ruqi Mobility at the same time in this round.”