WeRide, a Chinese autonomous driving company, has announced that it’s raised a fresh round of $200 million from Yutong, a Chinese maker of commercial vehicles, majorly electric buses. Yutong’s investment is strategic and cements a partnership that has seen both companies work together on the deployment of autonomous vehicles.

Already, Yutong and WeRide have deployed driverless buses that are currently in use, wherein Yutong handles the initial manufacturing of the buses while WeRide provides software and the complementary hardware used to make them autonomous.

WeRide launched its own robotaxi operations in November last year in China and has completed tens of thousands of trips. Before this new funding round, the company had raised over $200 million from a host of investors.

WeRide vehicle. Photo credit: WeRide

WeRide’s fresh $200 million raise from Yutong adds to the cohort of established automakers that have bet huge sums on younger autonomous driving startups both in China and abroad. 

Established automakers usually have lots of cash and expertise to help guide younger companies tackling the automotive space and in many cases have poured huge amounts into and secured strategic partnerships with self-driving startups.

With WeRide’s new funding round, the company has now raised over $400 million in just three years of existence. The valuation that came with the new round isn’t disclosed.

Photo: Li Zhang, COO, WeRide.ai by RISEConf is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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