Chinese self-driving startup WeRide valued at 3.3 bln USD

A woman takes a self-driving taxi at an appointed location on the Daoxianghu Road in Haidian District of Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

SHANGHAI, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese self-driving startup WeRide announced Thursday that it has closed a Series C round of funding, giving it a valuation of 3.3 billion U.S. dollars.

The company did not disclose the exact amount of the latest funding, saying that it was in the hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.

Investors in the round include IDG Capital, CoStone Capital, Cypress Star and K3 Ventures.

Tony Han, founder and CEO of WeRide, said the latest investment in autonomous driving came after the company began the trial operation of a self-driving Robotaxi service in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou and further unveiled its self-driving Mini Robobus.

The startup will expand its team size, continue the research and development and commercialization innovation of autonomous driving technology, and launch large-scale autonomous driving services as soon as possible, Han said.

WeRide is currently conducting autonomous driving tests both in China and the United States. It is working on an upgraded version of its self-driving Robotaxi service and conducting the final verification tests for the launch of its self-driving Mini Robobus service.