Hesai Technology Raises D Round of Financing Exceeding $370 Million, Investors Include Xiaomi

On Tuesday, 3D-sensors (LiDAR) manufacturer Hesai Technology announced that it has received additional financing of $70 million from Hubei Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Investment Fund Management. The current D round of financing has exceeded $370 million, led by Xiaomi Group, GL Ventures, Meituan and CPE.

According to the information previously released by the company, this round of financing will be used to support the mass production of hybrid solid-state lidar, the construction of a smart manufacturing center, and the R&D of auto-grade high-performance lidar chips.

According to the announcement, Hesai Technology will also release a new product in the second half of the year, namely the auto-grade hybrid solid-state lidar AT128. The firm unveiled that this product has received orders of over one million from many major automakers such as Li Auto and Jidu Automobile, and is expected to be delivered in mass production in 2022.

Hesai Technology was founded in Shanghai, China in 2014. It has applied for patents all over the world, with customers across more than 70 cities in 30 countries.

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The firm has accumulated more than $500 million in financing from Bosch, Xiaomi, Hillhouse Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Baidu and Qiming Venture Partners.

In January this year, Hesai Technology tried to carry out an IPO at the Shanghai Sci-Tech Innovation Board (STAR Market), but withdrew its application about two months after submitting its prospectus. According to the prospectus disclosed in January, Hesai Technology plans to raise 2 billion yuan ($313.57 million). Of this sum, 1.2 billion yuan is planned to be used for the smart manufacturing center, 650 million yuan will be used for a lidar chip project, and 150 million yuan would be invested in the R&D of lidar algorithms.