Autonomous Driving Logistics Firm Inceptio Technology Secures $188M Financing Round

Autonomous driving truck firm Inceptio Technology announced on Monday it has secured $188 million in B+ round equity financing. Prior to this, the company had obtained a total of $500 million in investments.

The lead investors in the recent round were Sequoia China and Legend Capital, while co-investors were Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited, international large-scale equity fund Cedarlake Capital, and supply chain finance firm WZ Group Industrial Investment. Inceptio’s existing shareholders, Meituan, NIO Capital, Eight Roads Ventures and Broad Vision Funds, also joined the financing round as co-investors.

Founded in April 2018, Inceptio focuses on trunk line logistics scenarios. It adheres to the core strategy of “full-stack self-research + mass production drive + in-depth operation,” and independently conducts R&D for full-stack L3 and L4 autonomous driving technologies. Together with OEM partners, it provides logistics customers with safer and more efficient self-driving trucks and a new generation of self-driving freight networks.

Its full-stack, in-house developed autonomous trucking system, dubbed “Xuanyuan,” includes algorithm software, an on-board computing platform and wire control chassis integration. To meet the needs for autonomous driving of heavy trucks, Inceptio has developed its own algorithms to address associated challenges, including long braking distance, difficult dynamic control and high fuel saving.

In 2019, Inceptio initiated joint front-end mass production development, and integrated its Xuanyuan self-driving system into the latest generation of Chinese truck platforms under strict principles of positive development and functional safety. By the end of 2021, Inceptio realized the mass production of L3 self-driving trucks in cooperation with OEM partners.

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The firm’s most recent round of financing provides Inceptio with the opportunity to further invest in its self-driving truck system, Xuanyuan, to launch more mass production models together with industrial partners, and to accelerate its layout in the field of electrification.

Inceptio has established regular commercial operations on a range of routes with many top industry shippers.