Singulato Motors Completes New Round of Funding Close to $100 Million

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Singulato Motors received a capital injection from Japan’s Itochu Corp amounting to nearly $100 million on October 12, according to Reuters.

Following the completion of this round of funding, the Japanese trading company is able to lift its stake to about 7%, making it the second largest shareholder of Singulato, right behind the Chinese EV’s founder Shen Haijun.

Singulato could receive an additional “few hundreds of millions of dollars” from Itochu if the Chinese startup meets certain conditions, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

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To receive the potential extra funding, Singulato would have to speed up development of its first model, a fully electric sport-utility vehicle called the iS6, and make proper preparations for an IPO, one of the people said.

A Tokyo-based spokesperson said the Japanese company had recently made an additional investment in Singulato, but declined to specify the amount except to say it was a minor investment.

Previously, the total funding of Singulato exceeded 17 billion yuan (~$2.4 billion). The company’s investors include Legend Star, Till Capital, Intel Capital, GX capital and other major financial and strategic investors.

Singulato Motors is the new energy vehicle brand of Chi Che-hung Technology Co., Ltd. The company was founded in December 2014, in Beijing, as an internet company to produce premium Chinese new energy vehicles.