Tencent Invests in Round B of Financing for ICV Technology Firm Ingeek
Recently, Ingeek, a Chinese supplier of intelligent and connected vehicles (ICVs) systems, announced the completion of a B round of financing worth several hundred million yuan. This round of financing was jointly led by Tencent and PICC, and followed by CMBC International, Bojiang Capital and Fargo Capital.
Founded in 2008, Ingeek is a technological innovation company providing network information security services. Before the massive development of the ICV industry, Ingeek’s main service clients were from the finance and communication industries in addition to government agencies.
With the transformation of automobile intelligence and connected vehicles in China, the company saw the need for better safety standards and implementations. As a result, since 2016, Ingeek has moved away from the traditional information security business to the safety-based ICV business.
Owing to the company’s experience with the information security business, the firm has successfully deployed technologies in the financial field, such as online banking public key infrastructure (PKI), and to the automotive field, helping car providers to build an ICV security base. With safety in mind, Ingeek has created a car networking product called the Ingeek digital key, to connect people and their automobiles. The product has seen successful implementation in a variety of circumstances including the cloud, mobile phones, vehicles and all kinds of near-field and remote communication processes.
In March 2019, GAC’s new energy vehicle Aion, equipped with the first generation of the Bluetooth digital key developed by Ingeek and GAC Motor, was mass-produced and launched. Shan Hongyin, co-founder and CEO of Ingeek, spoke about the company’s growth potential: “In 2021, there were more than 400,000 vehicles equipped with Ingeek digital keys, and it is estimated that the number will exceed one million in 2022.”
Ingeek has developed the Intelligent Connection System (ICS) for Networking 3.0 which will see the integration of cross-chip platforms and different communication technologies.
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The investment money provided by Tencent and PICC will also help the company seek more development opportunities. It is expected that Tencent and Ingeek will jointly launch an official mini program “My Car Keys” this year, through which users can control their vehicles via a mini program.
