Momenta valuation exceeds $1 billion after completes new round of financing

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- China-based autonomous driving startup Momenta claimed on October 17 that it has closed a new-round financing that made the startup valued at more than $1 billion, according to local media.

The investors mainly are some industry-leading strategic investors, like Tencent, and state-backed entities, such as China Merchants Innovation Investment Management, Guoxin Investment and CCB International. The existing investors NIO Capital and Pagoda Investment still involved in the latest funding.

Momenta announced last year the completion of a Series B1 round of financing led by NIO Capital and a Series B2 funding led by Cathay Innovation Fund and other investors. Its Series A and angel round of fundraising were led by ShunWei Capital and Blue Lake Capital respectively. Up until now, the startup has raised over $200 million in total from all rounds, making it the highest-valued startup in China's autonomous driving industry.

Founded in 2016, Momenta focuses on building the “brain” for autonomous vehicles. Cao Xudong, CEO of Momenta, said that the startup has undergone three phases of construction in the past two years. The Phase 1 is to establish underlying infrastructure on which the second phase will be based. The Phase 2 is to develop the software algorithms for environment perception, HD mapping and positioning as well as driving decision-making and planning. Coming to the Phase 3, the focus lies in developing multi-level autonomous driving solutions for various scenarios such as automatic parking, highways and urban roads, etc.

According relevant reports, Momenta and Suzhou government signed a strategic cooperation agreement in April that allowed the startup to deploy a scale testing fleet with the goal of speeding up the L4 autonomous driving development and helping Suzhou build its smart city. Currently, Momenta has formed partnership with many Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs and is extending businesses outside China.