EV innovator WM Motor raises 10 bln yuan for D round financing

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- WM Motor announced on September 22 the completion of its Series D round financing, which raised 10 billion yuan ($1,472,862,000) in total, the highest-ever amount for a single round of fundraising launched by EV startups.

(WM Motor EX6 Plus, photo source: WM Motor)

The latest fundraising was led by the investment platform of SAIC Motor and Shanghai Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and involves such investors as Baidu, SIG, Yangtze River Industry Fund, Suzhou Kunshan Industry Fund, State Development & Investment Corp.,Ltd., Guangzhou Finance Holdings, Sino IC Leasing, Tsinghua Unigroup, Hongta Group and AGILE.

Minmetals Capital and Lighthouse served as the financial advisors for the D round

The proceeds from the financing will be primarily used for the R&D of intelligent technologies, brand construction, digital marketing and sales channel expansion.

The D round is likely to be the last round of financing before WM Motor going public in 2021, said a source briefed on the company's matter.

“The closing of the D round financing indicates that investors are upbeat about the prospect of the intelligent new energy vehicle industry, and highly recognize WM Motor's position as a technology innovation company, its long-term development strategy, outstanding core talent team and industry-leading cutting-edge technologies,” said Freeman Shen Hui, WM Motor's founder, chairman and CEO.

Over the next three to five years, WM Motor will gather 3,000 finest engineers worldwide to rapidly put its forward-looking technologies into the use of mass-produced products and services sitting in mainstream price ranges and manufacture the “Everything Connected” mobility terminals befitting the Chinese-spec users' demands and road conditions.

The EV startup ranked 70th on the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2020 TOP 100, sliding 13 places from a year ago, while still topping Chinese EV startups for four consecutive years.