Chinese chip startup SemiDrive closes 1 billion yuan Series B round

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese automotive SoC (system-on-chip) developer SemiDrive raised nearly 1 billion yuan ($154.238 million) in a Series B funding round, which was co-led by CDB Equipment Manufacturing Industrial Investment Fund and V Fund, the company announced on July 26.

Photo credit: SemiDrive

The newly-closed round also attracted such new investors as BOCI (Bank of China International Limited), Shanghai Sci-Tech Innovation Center Capital, and Zhangjiang Haoheng. Existing shareholders including Matrix Partners China, CTC Capital, Vertex Ventures, and CATL’s Chendao Capital made follow-on investments.

Proceeds from the fresh financing round will be mainly used for the R&D of chips built on more advanced manufacturing process, said SemiDrive.

Founded in 2018, SemiDrive is dedicated to offering the automotive industry high-reliability and high-performance automotive-grade chips, which are applied in smart car cockpits, central gateways, autonomous driving system, and MCUs (microcontroller units). In 2019, the Nanjing-headquartered startup became the first Chinese semiconductor firm to pass the ISO 26262 functional safety management system certification.

SemiDrive launched the 9 Series SoC last year and received 1 million-piece chip order in March 2021 despite the industry-wide chip shortage. In April of this year, the company released the upgraded version for its entire chip lineup. Moreover, at the 2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), SemiDrive announced the launch of the UniDrive autonomous driving platform.

As of today, SemiDrive has formed partnerships with a slew of automakers, tier-1 suppliers and technology developers like FAW Group and China Automotive Innovation Corporation.