China’s NavInfo banks 4 billion yuan from new non-public share issuance

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- NavInfo, a leader in China's navigation map market, said on Feb. 22 it has completed the non-public issuance of 32 million A shares, which will become available for trading on Shenzhen Stock Exchange from Feb. 25, 2021.

Photo credit: NavInfo

As of Feb. 2, 2021, NavInfo had raised 4 billion yuan ($619.32 million) from 16 investors who subscribed for the aforementioned A shares, said the company. The proceeds will support NavInfo in the innovation and commercialization of such technical products as auto-related chips, maps for autonomous driving and cloud-based platform.

Founded in 2002, NavInfo is committed to powering the development of future smart mobility services with its core technologies and products like system solutions for autonomous driving, HD maps, high-precision positioning, cloud-based service platform as well as automotive-grade chips used in ADAS and autonomous driving systems. The newly-raised proceeds will be mainly used for the R&D of ICV (intelligent-connected vehicle)-related chips, the upgrade and development of self-driving map applications, and the construction of cloud-based platform dedicated to autonomous driving.

As for the ICV-related chip project, the proceeds will be employed to shore up the R&D, market introduction and mass production of relevant chips, especially for the large-sized SoC (System on a Chip) targeting various markets, such as the smart cockpit chips, visual processing chips and IoV (Internet of Vehicles) chips.

Regarding the map update and development, NavInfo will use the capital to develop the OneMap application that integrates conventional navigation maps with HD maps by leveraging its self-collected, crowdsourcing data and the data from partners, as well as its AI capability and cloud-based charting toolchain.

Through the cloud-enabled platform dedicated to autonomous driving, the company will make use of its accumulations of technologies, data and algorithm in autonomous driving field to strengthen its service capabilities in autonomous driving data, labelling modeling and simulation, so as to help automakers and partners rapidly develop autonomous cars.