Chinese self-driving startup Neolix closes B round financing led by SoftBank Ventures Asia

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Neolix Autonomous Vehicle (called Neolix for short), a driverless delivery vehicle startup in China, has raised hundreds of millions of yuan in the series B fundraising, the company announced on August 18.

Neolix testing driverless delivery car in Beijing; photo credit: Neolix

The fresh financing round was co-led by China Capital Investment Group and SoftBank Ventures Asia. Existing shareholders Yunqi Capital and Glory Ventures also took part in the funding round.

“With the Neolix team's outstanding skills in innovation and software & hardware R&D, we are confident of their ability to expand into more business and social sectors as well as across global markets,” Likun Liu, managing director of SoftBank Ventures Asia, said in a statement announcing the investment.

Since the foundation in Feb. 2018, the startup has developed its third-generation self-driving cars and extended its road tests to open roads from geo-fenced industrial parks. According to the startup, it has so far deployed nearly 1,000 driverless cars in 30 cities worldwide across 9 countries globally, completing over 1.3 million kilometers of safe journey. Some retail and food chains, such as Pizza Hut and KFC, use its vehicles for delivery.

In May 2021, Neolix was given the permit by Beijing's authority to test unmanned delivery vehicles in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, a government-developed zone in the southern part of the city known as E-Town. The company said it expects to build the world's first mobile service network with over 1,000 self-driving cars at the end of 2021.