ByteDance, Xiaomi-backed Shunwei Capital invest in autonomous industrial vehicle developer

Beijing (Gasgoo)- China's automated guided industrial vehicle developer, VisionNav Robotics, has completed its C-round of financing with participants including ByteDance, Xiaomi-backed Shunwei Capital, and other major ventures.

photo credit: VisionNav Robotics

Founded in Shenzhen in 2016, VisionNav Robotics focuses on developing industrial vehicles via auto-grade autonomous driving technology, providing flexible crewless freight solutions. The company has received investments from Ivy Capital, Eastern Bell Capital, Lenovo Capital, IDG Capital and a joint venture capital by Unicom and CICC.

VisionNav stated the funds would be put into product R&D, accelerating delivery and application, product team expansion, and expanding the company's global application layout to East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Europe. The company intends to create a collaborative ecosystem with suppliers and distributors.

As of now, VisionNav has delivered almost 150 projects, covering various complex scenarios in different industries. From 2019 to 2021, the company's performance grew nearly ten-fold. In 2021, the company's average single order amount and returned purchase order amount has quadrupled from a year ago.

China's major automaker GAC Group, and e-commerce and logistic mogul JD.com, Suning.com, and Alibaba's Cainiao are clients of VisionNav. International clients to the company include Amway and Tupperware. 

With the rising tide of intelligent manufacturing, demand for crewless industrial vehicles is gradually increasing. According to a domestic association, the Industrial Truck Institution CCMA, in 2020, there were 810,000 new industrial vehicles among the market, with a car parc over 3 million. Another research institute, the GGII's data, showed that 3,500 autonomous industrial vehicles were sold in 2020, surging 50% year on year while still owning less than 1% of the market. The automated industrial vehicle market is of great potential.