Image Source : China Visual

BEIJING, August 16 (TMTPOST) -- Shanghai Automotive Group Co., Ltd. (SAIC Group)'s ride-hailing platform SAIC Mobility has announced that it has raised over RMB 1 billion ($147.9 million) in Series B financing, with investments from SAIC Group, domestic self-driving startup Momenta, and Gao Xing Management Consulting, with a post-money valuation of USD 1 billion.

Founded in 2018, SAIC Mobility acquired more than 30 million individual and 2,200 corporate users by the end of 2021, with its online car business covering 41 cities and its B2B service covering 154 cities in China.

Business and capital cooperation between ride-hailing platforms and independent driving companies are becoming more frequent. In April this year, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (GAC group)’ travel platform Ruqi Mobility announced that it completed the Series A financing round, raising over 1 billion yuan ($147.9 million), led by Guangzhou Automobile Group, with the participation of domestic autonomous driving startups such as Pony.ai and Weride.

In May, autonomous driving startup QCraft announced a strategic partnership with T3 Travel, a joint venture between China FAW Group Co., LTD., Dongfeng Motor Group and Changan Automobile, to launch dozens of robotaxis for public operation in Suzhou. 

In August this year, Pony.ai, a Chinese domestic self-driving unicorn start-up, announced that its robotaxi was ready to provide services on Cao Cao Travel Beijing, covering a 60-square-kilometers core area of Yizhuang, the Beijing economic and technological development area, with 250 self-driving pick-up and drop-off stations.

China's Internet giants, including Baidu, Tencent and Huawei, are foraying into the ride-hailing market. In July this year, many WeChat users noticed that WeChat added the "Tencent Travel Service" module to the service bar, which has access to service providers such as Cao Cao Travel and T3 Travel. In the same month, Huawei released the third generation of HarmonyOS 3, which would provide a built-in taxi service called "Petal travel."