Pony.ai Closes First Round of Series D Financing, With $8.5B Valuation
March 6, 2022
Pony.AI, which develops autonomous driving technologies for cars and trucks, has announced it completed its first close of its Series D financing. While details of the funding were not disclosed, the company said it has a significant valuation uplift from the company’s 2020 C and C+ rounds, and now said the valuation of the company is at $8.5 billion.
Pony said proceeds from the funding round will be used to further augment its hiring, investment in research and development, and global testing of robotaxi and robotrucking on an ever-growing fleet. The company said it will also enter into important strategic partnerships and accelerate development toward mass production and mass commercial deployment.
“I am very proud to announce this first close of our Series D,” said James Peng, co-founder and CEO of Pony.ai. “The success of this financing belongs to the entire Pony.ai team, who have made tremendous strides in achieving and exceeding our 2021 milestones. We are excited about our 2022 objectives and the rapid pace of our development toward autonomous mobility globally. Our technical development and balance sheet strength go hand-in-hand in allowing us to significantly expand our hiring in 2022, open up a number of new autonomous vehicle global testing and operation sites, progress our strategic partnerships and rapidly grow our fleet. We appreciate the support of our investors in the previous rounds and welcome our new partners to Pony.ai’s global story.”
The company said additional details of the Series D funding will be announced “in due course at the closing of the full financing round.”
“A key part of our story for our investors is our tech development path,” said Tiancheng Lou, co-founder and CTO at Pony.ai. “From 2020 to the end of 2021, our key safety metrics increased tremendously, such that in most circumstances Pony.ai’s virtual driver is now equal to or superior to a human driver. We’re confident in our autonomous vehicle tech readiness as we rapidly scale toward robotaxi and robotruck commercialization and mass production.”
For more details on Pony.ai and its technologies, visit its website here.
