GUANGZHOU, China — Chinese language driverless automobile start-up WeRide has raised $310 million in a brand new spherical of funding because it pushes to commercialize its expertise.

Yutong Group, a Chinese language firm that manufactures industrial autos together with electrical buses, lead the funding spherical.

Numerous different new buyers jumped on board whereas present enterprise capital corporations additionally participated.

WeRide didn’t disclose its valuation and declined to remark when contacted by CNBC.

The Guangzhou-based agency is amongst a handful of corporations in China vying to grow to be a pacesetter in driverless automobile expertise. WeRide focuses on constructing the expertise that permits autos to be autonomous reasonably than really manufacturing vehicles.

WeRide’s funding spherical follows a money injection into rival Pony.ai in November which saw the latter’s valuation top $5 billion. Different corporations together with search large Baidu, start-up AutoX and ride-hailing agency Didi, are competing in the identical house.

In a press launch, Tony Han, CEO of WeRide stated the funding and new buyers will give the corporate the “strategic sources to meet the objective of commercializing self-driving expertise.”

In late 2019, WeRide launched a robotaxi challenge in Guangzhou and has since expanded to permit customers to hail a experience by way of Alibaba’s Amap app. The corporate says it is going to launch trial operations for ”Mini Robobuses” on Friday.

WeRide’s CEO Han previously told CNBC that he predicts the large-scale software of robotaxis will happen between 2023 and 2025. He stated that WeRide will start to earn money from the enterprise in 2025.