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Miguel Cordon · · 1 min readChinese EV maker WM Motor banks $1.47b in series D money
“Chinese electric vehicle startup WM Motor just pocketed an outsize investment to fuel growth in a competitive landscape increasingly coveted by foreign rival Tesla. The five-year-old company raised 10 billion yuan (US$1.47 billion) in a series D round, it announced on Tuesday, which will pay for research and development, branding, marketing, and expansion of its sales channel,” TechCrunch reported.
Prior to the funding round, WM Motor had announced its roadmap for the next three to five years, which includes setting aside 20 billion yuan (US$2.95 billion) to focus on next-generation auto technologies. Some of these are 5G-enabled smart cockpits and Level 4 driving automation, which requires no driver attention for safety.
The company also recently announced its key partners and suppliers moving forward, such as Qualcomm for its cockpit computer chips and Baidu for its Apollo autonomous driving system.
Founded by automotive expert Freeman Shen in 2015, WM Motor has become one of the most funded EV companies in China. It sits alongside Nio, Li Auto, and Xpeng, all of which have gone public in the US.
Another well-funded startup is Byton, a Nanjing-based EV maker that raised over US$500 million in its series B round in 2018 and has opened R&D centers across Europe, North America, and China.
See Also: Why a Chinese Tesla rival failed to start its multibillion-dollar engine
Editing by September Grace Mahino
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