Machenike Closes Hundreds of Millions of RMB in Series B Funding | BlueRun Ventures

Recently, BlueRun Ventures portfolio company Machenike announced the completion of a Series B financing round worth several hundred million RMB. This marks Machenike's second funding round this year, following the over-100-million-RMB investment from Saudi Aramco in February, and represents the largest single round the company has raised to date. BlueRun Ventures led Machenike's Pre-A round and also participated in its Series A.

Founded in 2018, Machenike is dedicated to deeply integrating AI with automotive engineering to liberate human drivers and transform the future of transportation. As a full-stack autonomous driving solutions provider, the company boasts fully self-developed automotive-grade autonomous driving computing platforms, complete full-stack software algorithms, and end-to-end system integration capabilities. It delivers customized, high-performance intelligent driving solutions tailored to diverse client needs, enabling full-cycle support for L1-L4 intelligent driving systems.

The proceeds from this round will primarily fund new product R&D and production capacity expansion. While continuing to expand its market share, the company adheres to a "mass-produce one generation, develop the next" product strategy, sustaining investment in new product development to maintain its technological edge.

Meanwhile, Machenike will continue building a world-class production system. Its newly operational Jinshan factory is expected to commence Phase II construction soon, further automating and intelligentizing its production lines to create an industry-leading flexible manufacturing system and extend its first-mover advantage in the intelligent driving mass production race — bolstering the influence of domestic Chinese intelligent driving companies industry-wide.

Machenike at the 2022 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference

Dr. Liu Feilong, Founder and CEO of Machenike, stated: "China's intelligent driving industry currently enjoys unmatched advantages in talent, market scale, and capital. Machenike chose to focus on mass production at the right moment, establishing early-mover advantages and data moats. Going forward, we will persist in our gradualist, mass-production-first approach, leading the transformation of future transportation through technological innovation and commercial practice."

Building on its strong performance in 2021, Machenike achieved substantial gains in 2022 as well. While continuously strengthening R&D across hardware, software, and systems, the company — leveraging superior product performance, industry-leading hardware and software design, robust safety architecture, and responsive, flexible customer service — secured multiple program wins from leading domestic OEMs including SAIC, Great Wall Motor, BYD, Neta, and Chery Automobile, with services spanning software, hardware, and system integration. Particularly in the increasingly competitive integrated driving-parking segment, Machenike has accelerated mass production deployments, successively winning program nominations from several top domestic OEMs for their popular vehicle models.

The pursuit of technological innovation knows no bounds. Machenike will remain committed to a mass-production and data-driven approach, steadily accumulating technical expertise while cautiously exploring the deployment of higher-level autonomous driving. In the future, Machenike will join forces with ecosystem partners and OEM customers to empower transportation through technology, crafting a better new world of mobility for users.

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BlueRun Ventures was established in Silicon Valley in 1998. BlueRun Ventures China was founded in 2005 and is a venture capital firm focused on early-stage startups.

Currently, BlueRun Ventures China manages multiple USD and RMB dual-currency funds with over RMB 15 billion in assets under management, making it one of the largest early-stage funds in China. The firm invests primarily at Pre-A and Series A stages across hard tech and innovative interaction, enterprise technology, new consumer, and healthcare sectors. It has backed more than 150 startups, including Li Auto, Waterdrop, QingCloud, Guazi.com, Qudian, Songguo Chuxing, Ganji.com, Energy Monster, Yuntu Semiconductor, Machenike, CloudSaint Intelligence, Anxin Netshield, and BioMap.

BlueRun Ventures has been ranked #1 on Zero2IPO's "China Top 30 Early-Stage Investment Institutions" and ChinaVenture's "China Best Early-Stage Venture Capital Firms TOP30," and was named among Preqin's Top 10 VC fund managers globally for sustained high returns.

The firm has also received consecutive honors from Forbes China, 36Kr, Cyzone, Caixin Media, CBNweekly, Jiemian, and other media outlets, including "China's Best Early-Stage Firm of the Year," "China Top Venture Capital Firm," "Most Entrepreneur-Friendly Early-Stage Firm of the Year," and "Most Influential Early-Stage Firm of the Year."