Machenike Closes Over 100 Million RMB Series B+ Round | BlueRun Ventures

On September 13, 2023, Machenike, a leading autonomous driving technology company in China, announced the completion of its Series B+ round, raising over RMB 100 million. The round was jointly led by Hefei Industry Investment, Zhongan Capital, and Dianshi Capital, with existing investor Saudi Aramco's Prosperity7 fund making additional follow-on investments. BlueRun Ventures led Machenike's Pre-A round and also participated in its Series A round.

Just this past May, Machenike officially announced the completion of its Series B round of nearly RMB 500 million. Securing recognition and support from top-tier investment institutions merely four months later reflects their confidence in Machenike's autonomous driving technical capabilities and mass production prospects. To date, Machenike's total Series B funding has exceeded RMB 600 million, with investors including Hefei Industry Investment, Zhongan Capital, Dianshi Capital, Saudi Aramco Prosperity7, CITIC Jinshi, Bojiang Capital, CCB Investment, TEDA VC, Chunxin Hongtu, Dingxin Capital, Guolian Securities, and other prominent industrial investors, financial institutions, and top-tier venture capital firms. The proceeds will be used to develop the company's next-generation ADAS advanced driver-assistance systems and high-level autonomous driving solutions, continue strengthening its talent pipeline, conduct forward-looking autonomous driving technology research, and lay a solid foundation for subsequent mass production deployment. Dr. Feilong Liu, Founder and CEO of Machenike, stated: "Machenike is a company built on continuous innovation, consistently committed to developing industry-leading intelligent driving solutions and driving their large-scale mass production. We have already achieved deployment on numerous customer production models, and our goal is to put Machenike's systems into more mass-produced vehicles, safeguarding more people's safety. At this critical juncture for the industry and an important stage for our company's development, we thank all our shareholders for their support and trust in Machenike. With your full backing, we will devote more resources to developing more advanced intelligent driving technologies, serving our customers well, enabling consumers to access more practical intelligent driving features, and contributing to the vigorous growth of China's intelligent driving industry." Machenike continues to develop high-level intelligent driving solutions while deepening its presence in the intelligent driving system mass production sector — reaching for the stars while keeping its feet on the ground.

Over its five years since founding, Machenike has built industry-leading intelligent camera and domain controller solutions based on Horizon Robotics' Journey 2 and Journey 3 chips, deploying them at scale in mass production and earning broad recognition from customers and consumers.

Currently, Machenike has achieved mass production and secured design wins across 30 vehicle models from OEMs including Li Auto, SAIC, Great Wall Motor, Chery Automobile, JAC, BYD, and Hozon, while also establishing project collaborations with internationally leading Tier 1 suppliers to jointly expand overseas markets. The company has progressively broken through with domestic, joint venture, and global automaker customers, with cumulative mass production orders expected to exceed 1 million vehicles.

This year, the company has focused on launching new products including a high cost-performance single-Journey 3 parking-integrated domain controller and single-Journey 3 intelligent camera module, both leading the industry. The single-Journey 3 parking-integrated domain controller is currently the "value king" on the market, enabling low-cost, premium-experience highway navigation-assisted driving through flexible sensor configurations. Moving forward, the company will also pursue mass production cooperation based on Horizon Robotics' new Journey 6 chip.

As a full-stack intelligent driving solution supplier, Machenike also possesses deep expertise in L2+ autonomous driving algorithms, parking algorithms, and ADAS algorithms. It has previously mass-produced highway navigation-assisted driving functions for a leading domestic independent brand automaker, and this year its next-generation parking algorithm has also entered mass production on a star model from a leading domestic new energy vehicle brand. Going forward, Machenike will work with more partners to jointly promote the mass production deployment of higher-level intelligent driving algorithms.

At the 2023 Shanghai International Auto Show, Machenike also made a major announcement unveiling its high-level intelligent driving system solution based on new-generation BEV perception technology. Leveraging high-compute chips from internationally leading suppliers combined with its self-developed, more advanced software algorithm capabilities, the solution achieves a "perception-heavy, map-light" intelligent driving approach. Building on its BEV 4D perception capabilities, Machenike has also reached a strategic partnership with NVIDIA to jointly launch a ground-truth system.

As foundational infrastructure for intelligent driving, Machenike is actively building out its data closed-loop cloud platform to enable a data-driven positive cycle for intelligent driving, continuously improving software algorithm capabilities and intelligent driving system experience to better serve its broad base of mass production customers.

On the partnership front, Machenike has established strategic collaborations with leading intelligent driving industry chain companies including NVIDIA, Horizon Robotics, Tencent, SemiDrive, Ambarella, Lianyou Technology, and Marelli, with more new products, technologies, and solutions to be unveiled going forward. In the future, Machenike's intelligent driving systems will safeguard safer, more convenient travel for an ever-wider range of consumers.

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Originating in Silicon Valley, BlueRun Ventures was established in 2005 as a venture capital firm focused on early-stage startups.

Currently, BlueRun Ventures manages multiple USD and RMB dual-currency funds in China, with assets under management exceeding RMB 15 billion, making it one of the largest early-stage funds domestically. The firm invests primarily at Pre-A and Series A stages, covering technology, consumer, and healthcare sectors. It has cumulatively invested in nearly 200 startup companies, including Li Auto, Waterdrop, QingCloud, Guazi.com, Qudian, Ganji.com, Energy Monster, Gaussian Robotics, Songguo Mobility, Yuntu Semiconductor, Machenike, CloudSaints Intelligence, Anxinnet Shield, and BioMap.

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

Additionally, BlueRun Ventures has received consecutive year-over-year recognition from Forbes China, 36Kr, Cyzone, Caixin Media, CBNweekly, Jiemian, and other media organizations as "China's Best Early-Stage Firm of the Year," "China's Top-Tier Venture Capital Institution," "Early-Stage Firm Most Welcomed by Entrepreneurs," and "Most Influential Early-Stage Institution of the Year."