Zongmu Technology has stopped paying social insurance for its employees. CEO Tang Rui: Exploring the possibility of being acquired.

Written by Li Anqi

Edited by Li Qin

At 4 p.m. on January 26, Tang Rui, the CEO of Autonomous Driving Company Zongmu Technology, spoke for 10 minutes at the all-staff meeting and then hurriedly went offline.

Tang Rui did not give employees the opportunity to ask questions. Two days ago, Zongmu Technology employees told 36Kr Auto that they found that the company's wage arrears had escalated again, and employees could not even receive the minimum wage for December 2024, and social insurance and provident fund had also been discontinued.

Earlier, from October to November last year, Tang Rui proposed that the company enter the "low-power mode" internally. All employees could only receive the minimum wage, with a ceiling of 10,000 yuan, and the provident fund and social insurance would be paid. The salary for the current month would be delayed until the 25th of the following month. "Now there's nothing left."

Zongmu employees told 36Kr Auto that at the all-staff meeting on the 26th, Tang Rui said that the company has been in contact with a listed company in Ningbo for business merger and acquisition matters, but the acquirer still needs 1 - 2 months after the Spring Festival to complete the project due diligence and asset evaluation. "The company intends to sell the intelligent driving parking business, but retains the mobile charging robot business."

At the same time, Tang Rui said that he is still promoting the financing matters of the old shareholders, but unfortunately, he failed to introduce a sum of money to solve the employees' social insurance problem before the Spring Festival.

He said that if the transaction with the listed company is successfully completed in the future, perhaps the company still has the possibility of survival, or perhaps not. "We hope to be able to maintain the business in the smallest way, so as not to immediately enter liquidation, because the substantive consequence of liquidation is that all business activities cannot be carried out."

Tang Rui said at the all-staff meeting that the company's account has now been sealed, and even if there is a partial remittance, it is impossible to pay social insurance for employees. He suggested that if you want to keep the social insurance and provident fund from being discontinued, the only possible way is to resign first and then make up the payment as soon as possible.

According to 36Kr Auto, among the employees who are owed wages, there are many engineers who are burdened with rent and mortgage loans, female colleagues who are pregnant, and resigned employees who have taken the salary certificate as an "IOU". Currently, some employees have initiated an arbitration process against Zongmu Technology.

Tang Rui is a Chinese American who founded Zongmu Technology in 2013. Zongmu has been focusing on the field of Surround View Assist Driving Algorithm and Software, and it took two years to achieve the mass production and delivery of products. In addition, Zongmu has three factories with the ability to produce domain control hardware. In the Intelligent Driving Parking Segment, Zongmu Technology's industry recognition is not low.

Since 2016, among the automotive customers of Zongmu Technology, the figures of automotive companies such as Geely Boyue have begun to appear. The prospectus submitted by Zongmu shows that by 2023, Li Auto, SERES, Changan Automobile, VOYAH, and FAW are its customers.

At the capital market level, Zongmu's financing progress has also been relatively smooth. From 2015 to 2022, Zongmu Technology completed financing from Round A to Round E, and the investors include institutions such as Lenovo and Xiaomi Investment, and its valuation once exceeded 9 billion yuan.

Some employees told 36Kr that as an intelligent driving parking solution provider, Zongmu actually has good competitiveness, the parking technology can be implemented, and the engineering experience is also sufficient. "When we make deliveries, we can be more competitive than other suppliers."

However, some senior Zongmu employees have found that since 2023, the company's large customer orders have been continuously lost. For example, for the AITO brand under SERES, the parking solutions for the early AITO M5 and M7 models were done by Zongmu, but as the intelligent vehicle selection cooperation model between Huawei and AITO deepened, AITO's intelligent driving has been fully switched to Huawei.

At present, Zongmu only has a few large customers left, such as Changan Automobile, and some of Changan's models such as Avatr, Deepal, and Qiyuan are using Zongmu's parking solutions.

However, some employees told 36Kr Auto that Changan Automobile's project is also not stable. The technical development work has been completed long ago, and now only some vehicle model adaptations or subsequent maintenance work are left. "The project itself also has a B-point supplier, and in addition, Changan is also developing its own intelligent driving, and it may also switch to its own research and development solution in the future."

The encounter of Zongmu Technology can, to some extent, be said to be a microcosm of the fate of intelligent driving companies with low technical thresholds. As intelligent driving is increasingly approaching AI and large models, its strategic position is becoming more prominent, and the proportion of automotive companies developing their own intelligent driving will also be higher and higher. Some intelligent driving suppliers' original market solutions will inevitably be squeezed.

And the entry of giant automotive companies also tests the technical evolution speed and resource barriers of intelligent driving technology companies. Only if intelligent driving technology companies run fast enough can they not be swallowed by automotive companies.

For example, under the battles of urban NOA, "end - to - end", and "parking space to parking space" among players such as Huawei and "NIO, Xpeng, and Li Auto", the leading intelligent driving suppliers are also frantically rolling out product technology points.

But in the view of Zongmu Technology employees, the company's parking technology stack seems to have stagnated around 2022, "always relying on the old capital".

Some employees told 36Kr Auto that the company also has an integrated driving and parking solution, but it is basically a joint project with an intelligent driving company that focuses on driving. "Someone previously proposed to do high - level intelligent driving, but it was rejected by Tang Rui."

Perhaps because the competition is too fierce, at the fork in the road of technological upgrading, the management of Zongmu Technology did not choose to get involved in high - level intelligent driving, but chose another path - autonomous driving charging robots.

Several Zongmu employees told 36Kr Auto that in the second half of 2023, the company began to tilt resources towards the robot business, with as many as 300 business personnel, and business deployments both at home and abroad. According to official information, this robot is an L4 - level autonomous driving new energy robot that can provide intelligent charging services for new energy vehicles in closed venues such as parks and parking lots.

In April last year, Zongmu deployed 100 charging robots in Shanghai Disneyland Resort. The official plan is to achieve the deployment of mobile charging service in 5,000 large parking lots in first - tier cities this year.

"The top management may think that there is a good profit model in the mobile charging field. On the other hand, they also want to run the L4 autonomous driving technology stack through charging small vehicles and then migrate it to the passenger vehicle field." An employee said.

However, some employees believe that the low - speed robots landed in the park are far from the intelligent driving technology required by passenger vehicles.

Many employees point to the autonomous driving charging robot business as the source of the company's continuous losses and capital rupture. Employees said that the charging robot carries a battery pack of more than 100 degrees per vehicle, plus the chassis, etc., and the vehicle cost can reach about 150,000 yuan, and a large amount of capital is required for large - scale production; in addition, when exploring the landing and operation of the robot, Zongmu sometimes uses it for free for the scene party, which may also increase the capital pressure.

At present, CEO Tang Rui's focus is mainly on the charging robot field, while Co - CEO Zhang Shuang is mainly responsible for the intelligent driving parking business.

Previously, Tang Rui once said internally that the intelligent driving parking business is seeking merger and acquisition matters, and the robot business will still be retained. "The mentality of most employees should be to hope that this matter is true, as this is the only possibility for employees to get their unpaid wages."