Valuation at $10 Billion: CATL's New Company Launches Debut Fundraising

Reporters learned that Times Intelligence will complete its first-round financing. According to people familiar with the matter, this financing is led by well-known market-oriented investment institutions, supported by new energy industry capital and state-owned capital, and the post-investment valuation will exceed 10 billion yuan.

After entering the second half of the year, new actions related to "Robotaxi" have begun to appear frequently, with licenses, financing, cooperation, etc. becoming the key words.

On July 28, reporters learned that Times Intelligence will complete its first-round financing. According to people familiar with the matter, this financing is led by well-known market-oriented investment institutions, supported by new energy industry capital and state-owned capital, and the post-investment valuation will exceed 10 billion yuan. After the mass production of its first skateboard chassis model in 2024, subsequent models will be launched intensively from 2026 to 2027. "The funds from this round of financing will be used for the mass production of its skateboard chassis project models and the R & D of new technologies for new scenarios such as RoboX," a person familiar with the matter revealed.

As a subsidiary of CATL specializing in skateboard chassis, Times Intelligence has been taking continuous actions recently. Earlier this month, Times Intelligence signed a strategic cooperation agreement with T3 Mobility, and the two sides will jointly promote the development of Robotaxi based on CATL's Panshi skateboard chassis platform. It is reported that the Panshi chassis can provide a standardized hardware platform and adaptation interfaces for intelligent driving systems, which will greatly simplify the entire process from the design and R & D of Robotaxi to mass production and manufacturing.

On the same day when Times Intelligence's first fundraising plan was exposed, WeRide, an autonomous driving technology company, announced that its Robotaxi had obtained the first autonomous driving license in Saudi Arabia. So far, WeRide's products have obtained autonomous driving licenses in six countries, including Saudi Arabia, China, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, France, and the United States.

Expanding overseas markets through diversified forms has become an important development direction for leading domestic Robotaxi enterprises in recent years, and the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, etc. are popular choices. "Obtaining the Robotaxi autonomous driving license in Saudi Arabia is an important progress in WeRide's global expansion, which enables us to promote Robotaxi services locally, unlock new business opportunities, and will promote the large-scale deployment of WeRide's Robotaxi and open up new revenue channels," said Li Xuan, CFO and international head of WeRide.

At the just-concluded WAIC2025, "Robotaxi" also became a core keyword. On July 26, a new batch of demonstration operation licenses for intelligent connected vehicles were issued in Shanghai, and companies such as PonyEasy Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Baidu Intelligent Driving Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., and Saike Intelligent Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. became the first batch of approved enterprises. Among them, Pony.ai will cooperate with Jinjiang Taxi under the Shanghai Jinjiang Group to gradually open autonomous driving travel services to the public starting from the core areas of Jinqiao and Huamu in Pudong. Passengers can call a Robotaxi with one click within the relevant operation scope.

Data shows that with the opening of the third batch of autonomous driving test roads in Pudong New Area, the cumulative mileage of test roads opened in Shanghai has exceeded 2,700 kilometers, covering the central urban area including part of the inner ring.

Some institutions predict that the global Robotaxi market scale will exceed 834.9 billion yuan by 2030. The promising prospect of this trillion-level travel market is directly related to the development trend of the Chinese Robotaxi market. The latest report from TrendForce predicts that the scale of the Chinese Robotaxi market will reach 44.5 billion US dollars by 2035, with a CAGR of up to 96% from 2025 to 2035.

"In the current Robotaxi field, although enterprises represented by Tesla have some leading advantages, the accumulation of Chinese autonomous driving enterprises in terms of technical strength and operational experience will become their core advantages," an industry insider analyzed. In the future, the competition in the global Robotaxi market will become more intense, and cooperation in the ecological field and integration of the industrial chain may become the key for enterprises to accelerate the scale-up.

Special statement: The content of this article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. Investors shall bear the risks themselves if they operate based on this.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Venture Capital Daily", author: Zhang Yipeng, published by 36Kr with authorization.