In Series D financing, it raised 4.3 billion yuan. Middle Eastern tycoons are eyeing Chinese driverless vehicles.

This investment from the Middle East is equivalent to a strategic investment. Neolix has planned to make the UAE its first stop for overseas expansion.

On October 23rd, Neolix, an autonomous vehicle company, announced the completion of over $600 million in Series D financing. This round of financing was led by Stone Venture from the UAE, and co - led by well - known investment institutions such as Gaocheng Capital, Xinchen Capital, CDH VGC, Chaoxi Capital, Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, and a large Internet company. Other important investors include Legend Capital, GaoRong Capital, Shanshui Capital, Hengxu Capital, Yizhuang Science and Technology Innovation Phase II Fund, Huatai Tianfu Digital Intelligence Fund, etc. Old shareholders like Yunqi Capital also continued to increase their investment in this round.

In terms of the amount, this round of financing is the largest private equity financing in China's autonomous driving field to date and is also one of the largest private equity financings in China this year. At the beginning of this year, the company also officially announced a 1 - billion - yuan Series C+ financing, jointly funded by several logistics giants and financial investors such as CICC Capital. Although the valuation was not disclosed, based on the financing amount, it is a certainty that Neolix has joined the ranks of unicorns.

Notably, the leading investor in this round, Stone Venture from the UAE, is an investment institution headquartered in Dubai. This investment from the Middle East is equivalent to a strategic investment. Neolix has planned to make the UAE its first stop for overseas expansion.

"Neolix has obtained the world's first officially issued license for autonomous vehicles on public roads in the UAE. We will make the Middle East and the UAE our first stop for overseas expansion, build it into a bridgehead for overseas expansion, and then extend to the Belt and Road Initiative regions and other areas," revealed Yu Enyuan, the founder of Neolix, at a media communication meeting.

While disclosing the financing, Neolix also announced key progress in autonomous driving technology. Its self - developed L4 - level map - free autonomous driving technology solution has started commercial delivery and is being applied on a small scale. This makes Neolix the first company in the unmanned delivery industry to deliver a map - free technology solution.

Unmanned delivery is the first sub - field in the autonomous driving track to leap from small - scale demonstration to large - scale commercial use. In Yu Enyuan's view, at this stage, the test for the company is no longer a single - point algorithm but a systematic project, including algorithm, computing power, data closed - loop, vehicle scale, driving mileage, scenario coverage, compliance licensing, hardware and software costs, quality control, and operation services. Without any one of these elements, it is difficult to implement. "Many investors have been following the entire track for more than a year and finally voted for us because they saw that we have never wavered in building this complex service system," Yu said.

From Delivering Express to Breaking into Unmanned Driving

Compared with entrepreneurs from the autonomous driving industry, Yu Enyuan's entrepreneurial story is very down - to - earth, starting with personally delivering express parcels.

In 2009, in order to understand the pain points in the logistics industry, he worked as a courier in Changsha, Wuhan, and Shenzhen for three months. He finished work at 11 p.m., then hand - wrote waybills until 1 a.m., and continued to deliver parcels at 6 a.m. This experience led him to develop the first express - dedicated PDA in China and one of the earliest express delivery cabinets. The annual turnover reached hundreds of millions of yuan, and the profit was tens of millions of yuan.

The turning point occurred in 2016. When AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol, Yu Enyuan realized that the ceiling in the hardware field was limited, and artificial intelligence might bring about huge changes to the logistics and delivery industry. Sensing the opportunity, in July 2018, Yu Enyuan officially founded Neolix, positioning it as "an OEM for unmanned vehicles in the logistics field."

In the early days of entrepreneurship, the Neolix team was cramped in a shabby room in Beijing's Yizhuang area, focusing on developing the first low - speed unmanned vehicle, the SLV10. By the end of 2018, Neolix was running out of cash. Yu Enyuan met with sixty or seventy institutions intensively. "I had to spend two hours explaining what a Neolix unmanned vehicle was, and then the investors would shake their heads and leave." The most pessimistic prediction was that "it would be good if we could sell 500 vehicles nationwide." Helplessly, he mortgaged his own property to get a bank loan.

Fortunately, Yu Enyuan and the company have survived the most difficult times. Since its establishment in 2018, Neolix has achieved several milestones:

The cumulative delivery of L4 autonomous vehicles has exceeded 10,000, making it the world's first L4 - level fleet to reach this milestone;

The monthly delivery of vehicles has exceeded 2,000, making it the world's first autonomous driving company to achieve this feat;

Over 1,200 vehicles have been deployed in Qingdao, helping the city become the one with the most unmanned vehicles in the world;

The cumulative delivery of both the X3 and X6 models has exceeded 4,000, making it the only company in the industry to achieve large - scale delivery of multiple best - selling models;

The number of cities where vehicles are deployed has exceeded 300, making it the autonomous driving company with the widest global city coverage;

The cumulative L4 autonomous driving mileage of unmanned vehicles has exceeded 50 million kilometers, leading the industry.

The unmanned vehicle field has now entered the commercialization stage. Li Ziyi, the CFO of Neolix, revealed that the company's revenue scale will reach the level of 1 billion yuan this year. It has achieved consecutive monthly profits in the first half of the year and is expected to achieve full - year profitability next year. "From the perspective of L4 autonomous driving, robotics, or embodied intelligence, unmanned vehicles are very likely to be the first sub - field to achieve large - scale commercial use and positive profitability," Yu Enyuan once said.

Unmanned Vehicles Race for IPO

The development of unmanned logistics vehicles benefits from the continuous maturity of autonomous driving technology, especially L4 - level and above autonomous driving technology, which has laid the foundation for the commercial operation of unmanned vehicle delivery.

Among the followers on the path blazed by Neolix, Jiushi Intelligence and White Rhino stand out. These leading companies have entered the financing rounds after Series B and are not far from IPO.

The core team of Jiushi Intelligence includes founder and CEO Kong Qi, co - founders Zhu Weicheng and Zhuang Li, who were the founding members of JD.com's unmanned vehicle project. The company was established in Suzhou in August 2021, positioning itself as a "full - chain L4 urban distribution logistics solution provider," with an integrated layout of algorithms, wire - controlled chassis, vehicle manufacturing, and after - sales systems. In terms of achievements, as of September 2025, Jiushi Intelligence has cumulatively delivered and operated over 10,000 unmanned vehicles, with a total safe driving mileage of over 50 million kilometers and a cumulative order delivery volume of over 1 billion. In 2025, the company officially announced nearly $300 million in Series B financing and $100 million in Series B+ financing, with investors including CDH Baifu, Blue Lake Capital, Ant Group, BV Baidu Ventures, etc.

White Rhino was founded in March 2019 by Zhu Lei, the former head of Baidu's L4 system integration, and Xia Tian, the former chief architect. The company is positioned in L4 unmanned delivery on urban public roads, using the "BEV + Transformer + end - to - end" technology stack and self - developing full - stack modules for perception, decision - making, and scheduling. It is deeply bound to Xinyuan Automobile in terms of hardware. In terms of financing, the company completed a total of 500 million yuan in Series B+ financing in May this year. Among them, SF Express has invested three times within a year. White Rhino plans to achieve a daily active vehicle count of 5,000 in 2026 and start the platform - based development of vehicle - grade unmanned vehicles.

According to statistics from Qianzhan Research Institute, the total incremental output value of China's unmanned logistics vehicle industry has reached 594.8 billion yuan. In other words, this is a sufficiently broad market. In addition to startups, large companies, especially Internet companies like Baidu Apollo, have made significant progress in algorithm optimization and sensor cost control. Logistics companies have the most urgent demand for unmanned driving technology. JD Logistics has put more than 700 intelligent delivery vehicles into operation in 30 cities across the country. Traditional automakers such as SAIC, GAC, and BYD are also actively deploying in this field.

"When we entered this industry in 2018, it was like entering a desolate area alone, and we were the only player in the unmanned delivery field. Today, we are honored that so many investors are optimistic about us when we announce the completion of Series D financing. This represents that the unmanned vehicle track has officially become a promising track. This is the result of our seven - year efforts. We also see many other companies entering this track, and we hope that everyone can work together to expand the scale of this track," Yu Enyuan said.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Dongshisi Tiao Capital" (ID: DsstCapital), author: Liu Yanqiu, published by 36Kr with authorization.