The company incubated by Baidu in partnership with unicorns has raised another $310 million to pursue a Hong Kong IPO.

On April 21, 2026, DeepWay, an autonomous new energy heavy truck company, announced that it had received a large additional investment in its Pre-IPO round. The total funds raised in this round exceeded $310 million, setting a record for the largest single-round financing in the heavy truck autonomous driving industry in the past five years.

The new round of financing was led by Stone Venture from the UAE, with participation from well-known Australian pension fund NGS Super and Xiamen Guosheng Fund. Existing shareholders such as ABC Impact under Singapore's Temasek and Nanjing Ronghe Venture Capital also continued to increase their investment.

The highlight of this financing lies not only in the amount but also in the lineup of investors. It is rare to see Middle Eastern capital, Australian pension funds, Singaporean impact funds, Chinese local state-owned assets, and industrial capital participating in the same round of financing.

So far, this company, co-founded by unicorn company Lionbridge Group and Baidu, which submitted its prospectus just five years after its establishment, has assembled an investment map covering major global capital types.

I. Founding Background: The "Marriage" of a Logistics Veteran and an Internet Giant

In July 2020, Baidu and Lionbridge Group jointly initiated the establishment of DeepWay.

Wan Jun, the founder of Lionbridge, serves as the chairman and CEO, and Tian Shan, the technical leader, was previously in charge of Baidu's commercial vehicle autonomous driving business.

The relationship between the two parties can be traced back to 2018 -

Baidu made a strategic investment of 1 billion yuan in Lionbridge Group and then jointly explored the implementation of autonomous driving in the logistics and transportation field.

Wan Jun has been deeply involved in the logistics industry for many years. The Lionbridge Group he founded is one of the largest truck financing companies in China, deeply involved in the operation scenarios of more than 140,000 truck drivers, and has accumulated unique risk control models and industry data barriers.

Wan Jun pointed out in a public sharing that even if logistics practitioners make extreme efforts, the profit margin is still meager. According to his analysis, in the cost structure of traditional trunk transportation, fuel expenditure accounts for about 40%, and labor costs account for 20% - 30%. These two items constitute the largest cost ballast.

His solution is to first reduce fuel costs through electrification and then gradually reduce labor dependence through intelligence and autonomous driving.

At the early stage of its establishment, the company obtained the authorization of Baidu's autonomous driving technology in the commercial vehicle field and was able to conduct in-depth self - research based on its open - source code, and carried out special optimization for heavy trucks in scenarios such as high - speed cruising and stable cornering control.

II. Financing History: A Rare Global Capital Map

From the angel round in 2020 to the Pre - IPO round in 2026, DeepWay completed at least seven rounds of large - scale financing in less than six years. The rich types of investors are extremely rare in the domestic autonomous driving track.

*The financing history of DeepWay, sourced from IT Juzi

Local government guidance funds and state - owned assets are one of the most prominent features in DeepWay's financing map.

From the coordinated investment of provincial, municipal, and county - level state - owned assets in Anhui (Hefei Industrial Investment, Feixi Industrial Investment, Zhong'an Capital), to Shandong state - owned assets (Shandong State - owned Assets Investment), Zhejiang Changxing (Changxing Chuangqiang Fund), Fujian Xiamen (Xiamen Guosheng Fund), and then to the Greater Bay Area Fund, local state - owned assets have almost run through the middle and late stages of the company's development.

State - owned and central enterprise industrial investment has also been deeply involved. Weiqiao Pioneering Group and its subsidiary Weiqiao Guoke Science and Technology Innovation, China Electronics Fund, Bank of Communications International, etc., represent the bets of traditional manufacturing giants and financial central enterprises on the new energy heavy truck track.

Among the Internet CVC giants, Baidu, as a founding shareholder, holds 17.28% of the shares (according to the prospectus), and Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group has continuously followed the investment from the A round to the Pre - IPO round, demonstrating the long - term optimism of industrial capital towards the intelligent commercial vehicle track.

Among top - tier investment institutions, the continuous investment from first - tier VC/PE such as Qiming Venture Partners, SoftBank China Capital, Puhua Capital, Huagai Capital, and Hongshan Capital verifies the capital market's recognition of the company's technical route and business closed - loop.

The intensive entry of overseas funds is the biggest highlight of this round of financing.

Stone Venture from the UAE is the first Middle Eastern capital to enter the Chinese heavy truck autonomous driving track; Australian NGS Super, as a pension fund, has entered the market as "patient capital"; ABC Impact under Singapore's Temasek has continuously increased its investment since the A+ round.

The three major foreign investments cover the core markets in the Middle East, Australia, Southeast Asia, and the Asia - Pacific region, forming a complementary global strategic resource matrix.

III. Core Business: The Positively Defined "Unmanned Freight Robot"

DeepWay is not simply positioned as a "new energy heavy truck manufacturer" but as an autonomous driving technology company aiming at the end - game. Its core technical route is to define the vehicle positively - that is, to design the whole vehicle from scratch based on the needs of autonomous driving, rather than converting a traditional fuel chassis from fuel to electricity.

When converting traditional fuel heavy trucks into electric models, there are often structural defects such as a high center of gravity, the cargo box space being occupied by batteries, and the difficulty of integrating intelligent driving systems.

DeepWay chose to design the chassis architecture from scratch, put forward the wire - control requirements of autonomous driving to the whole - vehicle development stage, and self - developed the battery, motor, and electronic control systems. As a result, it became the first vehicle enterprise in the industry to achieve mass delivery of intelligent new energy heavy trucks.

Currently, the company's business has formed a clear "three - step" path:

Step 1: Electrification and Scale - up. The company has completed the installation of a combined assisted driving system on all vehicles and achieved large - scale delivery, obtaining a stable cash flow through vehicle sales. More importantly, these vehicles put into actual operation continuously generate planning and control data in real - world scenarios, which in turn provide unique materials for the training of autonomous driving models and algorithm iteration, forming a closed - loop where vehicle sales and technological progress promote each other.

Step 2: Intelligent Implementation. The L2 - level combined assisted driving system has been implemented on a large scale and adopts a paid subscription model; the L4 - level intelligent formation vehicle has been mass - produced and offline, obtained autonomous driving test licenses in multiple regions, and carried out cargo - carrying operations in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, etc.

Step 3: Global Unmanned Freight Network. The company has carried out strategic cooperation with six core markets in Thailand, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, and Kazakhstan, becoming the first new - force truck enterprise to complete overseas commercial operations.

IV. On the Eve of IPO: Submitting the Prospectus in Five Years, Rushing to Become the First Smart Heavy Truck Stock on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange

In November 2025, DeepWay submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, only five years after its establishment in 2020. If it successfully goes public, it will become the "first smart heavy truck stock on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange".

Behind the intensive financing in the Pre - IPO round, the capital market's evaluation criteria for DeepWay are changing - from simple technology worship to deep confidence in the business closed - loop ability. The company not only has the technical genes of Baidu Apollo and the logistics scenarios of Lionbridge but also has established a hardware moat by positively defining vehicle manufacturing and proved its commercial feasibility through large - scale delivery.

The funds from this round of financing of over $310 million will be mainly used to promote the R & D of autonomous driving technology and the global commercial implementation of unmanned freight robots.

With the entry of capital from the Middle East, Australia, and Southeast Asia, DeepWay's global strategy is upgrading from simple product exports to expanding the local market with the help of the overseas shareholders' resource network -

In addition to providing funds, these investors will also assist the company in obtaining test licenses, operating qualifications, and business cooperation opportunities in key markets such as the Middle East and Europe and the United States.

Starting from the "marriage" between Baidu and Lionbridge, and assembling a luxurious list of shareholders across state - owned assets, industrial capital, top - tier VCs, and overseas funds from three continents, DeepWay has completed the journey from 0 to the eve of IPO in five years.

At the inflection point when heavy truck autonomous driving is shifting from a technology narrative to profit verification, the capitalization process of this company may be a microcosm of China's hard - tech going global.

This article is from the WeChat official account "IT Juzi" (ID: itjuzi521), author: Judy, published by 36Kr with authorization.