Participated · Equity · Nov 2020

Inceptio Technology is a Shanghai-based autonomous driving truck technology and operating company. It develops a self-developed full-stack autonomous driving system called Xuanyuan for heavy-duty trucks. Since 2019 the company and Chinese OEMs have jointly developed a line of mass-produced autonomous heavy-duty trucks. Inceptio has built an autonomous driving freight network used by top-tier shippers and fleets in China. The company intends to use new funds to accelerate Xuanyuan's development and to speed up deployment in electrification. The article reports a US$270m Series B equity financing to support product development and deployment. Inceptio Technology develops full-stack autonomous driving systems for heavy-duty trucks and operates a “Technology + Operations” business model. Founded in April 2018 by Julian Ma, the company partners with Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles and SINOTRUK on Level 3 autonomous truck development. It has signed over 100 logistics clients and expects volume production by the end of 2021. Inceptio’s self-developed stack includes ultra-long-range 3D perception and an on-board computing platform rated at 245 TOPS. The company claims leadership in functional safety design and is the first to support homegrown AI chips. It plans to use new funding to accelerate volume production and commercialization of Level 3 autonomous heavy-duty trucks and to extend its lead in China’s autonomous truck market. Inceptio develops full-stack autonomous driving software and an on-board computing platform for L3 heavy-duty trucks and adopts an end-to-end business model to build and operate a nationwide autonomous trucking network. The company partners with OEMs to preload its proprietary software and computing hardware into production trucks and works with global Tier-1 suppliers such as Knorr-Bremse for drive-by-wire steering and braking systems. In March 2020 Inceptio and Dongfeng Trucks completed A-sample validation for volume production—the first such A-sample validation in China’s autonomous driving industry. Its L3 autonomous heavy-duty trucks were planned to roll off OEM production lines by the end of 2021, and Inceptio planned to begin operating its network in 2022. More than 100 logistics and freight companies had signed up for Inceptio's Smart Truck Asset Service, signaling early commercial traction. The company announced completion of a US$100 million capital raising to support its productization and commercialization efforts.