Participated · Series C · Oct 2020

佑驾创新 (MINIEYE) develops full-stack intelligent driving solutions and emphasizes scalable mass-production experience combined with ongoing technological iteration. Its core product set targets integration into vehicle models to enable a broad range of smart-car capabilities. The company completed an E round financing of several hundred million RMB. Investors in the round include Suikai Investment, Guangzhou Industrial Investment, the Ultra HD Industry Investment Fund, Boyuan Capital, Huazhi Xingrui Fund, Xinjing Fuying Fund, Kexi Capital, and existing investor Puhua Capital, which increased its stake. Proceeds will be used to expand delivery scale of its intelligent-driving products on domestic and overseas vehicle models. The company also plans to accelerate R&D iteration and the deployment of higher-level autonomous driving features. Minieye develops sensing systems and AI-driven decision-making solutions for autonomous driving, providing products that span L0 to L3. The company focuses on improving automation levels while reducing accident rates and ensuring driver and passenger safety. Minieye received OEM approval in 2018 and achieved mass production in the factory-installed market. It serves over 20 clients, including GM, Ford, SAIC, BYD, Dongfeng, SINOTRUK, JAC and JMC. Led by CEO Dr. Liu Guoqing, the company continues to invest in advanced autonomous driving technologies and R&D. Minieye develops sensing systems for autonomous driving and ADAS products. Founded in 2013 by Dr. Liu Guoqing and based in Beijing, it produces L0–L1 systems procured on nearly 20 main vehicle types from brands including BYD and Dongfeng Automobile, across passenger and commercial vehicles. In early 2019 the company announced cooperation with Xilinx to jointly develop a Turnkey ADAS Sensing Solution for L1–L3 functions. In the past six months Minieye raised $20M in total and has completed a Series B financing while also securing hundreds of millions in credit lines. The new funding is intended to bolster its industry position, increase market share, maintain steady cash flow during expansion, and accelerate research and mass production of L2+ autonomous driving products. Original investors increased their holdings in the recent round, and NavInfo Fund led the Series B with co-investment from Zhejiang Zheshang Capital.

Participated · Series B · Apr 2018

Mapillary is a street-level imagery platform powered by collaboration and computer vision. It operates a global network of contributors who collect street-level images using smartphones or action cameras. Using computer vision, the company connects images across time and space to create immersive street-level views and extract map data. Anyone can join and contribute imagery to the platform. The company plans to use newly raised funds to expand the team, develop the platform, and build a global network of contributors and users of map data. Mapillary was founded by Jan Erik Solem and has offices in Malmö, with satellite offices in Graz, Austria, and Brooklyn, NY. Mapillary uses crowdsourced photos to create a searchable, street-level imagery database that can be analyzed to extract information about places. Its imagery is matched with Mapbox maps and can be viewed as individual photos or collated into video-like, 3D passages. The company focuses on a B2B SaaS model (pricing tiers cited at $200/month and $1,000/month) for governments and organizations rather than consumer advertising. Customers include Helsingborg, Los Angeles County, the World Bank, and the Red Cross. Mapillary has built a community of roughly 18,000 contributors who have uploaded more than 50 million images covering over 1 million miles. Planned product and operational expansion includes opening a San Francisco office, hiring more computer-vision engineers, and adding further tiers that may include use of the company’s rigging equipment. Mapillary's platform allows anyone to use smartphones, action cameras like GoPro and Garmin Virb, and low-flying drones to collect photos that are combined into street-level views. The company reports around 6 million photos uploaded and roughly 200,000 square kilometres mapped. An updated iOS app adds improved features for uploading, viewing, and connecting users with similar interests. Mapillary imagery has been integrated into OpenStreetMap's editing tools and is positioned for commercial use in transportation, construction, cities and municipalities. Until this round the company had been bootstrapped. CEO Jan Erik Solem says the crowdsourced approach can map the world more frequently and more cheaply than conventional efforts such as Google Street View.