Chinese ride-sharing platform Hellobike announced on Monday the launch of a new robotaxi company jointly with fintech giant Ant Group and electric vehicle (EV) battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL).
The three parties have invested a total of over 3 billion yuan ($417.3 million) in the Shanghai-incorporated new company as an initial investment, said Hellobike in a statement.
The company, named “Shanghai Zaofu Intelligent Technology (上海造父智能科技有限公司),” will focus on Level 4 autonomous driving R&D, safe applications, and commercialisation.
Shanghai-headquartered Hellobike was founded in 2016 as a provider of bike-sharing services, before the company gradually expanded its business to cover e-bike sharing, carpooling, and battery swapping services. It has gathered over 800 million users across its platforms.
The move to jointly launch the new robotaxi company comes after years of collaboration among the three parties. Hellobike had partnered with Ant Group and CATL in the creation of a battery-swap joint venture (JV) in June 2019 to serve two-wheeled EV users. The JV, named “Xiaoha Battery Swap,” was started with an initial investment of 1 billion yuan ($139.1 million) from the three founding parties.
Ant Group, the Alibaba-linked fintech firm that owns the ubiquitous digital payment platform Alipay, is a substantial shareholder of Hellobike. Hellobike’s investors also include Primavera Capital Group, Fosun International, and GGV Capital.
