(Yicai Global) March 28 -- DeepWay, a smart heavy truck joint venture of Chinese search engine giant Baidu and commercial vehicle logistics firm Lionbridge Financial Leasing, has closed a CNY779 million (USD112 million) financing round.

The Series A+ fundraiser was led by Chinese textile giant Weiqiao Pioneering Group and SoftBank China Venture Capital, Beijing-based DeepWay announced on its official WeChat account today. Existing investors, including Qiming Venture Partners, also took part.

Founded in July 2020, DeepWay develops autonomous driving technology to install on its intelligent heavy trucks. It closed a CNY460 million Series A financing round led by Qiming Venture last August. Since then, it has raised over CNY1.2 billion (USD170 million).

The proceeds of the latest fundraiser will be used for smart new-energy heavy truck manufacturing and high-level smart driving systems development, the company added.

DeepWay's first intelligent heavy truck model has started a small-range trial and will likely begin mass production and deliveries in June, with 1,000 vehicles expected to be handed over to customers this year, 36Kr reported today, citing the founder and Chief Executive Wan Jun.

As one of the leading investors in the latest round of financing, Weiqiao Pioneering will be among DeepWay’s first clients, the company said. The pair will try out the trucks in industrial transportation scenarios to collect vehicle operation management data and promote cooperation in more business areas, it added.

Editor: Futura Costaglione