Chinese autonomous vehicle startup Neolix announced the completion of more than $600 million in Series D financing, marking the largest private fundraising round in China’s autonomous driving sector and one of the country’s largest private deals this year.
The round was led by UAE-based Stone Venture, with joint participation from Gaorong Capital, Shincheron Capital (CITIC Capital’s private equity arm), CDH VGC, Zhaoxi Capital, and the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund.
“After closing this $600 million round, to be honest, our team only celebrated for an hour and a half because we immediately felt an even greater pressure ahead,” said Yu Enyuan, founder and CEO of Neolix’s autonomous vehicle division, during a media briefing.
Yu highlighted that the company had spent seven years quietly developing its technology and has now demonstrated that L4-level autonomous driving can be commercially deployed at scale in both unmanned delivery and urban RoboVan operations, a milestone the company claims is a global first.
Looking ahead, Yu said autonomous delivery vehicles are likely to become the first sector within the AI field to see explosive growth. By 2027, domestic and overseas demand is expected to surpass 100,000 units, with major Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou each operating thousands of autonomous delivery vehicles. Industrywide, the total fleet could reach several hundred thousand vehicles.
Before this funding, China’s autonomous driving sector had faced a severe “capital winter.” From 2022 to 2023, many startups that relied on high-definition maps combined with LiDAR sensors struggled to secure continued investment. Maintaining these maps required costly updates, frequent collection, and expensive hardware, making L4-level deployment difficult. Moreover, reliance on HD maps limited vehicles’ ability to operate in unmapped areas or where map data was outdated, causing numerous startups to exit the market.
Neolix took a different path. “As early as 2021, we opted for vision-based algorithms,” Yu said. The company’s “vision-to-action end-to-end large model” focuses on enhancing real-time perception through a combination of cameras, LiDAR, and advanced algorithms, reducing dependence on pre-installed HD maps. Lightweight navigation maps are still used, but real-time perception allows broader applicability at lower costs.
Currently, Neolix vehicles operate with just 13 sensors—one LiDAR and 12 cameras—the fewest in the industry. This places significant demands on the algorithm, but also allows the company to achieve L4-level autonomous driving with minimal hardware investment. The firm’s foundational large model, “Neolix-VA,” enables RoboVans to navigate complex urban traffic while efficiently completing deliveries, meeting point-to-point logistics needs in China and supporting international deployments.
Yu noted that the map-light approach reduces HD map-related costs by more than 90% and lowers hardware expenses, allowing vehicles to handle unfamiliar roads and navigate jurisdictions where HD map permits are difficult to obtain.
Neolix’s autonomous vehicle sales have surged, driven by the cost advantages and efficiency of vision-based algorithms. Since its founding in 2018, the company has delivered over 10,000 L4 autonomous vehicles—the first company globally to reach this milestone. The fleet has logged over 50 million kilometers of L4 self-driving mileage, and single-month deliveries have exceeded 2,000 units, setting a global record.
After obtaining the industry’s first license for unmanned delivery in 2021, Neolix has achieved more than tenfold year-on-year growth in vehicle deliveries over the past two years. Its cumulative unmanned vehicle shipments account for over 60% of the industry, with monthly deliveries representing more than 70% of the market. The company has served over 300,000 customers, from major logistics players to small businesses, supplying RoboVans to leading firms including SF Group, JD Logistics, China Post, STO Express, YTO Express, ZTO Express, Yunda Express, and J&T Express.
The Series D proceeds will be used to strengthen algorithmic and modeling advantages, expand the product line and ecosystem, and scale production to meet anticipated demand of 100,000 vehicles next year. Yu also emphasized plans for global expansion, establishing international sales, service, and delivery networks, and supporting infrastructure for unmanned vehicles in multiple regions.
Neolix recently partnered with a UAE technology conglomerate to secure the first RoboVan license in the country, positioning the UAE as its second large-scale deployment market after China, with further Middle Eastern expansion planned. The company also signed a strategic agreement with the Incheon city government in South Korea, facilitating RoboVan adoption there.
Yu highlighted the size of the urban delivery market, noting it represents roughly 3 trillion yuan, with nearly 30 million vehicles circulating and annual mileage approaching 1 trillion kilometers. He suggested that once autonomous fleets reach scale, they could form an “intelligent capacity network” that serves society as a whole, allowing both businesses and individuals to access highly efficient transport resources, ultimately improving logistics efficiency at a systemic level.
