Waymo got another 5.3 billion financing! 73 days, totaling 21200 million yuan.

/kloc-In May of 0/3, Waymo, an autopilot company owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, announced today that investment institutions such as T. Rowe Price, Perry Creek Capital and Fidelity have invested a total of 750 million US dollars (about 5.3 billion yuan) in Waymo.

On March 2 this year, Waymo announced that it had obtained financing of 2.25 billion US dollars (about 654.38+06 billion RMB), and with this financing of 750 million US dollars (about 5.29 billion RMB), Waymo's first round of external financing has reached 3 billion US dollars (about 265.438+02.6 billion RMB).

That is to say, Waymo completed RMB 210.26 billion financing in 73 days, which is equivalent to RMB 290 million financing every day.

▲Waymo announced a refinancing of $750 million.

This super-large financing amount once again proves Waymo's leading position in the global autonomous driving field.

Since the beginning of 2020, the autonomous driving industry has once again ushered in an investment climax. At present, 15 autopilot-related enterprises have disclosed a new round of financing, of which 1 1 disclosed the financing amount, with a total amount exceeding 23 billion yuan.

Together with the $750 million announced by Waymo today, which is 5.3 billion yuan, the total financing in the global autonomous driving field has reached 28 billion. This is not to mention the four undisclosed amounts and some players who are about to announce the financing news.

First of all, the epidemic highlights the importance of driverless cars.

Waymo said that after obtaining financing, it will increase investment in personnel and technology, as well as Waymo One driverless taxi service and Waymo Via driverless freight service.

To put it bluntly, it is to recruit people to strengthen their leading position in technology, and then expand the scale of unmanned taxis and unmanned freight services.

Leading technology really depends on money.

"The COVID-19 epidemic has proved that unmanned vehicles can provide safe travel and freight services in special periods. We are very grateful to these investors for supporting our vision of creating safe and convenient travel services. " Waymo said this in the investment announcement.

After the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic, non-contact has become a hot word in people's daily life and epidemic prevention. Self-driving vehicles born with "unmanned attributes" quickly rushed to the front line to fight the epidemic.

▲ Low-speed unmanned vehicles engaged in epidemic prevention and control work

According to vehicle statistics, domestic enterprises have at least 14 low-speed unmanned vehicle products put into the epidemic prevention front line for drug distribution, temperature measurement, disinfection and sterilization. Please refer to the in-depth article "Low-speed unmanned vehicles collectively fight the epidemic! Sweeping the floor, killing viruses, taking temperature, and sending medicines and vegetables are really warm-hearted, including JD.COM, Shi Yu Science and Technology, Gaoxin Xing, Gaoxian Robot and other companies.

Second, Waymo will expand overseas to more than 600 driverless cars.

On March 2 this year, Waymo announced that it had obtained financing of 2.25 billion US dollars (about/kloc-0.6 billion RMB). Investors include Silver Lake, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Mubadala Investment, as well as parts giant Magna, Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Google's parent company Alphabet.

This is the first time that Waymo has obtained external financing since it was split into an independent company from Google X department. Waymo said at the time that the financing would be mainly used for mass production and overseas expansion.

Waymo reached a cooperation with Renault-Nissan Alliance in 20 19, and will deploy its unmanned vehicles to France and Japan through Renault and Nissan. 20 19, 10 in June, Renault announced that the first project of both parties would be in Paris, France. Specifically, the driverless car will be used to provide self-driving travel service between Charles de Gaulle Airport and Paris La Defense Region, with a journey of 32 kilometers.

In addition, Waymo has set up a subsidiary in China and may be studying how to enter the China market.

At the end of 20 18, Waymo launched a driverless taxi service for seed users-waymo one, which is currently mainly operated in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

▲Waymo's autonomous driving team

According to previous reports, Waymo's driverless taxi fleet has reached 600 vehicles, a large part of which are driverless taxis in Phoenix. It has two technical service centers in Arizona, USA, located in Phoenix and Mesa.

At the same time, Waymo is also developing self-driving truck technology and selling its own lidar technology.

Previously, DMV in California released a 20 19 road test report. Waymo has 148 road test vehicles in California. In 20 19, the total road test mileage in California was1450,000 miles (about 2.33 million kilometers), and the MPD (mileage per intervention) value was 138.

Third, the autonomous driving industry raises nearly 30 billion yuan each year.

According to incomplete statistics of vehicles and materials, at least 15 financing incidents of autonomous driving companies have occurred at home and abroad since June 65438+ 10, 2020. Except for the undisclosed financing amount of four companies, the total financing amount of other 1 1 has exceeded 23 billion yuan, and with the 5.3 billion yuan announced by Waymo today, the accumulated amount has exceeded 28 billion yuan.

▲ 15 Overview of financing of autonomous driving companies

When the whole automobile industry was cold, autonomous driving started the mode of "attracting gold" and became the darling of venture capital and industrial capital.

Most of the 15 companies that have announced the completion of new financing at this stage are head players, and they all have certain technologies or achievements.

In addition, among 15 companies, only Phantom AI is still specializing in L2 and L3 autopilot technology, and the business tentacles of other 14 players have all extended to L4, which is a higher-level autopilot field.

▲ Technology maturity curve, red circle is autonomous driving technology.

Judging from the technology maturity curve drawn by Gartner, the autonomous driving industry is on the eve of rising in 20 19. However, by 2020, the recovery model will really start, and the self-driving enterprises in China and the United States will continue to explode a lot of financing.

However, it should be noted that after the first wave of autonomous driving technology of about 20 16, this round of investment and financing tide is obviously biased towards the head players. For example, Waymo's own family raised more than 20 billion yuan.

This also shows that the concentration of capital is increasing, and the possibility of refinancing of middle and back-end players is decreasing, which also means that the industry will usher in a new round of reshuffle.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.