Neolix Raises Over $600M in Series D Funding, Setting New Record in China's Autonomous Driving Sector

In terms of amount, this round of funding is the largest private equity financing in China's autonomous driving sector to date, and one of the largest financings in China's private equity sector this year.

This round of funding marks a major milestone in Neolix's journey to realize its vision of "bringing autonomous vehicles to the world," demonstrating that its technological capabilities and commercialization model have been highly recognized by the capital market. Neolix will use the proceeds from this round to continue investing in algorithm and technology R&D, develop new products for different commercial scenarios, and further improve its service network to enhance user experience.

Yu Enyuan, founder and CEO of Neolix, said that this round of funding will help strengthen and enhance Neolix's technological strength and market competitiveness in the autonomous urban delivery sector, further accelerating the pace of large-scale commercial application of autonomous vehicles to meet the strong demand in the growing domestic and international urban delivery market. "We firmly believe that autonomous delivery is a key part of future urban logistics. Neolix will continue to build this army of ants, continue to deepen visual algorithms and scheduling engines, and provide customers with safe and efficient autonomous driving solutions. The goal is to empower a wider range of urban delivery scenarios with autonomous driving, making autonomous vehicles a new generation of urban delivery productivity tools, and promoting efficiency improvement and digital transformation in the urban delivery logistics industry."

Currently, Neolix has made key progress in autonomous driving technology. Its self-developed L4-level mapless autonomous driving technology solution has begun commercial delivery and is being applied on a small scale. This makes Neolix the first company in the autonomous delivery industry to deliver a mapless technology solution.

The company has achieved the first "vision-action" foundation model "Neolix-VA" in the freight industry, achieving complete end-to-end, and through industry-leading spatial intelligence and behavioral reasoning capabilities, enabling RoboVan fleets to naturally integrate into complex traffic environments and efficiently and smoothly complete deliveries; capable of meeting point-to-point logistics needs in urban public road scenarios, as well as global needs; pioneered the L4 autonomous delivery "full-domain intelligent scheduling center," achieving dynamic optimal matching of "vehicles - road network - orders" through the integration of AI algorithms and big data, creating a "low-cost, high-efficiency, scalable" transportation operation system.

Mapless technology enables Neolix to reduce dependence on high-precision maps, saving more than 90% of related expenses, while hardware costs are also significantly reduced. With mapless large model technology, Neolix autonomous vehicles can successfully cope with unfamiliar and complex road conditions, and solve the problem of cross-border qualification acquisition for high-precision maps.

Since obtaining the industry's first autonomous delivery license in 2021, Neolix's vehicle deliveries have continued to grow rapidly, achieving more than 10x growth per year over the past two years. Currently, Neolix autonomous vehicles have achieved the leap from "technical trials" to "large-scale commercial use," with market share further expanding. Cumulative shipments account for more than 60% of the industry, monthly new shipments account for more than 70% of the industry, and monthly sales account for more than 80% of the industry. To date, Neolix has served more than 300,000 shippers, covering all types of customers from KA to small B.

In the express delivery sector, Neolix has an absolute leading market share and is the only company in the industry to achieve full coverage of leading express groups including SF Group, JD Logistics, China Post, "Three Links and One Express" and Jitu Express, accumulating nearly 70% of the winning bids in the KA market, continuing to lead the autonomous delivery industry.

Industry insiders expect that autonomous delivery vehicles will further accelerate in the second half of the year, and autonomous delivery vehicles will usher in an explosive period in the next three years. Soochow Securities expects that autonomous delivery vehicle sales will exceed 30,000 units in 2025. It is reported that China currently has approximately 30 million delivery vehicles in urban logistics, with a total market size of more than 3 trillion yuan. As autonomous delivery vehicles are deployed and operated in a large number of commercial scenarios, the capabilities of autonomous delivery vehicles continue to optimize, not only "able to run" but also "run steadily and efficiently."

Yu Enyuan said that in the next few years, the autonomous delivery vehicle market will show exponential development. By 2027, the combined domestic and overseas markets will definitely have explosive demand of more than 100,000 units. It is expected that in three years, major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou will have at least thousands of autonomous delivery vehicles in operation, with a total of possibly hundreds of thousands of units, and the industry has great potential. When the scale of autonomous vehicle fleets reaches a certain level, it may form an "intelligent transportation network" that can serve the entire society. Both enterprises and individuals can share and use it, achieving efficient matching and ultimately improving the logistics efficiency of the entire society.

Hong Jing, founding partner and CEO of Gaocheng Investment, said: "As an industry leader, Neolix has been the first to explore the deployment of L4 autonomous driving technology in the logistics industry and form PMF. It has been growing rapidly on the path of autonomous driving commercialization and has served many benchmark customers in the industry, and has shown extremely competitive development potential in overseas markets. As a patient growth fund, we highly value China's world-class leading position in software-hardware integration, and will continue to accompany and help Neolix create value for customers and the industry, support the company to consolidate its leading position in the industry, and assist China's leading technology to go global."

Wang Lin, founding partner of CDH Investment, said: "In the context of the continuous expansion of the labor gap in the logistics industry and the surge in daily package volume, the autonomous logistics vehicles represented by Neolix are not only tools, but also the key to solving industry bottlenecks. CDH will leverage its deep industrial resources to promote the deep integration of Neolix with China's complete supply chain system and diverse scenarios, helping it move from 'large-scale delivery' to 'global ecosystem building.' We are willing to be the 'wise public' of the times and work with practitioners to dig through the tunnel of industrial upgrading."

Zhao Lei, partner of Xinchen Capital, said: "This investment in Neolix is based on our firm belief in smart logistics as a long-term structural track. We believe that autonomous driving technology will profoundly change the industry's cost structure and operating model. What we value is Neolix's team's core ability to continuously innovate and create long-term value, which constitutes the company's most solid moat. As a long-term partner, Xinchen Capital will leverage its deep industrial resources and post-investment empowerment experience to help Neolix expand new scenarios and applications, support Neolix in building leading advantages in technology iteration and global market expansion, and jointly define the new paradigm of future logistics."

Chen Yu, partner of Yunqi Capital, said: "We have been firmly optimistic about Neolix's long-term potential in the autonomous delivery sector since the early days of the company. Over the years, the team has gone from 'the 1st vehicle' to 'the 10,000th vehicle,' constantly refreshing industry limits in algorithms, systems, and commercial operations with solid engineering strength and continuous technological innovation. Yunqi will continue to accompany Neolix and work together to promote the deep application of autonomous driving in the trillion-yuan logistics market."