Pony.ai, a global autonomous driving technology company, has completed its first close of its Series D financing. The Series D round, which has a significant valuation uplift from the 2020 “C” and “C+” rounds, is a recognition by investors of Pony.ai’s achieved technical milestones and significant progress toward a commercialized robotaxi and robotruck product.

The proceeds from the funding will be used to further augment Pony.ai’s hiring, investment in research and development, global testing of robotaxi and robotrucking on an ever-growing fleet, enter into important strategic partnerships, and accelerate our development toward mass production and mass commercial deployment.

A key part of our story for our investors is our tech development path. From 2020 to the end of 2021, our key safety metrics increased tremendously, such that in most circumstances Pony.ai’s virtual driver is now equal to or superior to a human driver. We’re confident in our autonomous vehicle tech readiness as we rapidly scale toward robotaxi and robotruck commercialization and mass production.

—Tiancheng Lou, Pony.ai co-founder and CTO

Additional details of the Series D financing will be announced in due course at the closing of the full financing round.