SDIC Unity Capital has recently completed its investment in Wuhan JIMU Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., a leading domestic intelligent driving solution provider. The investment is expected to help the enterprise to further increase its R&D investment in intelligent driving, connectivity, and autonomous driving in specific scenarios, and accelerate the commercialization of high-level intelligent driving technologies. This round of investment is jointly led by SDIC Unity Capital and Forebright Capital, and followed by AVIC Pingshan, UMC Capital and others.
Founded in 2011, JIMU Intelligent is a leading AI company that dedicated to the R&D and application of intelligent driving technologies. Based on its self-developed intelligent driving technologies, JIMU is always in pursuit of the development and popularization of intelligent driving.JIMU Intelligent has its proprietary technologies in key areas of intelligent driving, such as environmental perception and decision planning, and mainly provides Level 2 + intelligent driving solutions and derived data products and services to OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers, promoting the commercialization of automated and connected driving.
The core R&D team members of JIMU Intelligent are from Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and have rich experience in computer vision algorithms, with self-developed core technologies. Its self-developed JMNet super-lightweight neural network model can achieve the same detection accuracy with less computing as compared with the mainstream lightweight network model. JIMU Intelligent cuts down technology cost through joint optimization of optic module + AI computing + lower layer hardware.
Relying on the industry-leading technology and cost-effective advantages, JIMU's intelligent driving products have been applied in batches to around 100 models of nearly 30 OEMs globally. Up to now, JIMU Intelligent has won multiple passenger vehicle ADAS projects, supplying 80%+ head bus OEMs and 60%+ head truck OEMs in China, ranking top three in the market of commercial vehicle L1-L2 solutions among Chinese companies.
In addition, JIMU Intelligent is actively exploring passenger car and overseas markets. It has reached extensive and in-depth cooperation with many international top T1 suppliers.
SDIC Unity Capital's View:
The automotive industry is embracing the biggest changes in its development history and there exist huge opportunities in the sectors of IC, electronic components, automobile assembly and infrastructure, among which intelligent driving is the important driving force of such changes. Along with the compulsory adoption and application of part of the ADAS functions in the country's commercial vehicles, domestic enterprises in this sector are expected to take the lead in commercializing their technologies.
The coming five-year is a critical period for ADAS development and we believe that those enterprises that own their core computing advantages and outstanding engineering capability and that can better match their latest technologies with market demand are bound to be the winners in this industry.
SDIC Unity Capital will continue to support JIMU Intelligent to further enhance its R&D and, by taking the advantage of its supply chain resources, assist the company to further enrich its product line and accelerate the commercialization of its ADAS products.