Joynext, the smart-vehicle-solutions arm of the Chinese automotive component supplier Ningbo Joyson Electronics, has secured about 720 million yuan ($107 million) in a new funding round.
Leading the investment were a private equity fund manager co-launched by the Chinese state-owned investment firm SDIC and Shenzhen-based China Merchants Capital Investment (CMC). Also participating were Ningbo Gaofa Automotive, a developer of automotive control systems; the Shanghai-based IT and high-tech investor F&G Venture; Cathay Capital's 1.5 billion yuan CarTech Fund; and other investors.
The completion of the financing came after Joyson Electronics disclosed in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) on July 3 that it had entered into an agreement with strategic investors to give Joynext a pre-money valuation of 2.5 billion yuan.
The filing showed that the SDIC-CMC fund agreed to inject 300 million yuan ($45 million) into the deal. Concurrently with the financing, Joyson Electronics had also invested 192 million euros ($226 million) in Joynext.
Driven by the government's regulatory support and heightened investment in research and development, the penetration rate of intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs) in China is poised to reach 43.8% in 2020, compared with 35.3% in 2019, according to a report released by London-based information provider IHS Markit in September.
ICVs are said to be the next generation of vehicles. They are equipped with sensors, controllers, actuators and other devices, as well as modern communications and network technologies to achieve effective and sustainable mobility, and are capable of environment sensing, information exchange, intelligent planning and automated control.
Joynext was created in December 2019 between Joyson Electronics' former smart vehicle unit, Joyson Preh Car Connect, and the automotive division of TechniSat Digital. The Daun, Germany-based manufacturer of broadcast satellite receivers, TVs and car navigation systems had sold its automotive division to Joyson Electronics in April 2016 for 180 million euros.
Joynext, which serves automakers like Volkswagen and Ford, provides connected infotainment solutions, advanced driver-assistance systems, a smart connectivity gateway that offers real-time traffic, weather, navigation, real-time positioning and other functions, as well as cloud services to support the vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and 5G-based communications.
It is expected to mass-produce its first 5G-V2X intelligent connected vehicle by 2021.
Dual-headquartered in Ningbo, China, and Dresden, Germany, the firm has a total of four R&D centers, one production base and three offices around the world. The firm employs over 1,300 staff members worldwide.
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