Didi autopilot ushered in the first round of financing after independence! 300 million US dollars, led by Softbank

The news of the car on March 24, according to foreign media The? According to information reports, Softbank is about to finalize new investment and take the lead in investing 300 million US dollars (about 2 1 100 million yuan) in Didi Autopilot. This will be Softbank's fourth financing for Didi. Considering the impact of the recent COVID-19 epidemic on Softbank and Didi, this investment is undoubtedly a timely help.

▲ Foreign media reported that Softbank will invest in Didi.

It is understood that the global economic slowdown caused by the epidemic has begun to have an impact on Softbank Group. Although Softbank still raised $5 billion (about RMB 35.4 billion) to invest in start-up technology companies, its travel company Uber and hotel chain OYO have been affected by the economic downturn, and the plight of WeWork, an office company that was previously invested, has also intensified.

These conditions will exert substantial financial pressure on Softbank, and will also affect its next financing. Even so, Softbank decided to continue to invest an additional 300 million US dollars (about 2 1 100 million yuan) in Didi, which it has always firmly supported.

This investment will probably ease the pressure that Didi is facing now. Under the influence of the COVID-19 epidemic, Didi's core hitchhiking business was hit, and the order volume dropped to the usual 1/5. It is also difficult for Didi's autopilot subsidiary to conduct road test and routine development during the epidemic.

Under such circumstances, Didi's regular business has fallen sharply, and the autonomous driving business is facing a situation of continuous investment (still need to maintain the minimum operation and pay employees' wages), but there is no technical output. The situation is rather gloomy.

At this time, Softbank's investment of 300 million US dollars (about 2 1 100 million yuan) in Didi autopilot is undoubtedly helping Didi autopilot. It is reported that after this investment, Softbank became the biggest supporter of Didi.

However, since the beginning of the year, autopilot companies such as Waymo, a subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet, and Pony.ai, a China autopilot startup, have successively received hundreds of millions of dollars in financing. In addition, Didi Autopilot will soon receive 300 million US dollars (about 265,438+100 million yuan) of financing led by Softbank Group, and the capital in the field of autonomous driving is concentrated in the head players to accelerate the mass production of technology.

First, Softbank will drop $300 million? Both sides are brothers in trouble.

According to what? According to information reports, Didi has been communicating with Softbank since the spin-off of the autopilot department in August last year, hoping to obtain new financing from Softbank Group.

The news of foreign media can be seen as Softbank's response to the financing needs of Didi Travel. However, it should be noted that compared with Softbank's previous investment of billions of dollars in Didi, the financing amount of 300 million dollars (about 2 1 100 million yuan) is much smaller, probably because "the landlord has no surplus grain".

▲ Chairman and President of Softbank Group? Masayoshi Son

It is reported that Softbank announced on Monday that it will sell assets of 46,543.8 billion US dollars (about 290.2 billion yuan) to reduce the debt burden and provide funds for stock repurchase.

However, the travel company Uber and hotel chain OYO, which it previously supported, both experienced business declines due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Wework, which Softbank previously invested in, failed in IPO last year, and its valuation fell sharply, resulting in a one-day drop in Softbank's share price 12%. Recently, the company also criticized Softbank for not buying the company's employee stocks as promised, and Softbank said it might withdraw from WeWork's stock acquisition plan.

These investment failures have dealt a heavy blow to Softbank Group. Even so, Softbank still raised 5 billion US dollars (about 35.4 billion yuan) to invest in start-up technology companies. This investment in Didi autopilot is part of this $5 billion (about RMB 35.4 billion).

It is understood that Didi's core business in 20201~ February-travel and shuttle business has also been hit. According to sources, the order volume of Didi in the past two months has dropped to the normal level 1/5, and Didi's bicycle business has also been affected simultaneously.

However, in recent weeks, due to certain achievements in domestic epidemic control, major cities have started to return to work, and orders for Didi Chuxing and Ride-Ride business and bicycle business have also rebounded.

However, I am afraid that the money that Softbank has invested in Didi will not be used to ease the routine travel and cycling business and enjoy the bicycle business, mainly to give blood transfusion to Didi's automatic driving.

▲ Didi self-driving taxi

Since 20 19, the capital invested in the field of autonomous driving has obviously decreased, and the capital flowing into the field of autonomous driving has become more rational, mainly concentrated in the head company.

Only Argo last year. Ford-supported AI, Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, and Uber, a travel company, received more than $654.38 billion (about RMB 765.438 billion) in financing.

In the first two months of 2020, only Waymo, a brother in the autonomous driving industry, raised 2 billion US dollars (about 65.438+0.42 billion yuan).

It is obviously not easy to get financing for Didi autopilot, which was just spun off last summer. Didi also pointed out that its self-driving subsidiary will not form a positive cash flow within five years, and such a long-term return on investment will discourage investors.

However, it is obviously unrealistic to rely solely on Didi's self-driving subsidiary for blood transfusion. So Didi will always negotiate with its biggest supporter Softbank. But both sides are "brothers in distress", and Softbank's investment in Didi is extremely forbearing.

Second, Softbank has laid out a large-scale autonomous driving industry chain? Didi is its last link.

The reason why Softbank has to invest in the subsidiary of Didi Autopilot in such a "tight" situation is of course not just for the "friendship" between the two parties. Softbank's software and hardware layout in the field of autonomous driving has formed an industrial chain, but it still lacks the last link-commercialization.

Softbank's most famous investment in the field of autonomous driving is $2.25 billion (about RMB 65.438+0.593 billion) invested in General Cruise.

But in fact, in the field of autonomous driving, Softbank's investment layout is involved from hardware-based autonomous driving chips and sensors to software-based high-precision maps, autonomous driving algorithms and V2X car networking technology.

In terms of autonomous driving chips, Softbank chose to acquire ARM and become a shareholder in NVIDIA. However, at the end of 20 18, Softbank lost 1 1 billion dollars (about 7.56 billion yuan) due to the sharp drop in NVIDIA's share price, and Softbank immediately chose to give up NVIDIA.

In this regard, Sun Zhengyi, the head of Softbank, said: "Softbank is an investment company, not an operating company." Without NVIDIA, Softbank still owns ARM, a reliable chip company.

▲ Chairman and President of Softbank Group? Masayoshi Son

Some analysts pointed out that ARM can provide Softbank with reliable and advanced self-driving chips with low energy consumption, which has great advantages in self-driving cars.

In terms of sensors, Softbank invested in Israeli lidar company Innoviz and camera company Light.

In terms of software, Softbank mainly focuses on high-precision maps, autonomous driving algorithms and car networking technology.

In 20 17, Softbank Vision Fund invested1640,000 US dollars (about RMB11300,000 yuan) in Mapbox, a high-precision mapping company. Today, Mapbox collects more than 200 million miles of anonymous sensor driving data every day.

In terms of autonomous driving algorithm, Softbank sent two autonomous driving algorithm companies Nauto and Brain respectively. Crop contributed 1.59 million USD (about RMB 1.09 million) and1.04 USD (about RMB 780 million).

As for the Internet of Vehicles, it is reported that Softbank will conduct research on the Internet of Vehicles with Honda, a Japanese car company, and devote itself to the development of 5G in-vehicle communication antennas, but there is no news of funding since then.

In addition, Softbank also invested 500 billion yen (about 31800 million yuan) to establish SB with former Toyota engineer * *? Drive Company, whose research and development direction is self-driving bus, according to its official website news, its self-driving bus has been put into trial operation in Battmachi, Tottori Prefecture.

In terms of travel, Softbank has invested heavily in Uber, Didi, Grab (Southeast Asia Travel Service Company) and Ola (Indian Travel Service Company), and its travel services cover Europe, America, China, Southeast Asia, South Asia and other markets.

For Softbank, it seems that all the layouts have been completed from the underlying technology of autonomous driving, various infrastructures and travel companies.

But in fact, at this time, Softbank still lacks the opportunity to invest in the autonomous driving industry chain on a large scale, and the autonomous driving subsidiary spun off by Didi last summer made Softbank see hope.

As the largest travel service company in China, Didi Chuxing has more than 1 100 million users. On this basis, Didi Chuxing uses a wide range of road data for autonomous driving research, which is not only very efficient. At the same time, its landing scene is also guaranteed. Once the technology is mature, it will be a very large-scale landing.

It is understood that the CEO of Didi Autopilot Subsidiary is currently held by Didi CTO and Meng Xing, executive director of Yuanshun Fund. The Chief Operating Officer, Jia and Zheng are the team leaders in the United States and China respectively, and all three report to them.

▲ Didi Travel CTO, new company CEO Jaco

In August last year, Che Dongxi asked Didi Autopilot about the specific progress of its autopilot business. It is understood that Didi currently has 40+ self-driving test vehicles. Earlier, Jaco, CTO of Didi Autopilot, revealed in an interview with Che Dongxi that Didi Autopilot has personally led the team, and has conducted road tests of autopilot in four cities in China and the United States, and obtained the license of California Autopilot Road Test.

In terms of autonomous driving business team, Didi has built a number of professional teams, including high-precision maps, perception, behavior prediction, planning control, infrastructure and simulation, data labeling, problem diagnosis, vehicle modification, cloud control and vehicle networking, vehicle-road coordination, and information security. At present, the team conducts research and development and testing in many places in China and the United States, with a scale of more than 200 people.

In terms of industry, Didi Autopilot has gradually deepened cooperation with more than 20 automobile manufacturers such as BAIC New Energy, Guoneng Automobile, Chehejia and related upstream and downstream companies.

According to Jaco, Didi's autonomous driving business will open a new business model: the car factory will build the car, and then put the car on Didi's platform with one click, so that the car factory can share it in each order. In the future business model of Didi autopilot, such a business model is possible.

From this point of view, Didi's technical ideas and commercialization ideas in the autonomous driving business are very perfect. It is no wonder that Softbank will choose Didi as a key part of its autopilot layout and choose to invest billions of dollars in Didi autopilot at this time.

From a big industrial point of view, this is also a manifestation of the gradual concentration of capital in the field of autonomous driving to head players and the acceleration of technology mass production.

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