(Yicai Global) Nov. 5 -- Chinese driverless tech startup Momenta has secured over USD500 million in its latest funding round, led by several global car giants and private equity firms.

Japan’s Toyota Motor, China’s SAIC Motor and the US’ General Motors as well as Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek and Chinese private equity company YF Capital were leading participants in the C+ funding round, Momenta said yesterday.

The Suzhou-based company, which develops mapping and perceptive driving software based on deep learning, is now worth over USD1 billion. It did not say how the funds raised will be used. Prior to this round, Momenta had raised more than USD1.2 billion since it was set up in 2016.

Momenta’s Mpilot and Momenta Self Driving software provide different levels of smart driving assistance. The firm is committed to creating Level 4 self-driving technology where the car can drive by itself and only needs human intervention occasionally. SAIC, GM and Toyota already have established partnerships with Momenta.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Cao Xudong used to work as a researcher at Microsoft Research Asia and was executive research and development director at Hong Kong AI firm SenseTime.

Editor: Kim Taylor