Chinese autonomous driving company secures $15M in funding

China-based autonomous driving technology start-up, Tianjin TSINTEL Technology, has successfully secured $15.15 million in a Round A fundraising spearheaded by the CMG Innovation Investment Management Co., Yicai Global reports.

CMG Innovation Investment Management Co. is a subsidiary of the Chinese government-owned China Merchants Group. Other participants in the fund-raising were Zhongguancun Development Group (ZDG), Zhongjun Capital and Legend Star VC. Their investments into the TSINTEL were included in the previously announced investments by Northern Light Venture Capital.

While TSINTEL was willing to disclose the total investment earned so far, it did not reveal how much of this investment was secured from the A Round financing. It confirmed that a significant portion of the investments were from Northern Lights Venture Capital and Legend Star VC.

Autonomous driving technology has become an initiative for TSINTEL with a goal of operating automobiles on alternative energy, according to its website. The Chinese government has not yet announced a deadline on curbing national levels of carbon emission, still initiatives to move away from diesel-powered vehicles are now ongoing.

This became more evident with the entry of the China Merchants Group, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate “under the direct supervision of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.” A well-heeled arm of the Chinese enterprises headquartered in Hong Kong, it has declared assets totaling to $136.027 billion.

China Merchants Group’s core business sectors revolve around property, finance and transportation (plus related infrastructure).

Much of what made Hong Kong the economic powerhouse that it is today is attributed to the shipping industry, with declared revenues in 2015 of about US$28.5 billion.

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