Zelos Completes $100 Million Series B1 Financing Led by Blue Lake Capital

November 11, 2024

Zelos, a portfolio company of Blue Lake Capital, has successfully secured $100 million in its Series B1 funding round. The round was co-led by Blue Lake Capital and CDH BAIFU, with participation from existing shareholders. This financing round marks one of the largest investments in the autonomous driving sector in the past year.

As a leading global developer and applicator of autonomous urban delivery products, Zelos boasts in-house development capabilities for full-stack Level 4 self-driving technology. The innovator has successfully commercialised its solutions on public roads, making it the first unmanned urban delivery firm in the industry to achieve profitable operations through a “turnkey vehicle sales” model.

With robust foundational systemic capabilities in Level 4 algorithm development, product creation, vehicle delivery, and marketing operations and maintenance, Zelos has achieved complete in-house development of its core hardware and software modules, building three major technology platforms: an intelligent platform, a vehicle platform, and an electrification platform. The company’s latest unmanned vehicle model features comprehensive upgrades in its hardware and software capabilities, including enhancements to the computing units and sensors. Equipped with a high-performance, automotive-grade dual Orin Drive computing platform, the vehicle delivers over 500 TOPS of processing power. Built on the proprietary ZOE 2.0 architecture, it optimises sensor integration and expansion while enhancing data transmission density and processing efficiency. Meanwhile, Zelos has achieved unified detection of dynamic and static obstacles, as well as map elements, through its backbone network and Transformer technology. By integrating a leading pre-decision model, the system enables end-to-end decision-making that adapts to various complex conditions and scenarios, including rainy or snowy weather, intricate intersections, tunnels, and elevated bridges. Its key performance metrics are among the best in the industry.

Leveraging its robust whole vehicle design capabilities and deep understanding of urban delivery scenarios, Zelos has rapidly iterated five vehicle models within just a year and a half of its establishment. In the fourth quarter of 2023, it officially launched the world’s first mass-produced Level 4 urban delivery vehicle – the Zelos Z5 series. This groundbreaking development ushers in a new era of vehicle sales for L4 autonomous urban delivery products, enabling large-scale commercial applications across various public road delivery scenarios in multiple cities.

To address the varying demands of logistics sub-segments, Zelos continues to evolve its product offerings. In June 2024, the company introduced four new Level 4 driverless vehicles: the Z2, Z5, Z8, and Z10, each designed to accommodate different scenarios and cargo capacities: the flagship Z5 model is ideal for B2B delivery scenarios, including express logistics, fresh produce, and pharmaceuticals; the compact and agile Z2 is designed for narrow environments, such as enclosed zones and complex indoor intersections; the Z8 features high endurance and heavy payload capabilities, making it suitable for long-distance transport in industrial logistics, rural express delivery, and mining operations; building on the Z8, the Z10 further enhances endurance, volume, and payload capacity, positioning it as the largest unmanned delivery vehicle in the industry.

Currently, over 1,000 Zelos unmanned urban delivery vehicles are operational across more than 130 cities, having completed over 100 million deliveries. This deployment has enabled customers to achieve an average reduction of 62% in operational costs. In this process, the team has accumulated over 4 million kilometres of actual Level 4 autonomous driving operations, with a current monthly increase of approximately 1 million kilometres. The enterprise is now delivering products to customers at a pace of several hundred vehicles per month.

Meanwhile, Zelos is actively advancing its global strategy and has secured the first unmanned logistics vehicle licence issued by Singapore’s Land Transport Authority. The company is now conducting automated operations on designated public roads in the country. In addition, it has participated in the development of the TR-68 self-driving technical standards by the Singapore Standards Council, as well as collaborating with regulatory authorities to establish testing protocols for unmanned logistics vehicles operating on public roads, addressing gaps in local regulations and promoting the widespread adoption of self-driving technology. Recently, the firm has secured orders in Malaysia, Japan, and the Middle East, marking a significant step for domestic autonomous driving products as they make their way into international markets.

Haitao Wei, Partner of Blue Lake Capital, stated, “The smart driving sector is entering a critical window for large-scale commercialisation. Since Zelos’s inception just three years ago, Blue Lake Capital has witnessed its remarkable evolutionary capabilities, strong product development, and effective commercialisation, successfully establishing operations in multiple cities across the nation while methodically expanding its international presence. In this round of financing, Blue Lake Capital has once again reinforced its commitment, reflecting strong confidence and support for the team. We remain optimistic about Zelos’s ability to enhance industry efficiency through its superior product capabilities and to create tangible value for society. We believe that it will bring more positive momentum to the industry, accelerating the adoption of smart driving across a broader range of applications.”

Blue Lake Capital was the lead investor in Zelos’s angel round of financing in January 2022 and has continued to elevate its investment in subsequent Pre-A and A rounds.

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