Yicheng raises $30.1M Series C to automate factory logistics
What's the deal? Shenzhen YichengDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → Autonomous Driving Technology has closed a US$27.5M Series C round, 36Kr has learned exclusively. Investors include GRC Group, Shanda Investment, Anhui Guotou, and Foshan Venture Capital.
What's the endgame? Founded in 2017, Yicheng builds L4 autonomous transport vehicles for industrial sites such as manufacturing plants, warehouses, ports, and mines. Its driverless transport vehicles target large enclosed campuses, where chief executive officer Song Chaozhong says the company serves "hundreds of customers."
By the numbers: Yicheng's transport vehicles sell for an average of around US$55K each. Current annual capacity is 3,000 units; the company aims to reach 10,000 after this round. Best-sellers are five-to-10-tonne models, though Yicheng also builds vehicles with loads up to 100 tonnes.
Why now? The funds go toward factory capacity upgrades, core technology, and commercial deployment. Song said Yicheng's vehicles run at 25km/h, versus roughly 3km/h for rivals still built on slower AGV logic.
What's next? The company plans to expand overseas, adapting products to foreign climates and policies. It is also shifting from single-point transport toward full-site autonomous operations, combining in-plant handling, loading, and campus material transfer.
For the broader push, Yicheng is building a wheeled robot with a robotic arm for handling and loading small parts. Song said the team has spent nearly two years collecting real-world data, with early products reaching about 60% of a human worker's efficiency. A pilot of the integrated system is underway, and he expects it running at customer sites "as early as the third quarter" of next year (translated from Chinese).
The signal: Enclosed campuses are one of the few autonomous driving scenarios with high-frequency, measurable returns — large areas, heavy handling needs, and rising labour costs. Whether players like Yicheng sustain an edge depends on scaling in real deployments and keeping organisation apace with growth.
Read more: 36kr.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
