SHANGHAI, Feb. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — On February 18, 2022(Beijing Time), G-PAL (Shanghai Geometrical Perception and Learning Co., Ltd.), a total solution provider for autonomous driving, announced successful closing of a strategic investment round exclusively led by Bosch’s investment platform, Boyuan Capital.
The automotive supply chain is undergoing significant transformation to to meet market demand for smarter vehicles and relevant autonomous driving technologies. Industry clustering and coalescing are becoming the main themes of the current and future development of the automotive industry.
As a global leader in automotive parts suppliers, Bosch Group has continued to cultivate the ecosystem of autonomous driving with a global perspective in recent years, with an emphasis on building a strategic portfolio in China market. Founded in 2021, Boyuan Capital is an investment platform established by Bosch group focusing on China’s deep science and technology sector. The main investment focus of Boyuan Capital includes sustainable transportation, intelligent manufacturing, Internet of things, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and carbon neutral technologies. Leveraging Bosch’s global business network and R&D resources, Boyuan Capital is positioned to bring crucial strategic value to China’s local high-tech industry. At present, Boyuan focuses on growth stage investment opportunities.
As a member of the autonomous driving industry chain, G-PAL provides hardware and software integrated systems for L2-L4 based on machine perception and deep learning, which can meet the requirements of "low budget, all-weather, reliable, mass production-oriented " autonomous driving. Facing increasingly complex traffic environments and personalized autonomous driving needs, G-PAL always believes that future autonomous driving solutions should be diversified, and industry cooperation is the best way to achieve it. At present, G-PAL is working hard to construct an innovative ecology of "R&D, production, testing and application" for autonomous driving, forming an industrial cluster of chips, software, system, testing and application.
Dr. Yudong Chen, President of Bosch China, said: "Bosch China is bullish on the local market’s first-mover advantage and high acceptance for autonomous driving and continues to invest in key technologies. Through Boyuan Capital, we are able to flexibly invest in high quality local start-ups and support their rapid growth and technology implementation. Together with G-PAL, Bosch China will better serve the market demand for intelligent driving and together contribute to intelligent mobility and its ecosystem."
Zhu Lin, Managing Partner and CEO of Boyuan Capital, said: "MMW radar is one of the core sensors for intelligent vehicles. Looking at the product iterations and technology paths of the world’s major MMW radar manufacturers, the direction of evolution is 4D MMW Imaging radar. It retains the all-weather detection characteristics of traditional radar, while being able to detect stationary objects and output high-density point cloud data, making it ideal for multi-sensor fusion solutions in L3/L4 autonomous driving. Also, it will certainly become a crucial tool for autonomous driving safety redundancy. G-PAL has been committed to building the industry’s leading automotive-grade 4D MMW Imaging radar since its inception. With multi-sensor fusion decision algorithms and software and hardware integration capabilities, low-cost mature products are commercially landed and highly recognized by leading OEMs. G-PAL is believed to become the leading 4D MMW Imaging radar company in China in the future."
Dan Xue, CEO of G-PAL, mentioned: "As a local autonomous driving solution company in China, G-PAL is honored to cooperate with Bosch Group on both capital and business levels. With solid foundation and profound insight in the industry and technology ecology, Boyuan Capital can empower the partner companies with a global perspective. Bosch Group’s technology accumulation in the field of autonomous driving can help the partners accelerate their growth. In the future, we will make use of G-PAL’s own technological advantages and ecological construction capabilities to contribute to the in-depth development of autonomous driving together with the Bosch Group, creating value for China’s local high-tech industry while providing more affordable and reliable travel security for consumers around the world."
It has become an industry consensus today to match different levels of autonomous driving with different use cases. As a focus of the Bosch Group’s research and development, Bosch autonomous driving implements a "dual strategy" of parallel technologies for assisted driving and self-driving to meet car manufacturers’ different "scenario-based" needs. Bosch’s "dual strategy" aligns with the G-PAL’s vision of seeking diverse autonomous driving solutions. With the completion of this round of strategic investment, G-PAL will cooperate with Bosch at the capital and business level based on the advantages of both sides. The collaboration will continue growing the industry ecosystem and accelerating the commercialization and mass production of autonomous vehicles.
About G-PAL
Founded in October 2018, G-PAL is a high-tech enterprise integrating R&D, manufacturing, sales and ecological construction of autonomous driving software & hardware products, bringing together first-class technical experts and teams in the fields of automotive sensors and autonomous driving at home and abroad.
Since its foundation, the company has innovatively used 4D MMW Imaging radars as the main sensors, combined with visual, LWIR and other sensors to create an all-weather pixel-level fusion sensing system. Based on this, G-PAL develops a full-stack autonomous driving system software that integrates sensing, decision-making, planning and control and can provide an integrated system and total solution for L2-L4 autonomous driving software and hardware based on machine perception and deep learning.
Previously, G-PAL has completed angel and Pre-A rounds of fundraising. The investors include ARM China, Silergy Corp, Glory Ventures, XinYuYiHe Ventures, Matrix Partners China, Hubei Xiaomi Changjiang Fund, Baidu Ventures, Puhua Capital and many other well-known investment institutions.
