Sinoauto raises RMB 300M Series C as autonomous truck sector heats up
What's the deal? Sinoauto has raised RMB 300 million (about $44 million) in a Series C round co-led by Xingcheng CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Yida CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The company builds autonomous driving systems for heavy-duty logistics, serving ports, industrial parks, and trunk logistics. Founded in April 2020, it offers unmanned container trucks, dump trucks, and flatbed trucks.
Where the money goes: Sinoauto will fund research and development of a new generation of vehicle-grade autonomous driving solutions. A priority is upgrading its heavy-truck domain controllers from non-vehicle-grade to vehicle-grade standards.
What's the endgame? The company wants to move from partial "unmanned transportation" to full "unmanned operations" in closed sites. Loading, unloading, and trailer swapping still need human hands, and chief executive officer He Bei sees world models and embodied intelligence closing that gap. "We expect to see an answer in the next 3-5 years," he said.
Why the controller? He Bei calls the domain controller "the true brain of unmanned driving." He argues execution components like throttle and brakes are already mature, while sensors are mainly data collectors — the decisive work happens in software.
Why now? In the first half of 2026, the autonomous heavy-truck sector recorded five publicly disclosed financing deals totalling nearly RMB 7 billion, alongside a string of IPOs. Closed scenarios such as ports, mines, and steel mills show steady demand, while open scenarios like trunk logistics are starting to scale under supportive policies.
What could go wrong? Closed sites remain the safer stronghold thanks to their predictability. He Bei expects open scenarios to grow faster, but they carry more complexity — and vehicle-grade certification is hard, spanning hardware, operating systems, and middleware.
The signal: Sinoauto's round is modest against the sector's near RMB 7 billion first-half haul, but it tracks a clear shift: autonomous heavy trucks are moving from testing to commercial deployment, and capital is following the companies that can prove it.
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Image credit: Hugo-90
