Tencent Invests $400M in Meituan to Keep Developing Autonomous Vehicles, Delivery Drones

Meituan Inc., which connects shoppers to local products and services, this week said it has received $400 million from Tencent Holdings Ltd. The Beijing-based company said it plans to invest in autonomous vehicles, aerial drones, and other cutting-edge technologies.

In April, Meituan raised $10 billion in a stock and convertible bonds sale. The company serves food delivery, ride-sharing, retail, hospitality, and other sectors. It said it serves more than 2,800 counties, districts, and cities in China, and it claimed that it makes more than 40 million orders per day.

Tencent was founded in 1998 and provides social media, advertising platforms, and financial and business services, and it invests in technology companies. The Shenzhen, China-based company increased its share in Meituan from 17% to 17.2%, and the subscription price was HK $273.78 per share.

Meituan expands deliveries, partnerships

Along with JD.com and Neolix, Meituan obtained approval from Beijing in April to test self-driving delivery vehicles in the Yizhuang Development Area. It had already made 11,000 robotic deliveries in the Shunyi District with two vehicles within a distance of about 6 km (3.7 mi.).

The electric vehicles reportedly could complete five orders per trip, and a second generation was recently launched. Meituan has been working on autonomous vehicles since 2016, and it launched contactless deliveries with its “Magic Pods” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Xia Huaxia, chief scientist and head of AI platform at Meituan, said he hopes to take advantage of 5G networking as soon as it becomes more widely available.

The company has been testing delivery drones since 2017, and it announced a self-developed drone earlier this month.

Last year, Meituan invested $14.2 million in Pudu Technology Inc., which makes service robots for restaurants. In May, the company invested in the Series C round for 3D vision company Mech-Mind Robotics. Meituan is hiring up to 60,000 more people this year as it scales up.

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