Hello Robotaxi raises $100M at nearly $3B valuation for L4 fleet

The Shanghai state fund's check buys only a sliver of equity, more a political endorsement than fuel for scaling a robotaxi fleet.

• Hello Robotaxi's operating entity, Shanghai Zufu Intelligent Technology, closed a roughly $100M round led by Shanghai Guotou Xiandao Fund, with Minhang Jintou and China Creation Ventures joining, valuing the business near $3B post-money.
• The unit builds L4 self-driving taxis for Hello, the bike-sharing and ride-hailing platform, as a joint venture with battery maker CATL and payments giant Ant Group.
• The HR1, Hello Robotaxi's first mass-produced L4 vehicle, entered production in July 2026 and has already topped 100 units built at a Dongfeng Nissan plant.
• The $100M raised amounts to roughly 3.3% of the $3B post-money valuation, a token stake compared with the capital typically needed to scale a robotaxi fleet.
• Hello, Ant Group and CATL originally funded the venture with about $424M (3 billion yuan) in June 2025, and Alibaba added an undisclosed strategic investment that September.
• Hello Robotaxi's CFO says the new capital will fund R&D, a large GPU compute cluster and data pipelines, with plans to deepen operations across a dozen-plus Chinese cities through 2027 and enter three to five overseas markets.
• The deal shows Chinese state capital still backing platform-led robotaxi bets, even as scrutiny shifts from fleet-size announcements to safety records and real unit economics.