Author | Zhang Lianyi Editor | Jiang Tianxiang
The largest single funding round in China's autonomous driving sector in 2026 has arrived.
On October 20, autonomous driving technology company Neolix announced the completion of a USD 400 million Series E funding round. Market data shows that this is the largest single funding round in China's autonomous driving sector this year. Including this round, Neolix's cumulative funding has exceeded USD 1.4 billion (approximately CNY 10 billion), ranking first in the RoboVan industry.
"This USD 400 million funding round is the result of over-subscription; the original plan was USD 200 million." On October 21, Neolix held a media communication meeting. Over the course of an hour and a half, founder Yu Enyuan provided a detailed introduction to the details of this funding, the current state of the company, and his judgment on the sector.
He introduced, "This round of funding is a continuation of last year's USD 600 million funding, which is mainly attributed to the rapid development of the sector, our own high-speed growth of 2 to 3 times, and the explosion of the overseas market."
In Yu Enyuan's view, unmanned delivery vehicles have reached the explosion standard in 2026, driven by two factors: favorable policies and application scale. "We will definitely grow by 2 to 3 times this year compared to last year, and it is estimated that we can grow by another 3 times next year. This trend may last for a very long time."
He judges that the industry has entered the "Spring and Autumn" period. He warmly welcomes diverse players to thrive and achieve open, win-win outcomes. Only when more people come can it become a true sector. What Neolix needs to do is to focus on its own business: building a globalized AI logistics infrastructure and making it universally beneficial worldwide.
01 Who is Betting on Neolix?
The most noteworthy aspect is the lead investors.
This round of funding was co-led by Boyu Investment and a certain national-level fund.
The official statement did not name the specific identity of the national-level fund, but market information points to the National AI Industry Investment Fund. This fund was established in January 2025, led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance, with the positioning of "investing early, investing small, and investing in frontier technologies."
Previously, this fund invested in Kimi, DeepSeek, Galbot, MetaX, and others. Its investment trajectory follows a clear line: large models, embodied AI, and AI chips, all of which are the hardest technical nodes in the AI industry chain. Unmanned delivery entering its scope means that in the regulatory classification, RoboVan has been upgraded from "an application scenario of autonomous driving" to "key infrastructure for AI implementation."
When national-level funds invest in a sector, they always pick the "top" target. This time, it picked Neolix.
The co-investment lineup is equally strong. Existing shareholders Leshi Capital, SoftBank Asia, Yizhuang State-owned Investment, and Gaorong continued to follow the investment; new faces such as Alibaba AEF NextGen Hong Kong Fund, Monolith, GGV Capital, Temasek Vertex Growth, Huaying, GAC Capital, and CP Robotics have successively joined. Eddy Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor for this round of funding.
Among them, two roles are worth highlighting separately.
The first is the Alibaba AEF NextGen Hong Kong Fund. Previously, Tencent joined in the Series D round. With Alibaba joining in this round, Neolix has gathered both internet giants. When internet capital looks at RoboVan, they are not looking at the vehicles, but at the connection method between orders and transport capacity. Alibaba has Cainiao's logistics network and the instant delivery needs of local life services. The interface between these scenarios and the unmanned transport capacity network offers more room for imagination than financial returns.
Interestingly, Alibaba's Cainiao previously injected its unmanned vehicle business into a competitor and became its shareholder. This time, the Alibaba-backed AEF NextGen Fund participated in Neolix's Series E funding.
In response, Yu Enyuan stated that Alibaba's participation in this round was through the Alibaba Innovation Fund, which is one of Alibaba's many funds. He does not believe it represents Alibaba's official attitude. Large platforms have independent business choices, and the key is to look at the value of the sector and the business closed loop.
The second is GAC Capital. The logic of automotive industry capital investing in RoboVan is completely different from that of internet capital. GAC Lingcheng and Neolix jointly rolled out the X6 model in August this year, and the cooperation between the two parties in complete vehicle manufacturing and the extension of branch line logistics vehicles is already underway. This investment is more like a locking action between the upstream and downstream of the industry chain.
Old and new shareholders share the stage, with industrial capital and financial investors side by side. This structure is not common in the current autonomous driving funding environment. When money is tight, financial investors look at the return cycle, industrial capital looks at the synergy space, and long-term shareholders look at the sustainability of commercialization. The simultaneous betting of these three types of people points to the same judgment: Neolix is the leader of the sector.
Where will the money go after the funding? Neolix has been very specific: first, deeply cultivating a refined operation network, accelerating the layout of localized service hubs in major global regional hubs, and building a more agile and efficient global customer fulfillment network; second, increasing investment in the data training closed loop of end-to-end large models, improving the safety level and vehicle performance of unmanned driving, and continuously reducing the operation and maintenance costs of vehicles throughout their life cycle.
A year ago, the Series D round of over USD 600 million set a record for a single autonomous driving funding round. Now, the Series E round of USD 400 million has become the largest single round in 2026. Sector investment is concentrating towards the head, making it difficult for other players to compare.
02 What Does Capital Value Most?
Founded in 2018, Neolix was preceded by the Neolix Longma team, which transformed into the autonomous driving field in 2016.
Founder Yu Enyuan is a veteran in the logistics industry. He once led a team to develop the first-generation PDA and express delivery lockers, holding patents. He has deep insights and cognitive accumulation in logistics scenarios. In 2016, when AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol, he decided to combine logistics vehicles with autonomous driving.
In the first few years after its establishment, Neolix completed multiple rounds of funding from the angel round to the Series C round. The investors covered financial institutions, industrial capital, and state-owned background funds, providing ammunition for technological breakthroughs and road access rights applications.
Then came the Series D round of over USD 600 million, refreshing the record for a single autonomous driving funding round; the Series E round of USD 400 million, becoming the largest single funding round in China's autonomous driving sector in 2026; cumulative funding has exceeded CNY 10 billion, ranking first in the RoboVan industry.
When asked what impressed the capital about Neolix, Yu Enyuan's answer was very straightforward: commercialization, going global, and technology, which are also the points investors care about most at present.
In terms of commercialization, the L4 sector has been developing for nearly 10 years. Capital is in urgent need of a successful commercialization case to prove that the sector is viable. If there is still no implementation in the next 2 to 3 years, it indicates that there is a problem with the sector itself. Unmanned delivery has taken on this task.
Yu Enyuan gave an example that during this round of funding, some funds raised doubts about the sector. However, after seeing Neolix's ten years of entrepreneurship and its long-term persistence in one thing—optimal TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)—and achieving progress, they quickly placed their bets. In the end, it is still long-term persistence that impresses people.
In terms of going global, Neolix's progress is even faster. As of now, it has set up offices in more than 20 countries. Among them, the Middle East is progressing rapidly, with orders exceeding 10,000 this year. However, affected by ship docking at ports over the past three months, less than 1,000 vehicles have been delivered. Next year, it is expected that tens of thousands of vehicles will be operating in the Middle East, and there may even be a single city with a scale exceeding that of cities in China. Several European countries have already conducted trial operations, South Korea has achieved scaled operation and maintenance, and there are also Southeast Asia and Latin America.
"The funding announced in this round did not mention overseas funding. In fact, overseas operations will take the form of joint ventures," Yu Enyuan added, stating that the internal strategy is for overseas revenue to exceed that of China within 3 to 6 years.
In terms of technology, capital is very concerned about whether advanced methods such as end-to-end, world models, and VLM/VLA can truly be implemented in L4 logistics.
Over the past year, Neolix has mainly focused on three major aspects in the technology field. First, from model selection, training, and data flywheel system to engineering delivery, there has been significant investment in infrastructure. Second, products. The comprehensive efficiency of new products this year is more than three times that of the past, and they are being gradually promoted. Third, the dispatch system. When unmanned vehicles reach a certain scale and density, they must rely on complex dispatch systems. "Among the top 10 cities with the most RoboVans globally, 4 are operated by us, with us as the main force."
While funding news continues to be released, market attention is also continuously heating up. Against the backdrop of cumulative funding exceeding CNY 10 billion and the global deployment of over 30,000 L4-level unmanned delivery vehicles, the market has given positive expectations for Neolix's valuation in this round and is also looking forward to its listing actions.
At the same time, Neolix has completed its share reform in industrial and commercial registration in 2026, which is usually a prerequisite for listing. If it succeeds, Neolix will become one of the most iconic listing cases in the unmanned delivery sector.
03 The Confidence Behind the Huge Funding
Money does not concentrate on a single company without a reason. Neolix's continuous completion of huge funding rounds is mainly supported by two levels. In Yu Enyuan's words: favorable policies and application scale.
In terms of policy, from the "14th Five-Year Plan" to the "15th Five-Year Plan", the policy focus has obviously shifted from "pilot verification" to "scaled implementation".
In the "15th Five-Year Plan", emphasis is placed on "accelerating the development of strategic emerging industries such as intelligent connected NEVs". Coupled with the "Implementation Opinions on 'AI + Postal Express Delivery'" released by the State Post Bureau, this means that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, unmanned logistics vehicles are expected to gradually bid farewell to the past stage of being limited to pilot projects in individual cities and enter a mature stage of commercialization. By 2030, they will be deeply embedded in the last-mile delivery links, becoming core transport capacity tools. At the same time, they will coordinate with drones, smart lockers, etc., to accelerate the digital reconstruction of postal and express delivery services.
A more specific example is that in the outline of the "15th Five-Year Plan", "promoting more public services to sink to the grassroots level and cover rural areas" was highlighted, emphasizing the need to "strengthen the supplementation of short boards in facilities such as logistics warehousing and rural parcel delivery". Shortly after the promulgation of the outline of the "15th Five-Year Plan", the State Post Bureau, together with China Post, launched the "Express Delivery to Villages" bottom-line pilot in 17 provinces in the central and western regions.
Obviously, the top-level design during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period no longer answers whether unmanned logistics vehicles "work" or "can be done", but directly focuses on "how to accelerate the comprehensive and orderly rollout under a compliant framework".
Not only at the national level, but local policies are also accelerating along the four main lines of "institutional improvement - scenario expansion - regional coordination - financial incentives" around the support system for intelligent connected vehicles and unmanned delivery, becoming a key force driving the scaled implementation of unmanned logistics vehicles.
In this process, the industry governance structure has also undergone important changes, with some enterprises beginning to shift from "passive executors" to "co-builders of institutional rules". Represented by Neolix unmanned vehicles, its proposed "Safety Redundancy Design Specifications for Low-Speed Unmanned Vehicles" has been included in the road access rights management systems in Beijing, Shanghai, and other places.
It can be understood that unmanned delivery vehicles are being promoted within the framework of reducing costs and increasing efficiency in logistics and new quality productive forces. For a company that has already achieved scale, this is a more tangible benefit than subsidies.
In terms of application scale, Neolix is no less impressive.
Over the past year, Neolix has deeply cultivated scenarios such as express delivery and night delivery, creating the world's largest unmanned delivery transport capacity network. Currently, it has deployed over 30,000 L4-level unmanned delivery vehicles globally, covering nearly 20 countries and over 300 cities. The fleet's cumulative autonomous driving operation mileage has exceeded 260 million kilometers, with a daily increase of over 1 million kilometers. In multiple domestic cities such as Qingdao, Linyi, and Hangzhou, the single-city deployment of Neolix unmanned vehicles has exceeded 1,000.
Application scenarios are also continuously expanding. In the early stage, Neolix unmanned vehicles started through the express delivery scenario, basically achieving full coverage of SF Express, JD.com, China Post, ZTO, YTO, STO, and Yunda, and J&T Express. Since 2025, the transport capacity services have been expanded to multiple fields such as building materials, factories, fresh produce, medicine, group meals, and auto parts.
At the same time, Neolix has carried out night delivery in Shenzhen, Qingdao, and other places. In Shenzhen alone, 437 night delivery routes have been expanded. This not only revitalized idle road resources at night and made up for the short board of the city's night supply chain, but also reduced operating costs by 30%.
As Yu Enyuan said, the industry has entered the "Spring and Autumn" period. After the "Spring and Autumn" period comes the "Warring States" period. He welcomes more people to enter the market, but what Neolix needs to do is to continuously densify its network.
After all, having completed huge funding rounds for two consecutive years, what Neolix wants to build is no longer just an unmanned delivery fleet, but points to a farther coordinate: localized service hubs in major global regional hubs, the data training closed loop of end-to-end large models, and a global unmanned logistics infrastructure network driven by AI.
Yu Enyuan revealed that Neolix's internal strategy is to achieve overseas revenue exceeding domestic revenue in China within 3 to 6 years. Driving global unmanned logistics infrastructure with AI has not been successfully walked through by any Chinese company before. Neolix wants to be the first to try.