Source: Zhiche Technology, Public Information
On October 20, Neolix announced the official closing of its Series E funding round of nearly USD 400 million.
This round of financing was co-led by Boyu Capital and a certain national-level fund. Participating investors included Alibaba AEF NextGen Hong Kong Fund, Monolith, GGV Capital, Vertex Growth under Temasek, Huaying Capital, GAC Capital, Golding Capital, Langmafeng Ventures, CP Robotics, Linghang Xinjie, and Gaotu Capital. Early and long-term shareholders such as Stone Venture, CITIC Capital, Gaocheng Investment, Yunqi Partners, SoftBank Asia, Yizhuang Guotou, Zhechuang Investment, Huixin Fund, CDH VGC, Zhaoxi Capital, Clory Ventures, Shanshui Capital, and Gaorong Capital continued to follow on. Gaotu Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor for this round.
Neolix disclosed that this round represents the largest single funding record in the domestic unmanned delivery sector this year. To date, the company's cumulative financing has exceeded CNY 10 billion, ranking first in the unmanned delivery vehicle industry in terms of funding scale. According to previous media reports, Neolix raised over USD 600 million in its previous Series D round, which once set the record for private financing in China's autonomous driving sector.
Entry of a National-Level Fund and Cross-Layout of Alibaba-Backed Capital
The biggest highlight of this funding round is the co-leadership by a national-level fund and Boyu Capital. Neolix officially referred to it as "a certain national-level fund." According to market sources, this fund is the National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund. If true, this will be the fund's first foray into the autonomous driving and unmanned logistics tracks. The fund has previously invested in leading AI enterprises such as Kimi by Moonshot AI, DeepSeek, Galbot, and MetaX.
Among the participating investors, the Alibaba AEF NextGen Hong Kong Fund joined this round, clearly signaling that Alibaba-backed capital is further increasing its bets on last-mile logistics automation. Public information shows that the AEF NextGen Fund was initiated by the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund in Hong Kong in December 2024 and is managed by NextGen Partners. It focuses on investing in AI applications and growth-stage enterprises, providing global expansion resources and support for portfolio companies.
In addition to Alibaba-backed capital, Tencent also entered the picture in the 2025 Series D funding round. Consequently, Neolix has become a company in the RoboVan track with shareholder backgrounds from both internet giants, Tencent and Alibaba, although the specific shareholding ratios and cooperation arrangements were not disclosed.
Alibaba-backed capital had previously entered the shareholder and business system of Zelos. On January 29 this year, Zelos and Cainiao Unmanned Vehicle announced a deep strategic integration. Cainiao became a shareholder of Zelos through methods such as injecting its unmanned vehicle business and making cash investments, while it no longer directly produces and sells unmanned vehicles. After the integration, Zelos operates a dual-brand strategy: the Zelos brand covers a broader range of autonomous driving logistics scenarios, while "Cainiao Unmanned Vehicle" focuses on specific scenarios and key accounts.
Thus, Alibaba-backed capital has formed a cross-layout in the two leading RoboVan enterprises, but with different participating entities and methods: Cainiao's involvement with Zelos covers business, branding, and customer scenarios, whereas AEF NextGen's involvement with Neolix is purely fund investment. This cross-layout has also drawn more attention to the competition between the two leading companies.
From the perspective of industry competition, Zelos and Neolix have previously engaged in direct confrontations over pricing, customers, and financing pace. Zelos once launched the E6 model, reducing the bare vehicle price to CNY 19,800; Neolix, in turn, introduced a limited-time offer of "pick up the car with a down payment of CNY 888." The pace of financing disclosures was also closely matched: after Zelos announced its USD 100 million Series B4 round led by Ant Group, bringing the cumulative Series B funding to USD 400 million, Neolix subsequently disclosed its Series D round of over USD 600 million. As Alibaba-backed capital has now emerged behind both companies, industry competition is shifting from single-dimensional financing and price wars to a comprehensive contest involving operational stability, service coverage, and overseas mass delivery capabilities. Shareholder backgrounds may overlap, but customer choices will still depend on cost, efficiency, and actual usage outcomes.
Continuous Advancement in Operational Scale, Technology System, and Global Layout
Following the closing of the funding, the capital will be primarily invested in two directions: first, deepening the refined operational network and accelerating the deployment of localized service hubs in major global regional hubs to build a more agile and efficient global customer fulfillment network; second, increasing investment in the closed-loop data training of end-to-end large models to further elevate the safety level and vehicle performance of autonomous driving, while continuously reducing the operation and maintenance costs throughout the vehicle's lifecycle.
At the technical level, Neolix continues to develop vision-centric end-to-end large models and builds an "operation, data, algorithm" data flywheel through a unified architecture combining cloud, edge, and vehicle models. The company stated that as the fleet size expands, the efficiency of data collection, scenario recognition, data processing, and model iteration will be further improved, thereby feeding back into algorithm generalization capabilities and scaled deployment efficiency.
In terms of operational scale, according to the company's disclosure, Neolix has deployed over 30,000 L4 autonomous delivery vehicles in more than 20 countries and over 300 cities globally. The fleet's cumulative autonomous driving operational mileage has exceeded 260 million kilometers, with over 1 million kilometers added daily. Domestically, single-city deployments in cities such as Qingdao, Linyi, and Hangzhou have exceeded 1,000 vehicles; Shenzhen has expanded to 437 night delivery routes. Night delivery not only revitalizes road resources but also reduces operational costs by approximately 30%. Application scenarios started from express delivery, covering customers such as SF Express, JD.com, China Post, "ZTO, YTO, STO, and Yunda," and J&T Express, and have expanded to fields like building materials, factories, fresh produce, pharmaceuticals, group meals, and auto parts.
Regarding globalization, Neolix initiated its overseas layout early in the industry. Currently, it has obtained the RoboVan commercial operation license in Abu Dhabi in the Middle East and is advancing scaled deployment with the UAE-based K2 Group; its European headquarters has been established in Luxembourg, conducting road tests in Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, and other countries; in Asia, unmanned vehicles have been deployed in South Korea and Japan, with substantial progress in projects in Singapore and Malaysia. The company claims that its overseas delivery scale ranks among the top in the global unmanned delivery vehicle industry. Overseas markets still require addressing issues such as local market access, data compliance, insurance, and operational guarantees. The funding provided and investor resources will influence the pace of advancing related projects.
Accelerating Formation of Policy Environment and Enhanced Expectations for Scaled Operations
Since 2026, policy and institutional arrangements related to unmanned delivery have significantly accelerated. In July, the Ministry of Transport stated that it would further promote the digital and intelligent empowerment of transportation and logistics during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period and plan to carry out pilot programs for the standardized application of unmanned express delivery vehicles. In August, the NDRC and the MOT jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Logistics Network Construction," specifically promoting the commercial operation of unmanned delivery and low-altitude logistics equipment in express and instant delivery scenarios, placing unmanned delivery vehicles within the framework of reducing logistics costs, improving efficiency, and developing new quality productive forces. In September, the MIIT and eight other departments issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicle Industry," explicitly promoting multi-scenario application pilots for functional unmanned vehicles. The gradual clarification of the policy framework provides institutional expectations for unmanned delivery to transition from demonstration pilots to scaled commercial operations.
Yu Enyuan, founder of Neolix, stated: "The integration of autonomous driving technology into daily logistics and the creation of real net economic benefits are becoming a pillar supporting the circulation of the modern economy. Through our efforts, the company hopes to build an efficient and reliable unmanned vehicle transport network, drive global unmanned logistics infrastructure with AI, and help inclusive logistics truly materialize."
Boyu Capital stated that Neolix took the lead in exploring the creation of a nationwide transport network through Robovans, providing accessible unmanned transport services to numerous benchmark customers in the industry, and achieving scaled on-the-ground delivery in multiple overseas countries, verifying the global competitiveness of the company's products. Boyu will continue to support Neolix in consolidating its industry leadership and assist leading Chinese technology enterprises in expanding into global markets.
As the policy and institutional environment gradually clarifies and the fleet sizes of leading companies continue to expand, the focus of competition in the unmanned delivery industry is shifting from demonstration pilots and price thresholds to stable operations, service coverage, and overseas mass delivery capabilities. How state-owned and industrial capital will participate subsequently, and how the cross-layout of Alibaba-backed capital between Zelos and Neolix will evolve, will become key variables in observing the competitive landscape of the unmanned delivery industry in the next stage.