Alibaba-backed bike-sharing platform Hellobike has officially entered the robotaxi market through a new joint venture with tech giant Ant Group and battery leader CATL,signaling increased competition in China's autonomous driving industry.
The new venture was established in Shanghai with registered capital of 1.288 billion yuan($179.18 million),which will focus on research&development,safety applications,and commercial deployment of L4-level autonomous driving technology,according to a statement sent to the Global Times on Monday.
The joint venture is backed by the subsidiary companies of the three parties,and the three parties have committed total initial investment exceeding 3 billion yuan.The three parties signed a tripartite strategic cooperation agreement in April.
Hellobike said that it has built a core R&D team for its robotaxi operations,recruiting specialists in artificial intelligence foundation models and autonomous driving.The company plans to continue attracting global talent to support the new venture,the statement said.
Founded in 2016 and with its headquarters in Shanghai,Hellobike started as a bike-sharing platform.As of the end of 2024,Hellobike reported more than 800 million registered users,with its bike-sharing services logging more than 46.4 billion kilometers,and more than 2.5 billion ride requests completed through its carpooling service,according to its environmental,social,and governance report released on June 5,2025.
Hellobike is not the first Chinese mobility platform to bet on robotaxi services.Chinese tech giant Baidu in 2013 launched the test of its autonomous driving branch Apollo Go,and it began autonomous driving tests early.It officially rolled out robotaxi services in 2021.
Apollo Go now operates across 11 major domestic cities including Beijing,Shanghai,Wuhan in Central China's Hubei Province and Guangzhou and Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province,among others,its official website showed.
As of May this year,Apollo Go has provided more than 11 million rides with over 1,000 fully driverless vehicles deployed to 15 cities globally,said a statement from the Baidu.
Taxi-hailing platform Didi has also invested in autonomous driving by upgrading its autonomous driving department to an individual company in August 2019,and it obtained permits for open-road autonomous vehicle testing in Beijing,Shanghai,Suzhou,Hefei,Guangzhou,and the US state of California,as well as receiving the first batch of intelligent connected vehicle pilot operation licenses issued by the Shanghai government,according to its official website.
Analysts said that as China ramps up its push toward intelligent mobility and urban automation,new players'entry into the robotaxi field reflects the intensifying race to claim a share of a market that is expected to reshape the future of transport.
According to a research report by Goldman Sachs,China's robotaxi market is projected to grow from$54 million in 2025 to$12 billion by 2030,eventually reaching$47 billion by 2035,with a compound annual growth rate exceeding 96 percent.
