WeRide
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Autonomous driving technology |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Founder | Tony Han |
| Headquarters | San Jose , United States |
Area served | China, United States, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, France |
Key people | Tony Han (Founder) |
Number of employees | 2000+ (2025) |
WeRide Inc. () specializes in autonomous driving technologies and holds driverless operation permits across several countries, including China, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and France.
History
Established in Silicon Valley in 2017 by Tony Han, who formerly served as Chief Scientist at Baidu's Autonomous Driving Unit, WeRide maintains offices in San Jose, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. By 2025, its workforce exceeds 2,000 employees.
By November 2020, WeRide had completed 147,128 Robotaxi trips, catering to more than 60,000 riders. In January 2021, the company introduced the Mini Robobus. By April of the same year, it obtained a driverless testing permit in California and launched the WeRide Robovan autonomous cargo van in September. In December 2021, WeRide partnered with Bayanat to conduct an autonomous taxi pilot on Yas Island in the UAE.
In May 2022, a collaboration with Bosch was initiated to advance Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS). Operations commenced in Singapore by September alongside a strategic partnership with Strides, a subsidiary of SMRT.
At CES 2023, WeRide revealed its Sensor Suite 5.1 designed for autonomous vehicles. It became the first entity in the UAE to receive a national self-driving vehicle license and earned two critical permits from Singapore’s Land Transport Authority by December for testing on public roads and pathways. April 2024 saw the debut of the Robosweeper S1 autonomous sanitation vehicle. The following month included partnerships with Renault Group and Singapore’s Chye Thiam Maintenance to enhance Robosweeper deployment.
In June 2024, WeRide announced a strategic alliance with Uber to incorporate its autonomous vehicles into Uber’s platform within the UAE, initiating robotaxi services in Abu Dhabi.
October 2024 marked WeRide’s initial public offering on Nasdaq under ticker WRD, raising $439.9 million and becoming the first publicly traded company focused on universal autonomous driving and robotaxi services.
Early 2025 involved participation in a Swiss autonomous driving pilot project sponsored by Zurich Canton and Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). February witnessed the launch of Robovan W5 alongside Europe’s inaugural fully driverless Robobus shuttle service in Drôme, France through collaborations with beti, Renault Group, and Macif. Additionally, the Robotaxi GXR model was introduced in Beijing.
By March 2025, WeRide submitted an application for a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Robotaxis
| Country | City | Status | Launch date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | Beijing | Full commercial service |
| ||
| Guangzhou | Full commercial service |
| |||
| Ordos | Full commercial service |
| |||
| Shanghai | Full commercial service |
| |||
| Suzhou | Template:Coming soon | — | |||
| Saudi Arabia | Riyadh | Safety-driver service | – | ||
| Switzerland | Zurich | Template:Coming soon | '2026' | ||
| United Arab Emirates | Abu Dhabi | Full commercial service |
| ||
| Dubai | Template:Coming soon | — | |||
| Ras Al Khaimah | Template:Coming soon | — |
Financing
In September 2017, WeRide obtained $52 million in a pre-Series A funding round, with leading contributions from Qiming Venture Partners, Sinovation Ventures, and Nvidia.
By October 2018, the company successfully closed its Series A round, spearheaded by the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance as the principal investor.
In January 2021, WeRide secured $310 million through a Series B financing event, including a $200 million investment from Yutong Group. Returning investors such as Qiming Venture Partners, Sinovation Ventures, and Kinzon Capital also took part in this round.
May 2021 marked the completion of a $310 million Series C funding round at a valuation of $3.3 billion. This round was supported by IDG Capital, Hechuang Investment, CoStone Capital, Cypress Star, Sky9 Capital, and K3 Ventures. Previous backers like CMC Capital and AlpView Capital also joined this financing. Later that year in December, GAC Group made a strategic investment aimed at advancing robotaxi technology.
In January 2022, WeRide’s Series D financing was led by Asia Investment Capital—a China-UAE sovereign fund—alongside Bosch, GAC Group, and Carlyle Investment Group, elevating the company’s valuation to $4.4 billion. Subsequently, in November 2022, a Series D+ round led by China Development Bank Capital further raised the valuation to $5.1 billion.
Most recently in October 2023, WeRide filed for an initial public offering on Nasdaq valued at approximately $119.4 million while simultaneously arranging a $320.5 million private placement. The offering plans to release 6.5 million shares as part of the public listing.