Pony.ai: Toyota pays over GHC400 million as driverless car startup raises over GHC2 billion in funds
- A driverless car startup, Pony.ai, has raised a total of $462 million in funding at a $3 billion valuation
- This follows an earlier round of funding in which it realized almost $265 million
- After the capital injection, the company is currently the second most valuable independent autonomous driving company in the world
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Toyota came in as the biggest spender as a driverless car startup, Pony.ai, raised $462 million at a $3 billion valuation.
In a show of confidence by investors for driverless cars, the fresh capital positions the Guangzhou and Fremont, California-based startup’s total raised to about $800 million.
The latest move, per a report by venturebeat.com, adds to previous venture rounds just shy of $265 million in total.
Source: UGC
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For reasons of comparison, Pony.ai’s rival, Aurora’ previous tranche was valued at $530 million at a reported $2.5 billion valuation.
A subsidiary of GM, Cruise Automation, regarded as one of the best-funded autonomous vehicle ventures has an estimated $14.6 billion valuation.
A Pony.ai spokesperson revealed that the company is currently the second most valuable independent autonomous driving company in the world.
The company is therefore branding itself as the global company with operations in China and the United States of America (USA).
Source: UGC
In other news, Ghana has initiated a process of restructuring expensive energy contracts as it seeks to reduce costs in that sector.
In that respect, it is considering a plan to buy out debts of independent power producers in a bid to reduce its power bill. Ghana, regarded as West Africa’s second biggest economy, pays about $500 million every year for power it does not consume.
READ ALSO: Ghana reviews expensive power contracts in a bid to cut down costs
Per a Bloomberg report, talks are underway to ensure that the practice is halted as soon as possible.
YEN.com.gh understands that such deals, in which the government pays for power whether or not supplies were needed, have left the country with almost double the generation capacity it requires to meet peak demand of 2,700 megawatts.
Information available shows that the government intends to take over loans of companies from financial institutions.
This would be done through the state-owned Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund at less challenging repayment terms.
The government has also opened talks with multilateral lenders such as the African Development Bank and International Finance Corp. to join as investors.
Source: UGC
It has been estimated that a cheaper source of finance would reduce producers’ costs.
In exchange, the government would demand would require that it only pays for powers it needs.
Eventually, the plan would give Ghana the opportunity to retain its generation capacity and save on expenses incurred on infrastructure.
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