Hello Robotaxi is building Level 4 taxis for city passenger services, combining a self-driving system with vehicles designed for managed fleets. Shanghai Zaofu Intelligent Technology, the venture behind the business, announced approximately $100 million in new funding at a post-money valuation of nearly $3 billion, Yicai reported on Sept. 16. A fund manager controlled by Shanghai State-owned Capital Investment led the round.
The product is the HR1, a robotaxi derived from Dongfeng’s Venucia VX6 rather than a consumer car fitted with autonomous-driving equipment after sale. Dongfeng says its manufacturing arm supplies the production vehicle while Hello contributes the self-driving system. The first vehicles are designated for demonstration operations in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
For a rider, Level 4 means the vehicle’s system can handle the driving without human intervention within specified conditions. Behind the ride sits a separate operational job: fleet management, vehicle assets and daily maintenance have to work together. Guangzhou Daily reported that Hello signed partners to build those supporting systems as HR1 production started in July.
Scale remains mostly a company claim and rollout plan. Zaofu said more than 100 HR1s have left the production line, while Yicai reported that it holds robotaxi testing qualifications in Guangzhou and Changzhou. The company targets more than 50,000 vehicles in 2027; Dongfeng says its planned operating footprint covers at least 10 Chinese cities across 2026 and 2027. The distance between more than 100 vehicles built and 50,000 deployed is the central execution challenge.
The new money is aimed at a 10,000-GPU computing cluster, continued development of end-to-end driving models and a data supply chain to support that work. That is more than factory spending: Zaofu also needs the computing and driving data required to improve the system as the intended fleet grows.
Zaofu was formed in June 2025 by Hello in collaboration with Ant Group and CATL, with Alibaba later making a strategic investment. Hello’s website says its broader mobility platform spans bike sharing, carpooling, car rental and battery swapping and has more than 800 million registered users. That places the robotaxi venture alongside an existing passenger-facing network while it builds the vehicle, software and fleet-operation layers.