Asia Tech Wire (July 11) -- Beijing-based Horizon Robotics, a self-driving computing solutions company, reorganized its smart driving algorithms team in early July to put more effort into developing high-level smart driving, according to Chinese media outlet LatePost.

Before the restructuring, Horizon's smart driving algorithms team was part of the "software platform product line," which consisted of three teams doing the low-level solution Mono, the mid-level solution Pilot, and the high-level solution SuperDrive, an article on Wednesday wrote.

The head of the high-level team is Su Jing, who is the former head of Huawei's intelligent driving product department and joined Horizon more than a year ago.

After the restructuring, Horizon's 100-plus person low-level solutions team will come together with the hundreds-strong high-level solutions team, which Su will head.

As of the end of 2023, it had 1,478 full-time R&D staff, or 71.5% of its workforce, according to the company's disclosure.

Founded in 2015, Horizon formally delivers mass-produced smart driving hardware and software products and technology solutions to automakers in 2021.

In late March this year, the company formally applied for listing in Hong Kong, with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and CITIC Capital as its joint sponsors.

Its IPO filing shows that Horizon has a valuation of $8.71 billion after completing a $210 million Series D financing at the end of 2023.

Since its inception, Horizon has been a popular choice among investors, having raised 15 times in 11 rounds of financing by the time it filed for its IPO.

Investors include Chinese automakers such as SAIC Motor, Great Wall Motor, BYD, FAW Group, and Chery Automobile, as well as well-known Chinese investment institutions such as HongShan, Sequoia Capital's China spin-off, Hillhouse Investment, and CICC Capital.

In addition, Intel, SK hynix, CATL, Luxshare Precision and other companies have also invested in Horizon.