Chinese autonomous driving startup Momenta said it has received a strategic investment from Southeast Asian super app Grab, deepening Grab’s involvement in autonomous mobility following a similar investment in WeRide.
Momenta announced the investment on Thursday without disclosing the amount. The companies said the partnership will focus on accelerating the adoption of autonomous driving technologies in Southeast Asia, particularly in densely populated cities with complex traffic conditions.
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Grab, which operates a super app integrating ride-hailing, food delivery and digital payments across the region, will work with Momenta to explore self-driving services tailored to local urban environments, the Chinese company said.
Momenta said it is collaborating with automakers including Mercedes-Benz and BMW to deploy advanced driver assistance systems in mass-produced vehicles, while simultaneously advancing research and development of robotaxi technology toward commercial fleet operations.
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Unlike some robotaxi developers, Momenta said it repurposes mass-produced vehicles for autonomous operations, using a unified software algorithm and sensor architecture that supports both Level 2 assisted driving and Level 4 autonomous driving. The approach allows autonomous capabilities to be deployed without costly vehicle retrofitting, the company said.
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Suzhou, near Shanghai, Momenta operates in China and several overseas markets including Germany, Japan and the United States. The company counts SAIC Motor, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Bosch among its strategic investors.
One of Momenta’s co-founders, Ren Shaoqing, joined Nio in 2020 to lead its smart driving research and development. In May this year, Momenta also entered into a robotaxi partnership with Uber Technologies.
Grab’s investment makes Momenta the second Chinese autonomous driving company backed by the Southeast Asian firm, after WeRide announced a multi-million-dollar equity investment commitment from Grab in August to support its regional expansion.