Cainiao has become a strategic shareholder in Zelos through a combination of injecting its own autonomous vehicle business and a cash investment.

‌Zelos, founded in 2021, is an autonomous driving logistics vehicle company focused on the development of L4-level autonomous driving technology and its commercial application in urban logistics scenarios.‌

On October 21, 2025, Zelos announced the completion of its Series B4 funding round, raising $100 million. This round was led by Ant Group, with participation from both new and existing investors including Blue Lake Capital and Baidu Ventures. To date, Zelos has raised a total of $400 million in its Series B rounds, making it one of the largest fundraising events for a Chinese tech company in 2025.

At the end of 2025, market rumors emerged that Cainiao was in talks with Zelos, flirting the idea to merge Cainiao's autonomous vehicle business into Zelos in order to consolidate its industry position.

As of January 2026, Zelos delivered over 17,000 autonomous vehicles, deployed in more than 300 cities across China, and expanded internationally to six countries including Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. Its Z-series models serve a variety of scenarios, including express delivery, pharmaceuticals, and fresh produce, even reaching complex terrains such as the Daliang Mountains in Sichuan province and agricultural and pastoral areas in Inner Mongolia, demonstrating strong technological adaptability.

Cainiao Autonomous Vehicles, backed by Alibaba and Cainiao’s logistics ecosystem, boasts deep logistics operations expertise and global network resources. Cainiao’s technological strength is rooted in Alibaba’s long-term, intensive R&D investment in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence and machine vision, establishing a significant industry advantage.

After the integration, Zelos will reportedly receive the Cainiao Autonomous Vehicle brand authorization, launching a dual-brand strategy and jointly building the RoboVan supercarrier ecosystem. The Cainiao Autonomous Vehicle brand will continue to operate independently and maintain its identity as an Alibaba-invested and incubated ecosystem company.

In future market planning, Zelos and Cainiao's unmanned vehicle will establish distinct, differentiated brand positions: Zelos will continue to focus on in-house, full-stack autonomous driving technology, providing intelligent transportation solutions for all scenarios; Cainiao's unmanned vehicle, leveraging its logistics technology background, will focus on delivering in-depth services for specific scenarios.

The products of both brands will share technology, coordinate operations, and exchange resources, working together to build a future-oriented RoboVan super ecosystem and achieve win-win development across different market dimensions. It is worth noting that the management and technical leaders of Cainiao's unmanned vehicle will also be deeply involved in future strategic planning and operational management.

According to informed sources, this deep integration will effectively combine Cainiao’s operational expertise in the global logistics network with Zelos’ R&D strengths in autonomous vehicles and algorithms, optimizing the allocation of resources for both parties and further enhancing Zelos’ technological reserves and core competitiveness in the L4-level autonomous driving sector. (Author | Zhang Min, Editor | Li Chengcheng)