(Yicai) Nov. 25 -- Haomo.AI, a Chinese autonomous driving startup backed by Great Wall Motor, has halted operations until further notice, according to a report by Red Star Media.

Haomo.AI notified employees on Nov. 22 that they would be on leave from yesterday, the report said, citing staff. The Beijing-based company did not give any reasons nor say when operations would resume. Its main group chat was subsequently locked.

Haomo.AI has nearly 300 employees in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Baoding. Staff in Beijing said in August that the company had stopped paying salaries and was already two months in arrears, the report said.

The prevailing theory among employees about the sudden shutdown is that Haomo.AI failed to meet targets set in a performance-based contract, and litigation has resulted in the company's accounts being frozen, the report said.

Haomo.AI has not yet publicly responded to the report.

Haomo.AI has three business areas -- passenger vehicle smart assisted driving, last-mile self-driving delivery vehicles, and smart hardware -- and was spun out from Great Wall Motor’s advanced intelligent driving division in 2019. Along with Momenta, QCraft, and DeepRoute, it was among the first Chinese companies to mass-produce Level-2 and higher self-driving systems.

Haomo.AI has completed seven financing rounds, with participation by Great Wall Motor, Shougang Fund, GL Ventures, and Jiuzhi Capital, reaching a valuation of more than USD1 billion. Its most recent fundraiser was last December. Haomo.AI's actual controller is Great Wall Motor’s Chairman Wei Jianjun, with a 37 percent stake.

In October last year, media reports said Haomo.AI had suspended its initial public offering plans, which the firm denied at the time. One month later, Haomo.AI confirmed to Yicai speculation that it had let go some staff, which it characterized as routine organizational changes.

Editor: Futura Costaglione