Uber and Wayve will launch a public AV road trial in London this spring.
London-based driver technology manufacturer Wayve has raised $1.2bn in a Series D round, bringing the startup founded in 2017 to a post-money valuation of $8.6bn. The Financial Times reported on Wave’s big promotion plans in early October last year.
The billion-dollar round announced today (February 25) was led by Eclipse, Balderton and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and brought new investment from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Baillie Gifford, British Business Bank, Icehouse Ventures, and Schroders Capital, among others.
The Series D has received the backing of US-based taxi service platform Uber, which has big plans to become the world’s leading roboaxi service provider. Last January, Uber partnered with Wayve to launch a public road trial of autonomous vehicles (AV) in London, which will begin this spring.
The company has committed more money to Wayve to support the multi-year deployment of its AI-powered robot on the Uber network. Plans include testing Wave-powered Uber robotaxis in more than 10 markets around the world.
As part of the partnership, Wayve will be deploying its AI ‘driver’ in vehicles with level 4 (L4) capability and participating automakers. The L4 has advanced AV capability, which allows AI systems to “act with human-like judgment” when driving.
L2 vehicles, which allow for autonomous steering and navigation under human guidance, will be available for general consumers to purchase from 2027, Wayve said.
Other supporters in this new round include Nvidia, Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Stellantis.
Nvidia revealed a family of open-source AI models in January that target advanced inference-based AVs. Last year, CEO Jensen Huang even stated that robotaxis represents Nvidia’s second largest growth market after AI. Nvidia already agreed to pay Wayve back for $500m last September.
Wayve licenses its AI driving technology directly to automakers, giving them the tools to customize driving models for their specific vehicles. The system runs entirely on the car’s computer and doesn’t rely on high-definition maps or specific terrain engineering, the company elaborated.
In the past year, Wayve has been the first and only AV creator to test its technology in more than 500 cities across Europe, North America and Japan without city-specific tuning before deployment.
“Since we’ve raised $1.5bn, we’re building an all-in-one automotive marketplace,” said Alex Kendall, the company’s co-founder and CEO.
“Autonomy will not only be limited to city-to-city robotics. It will reach a trusted platform that automakers and aircraft manufacturers can use around the world and continue to develop. This investment accelerates our path to widespread commercial deployment and positions us to build an autonomous layer that will power any vehicle anywhere.”
Commenting on the Financial Times, Kendall said that Wayve is moving from R&D to commercialization.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber added: “Wayve’s powerful end-to-end approach is purpose-built for scalability, security, and efficiency, and we’re excited to work with them across OEMs and multiple geographies, which we’ll be sharing more about soon.”
Wayve’s Alphabet-founded rival Waymo recently secured $16bn in funding as it plans to expand its AV services to 20 more cities including London and Tokyo.
The UK startup has raised more than $1bn in a Series C round in 2024 backed by Nvidia and Microsoft. Former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak called it the biggest investment ever made in a UK AI company.
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