US-based autonomous shuttle transport provider May Mobility collected $22m on Tuesday in a series A round that included electronics conglomerate LG as well as carmakers BMW and Toyota.
The round was co-led by investment adviser Cyrus Capital Partners and Millennium New Horizons, a fund managed by growth equity firm Millennium Technology Partners, and also featured accelerator Y Combinator, Maven Ventures and Thayer Ventures.
LG, BMW and Toyota participated though their respective corporate venturing subsidiaries: LG Technology Ventures, BMW i Ventures and Toyota AI Ventures.
Founded in 2017, May Mobility has developed self-driving shuttle buses that are used by private and public passengers for short trips in the US cities of Detroit and Columbus.
The company plans to use the series A funding to expand its services into other cities later this year, beginning with Grand Rapids, Michigan and Providence, Rhode Island. It has now raised $37m in funding altogether.
BMW i Ventures and Toyota AI Venture co-led May Mobility’s $11.5m seed round in March 2018, investing alongside SV Angel, Y Combinator, Maven Ventures, Tandem Ventures and Trucks Ventures, adding to a $3.5m seed round backed by the latter three in 2017.
Alisyn Malek, May Mobility’s chief operating officer, said: “Communities throughout the US are struggling to provide convenient and reliable transportation services, and our model is already being deployed to solve real parking, traffic, and land management issues for municipalities, developers and business customers.
“This new round of funding will help us expand existing routes and allow us to serve new partners as we accelerate our growth this year.”