US-based autonomous driving software and hardware developer Aurora Innovation has extended its series B round to more than $600m following an undisclosed amount of funding from investors including carmaker Hyundai Motor Group.
The tranche, which followed a $530m first close in February 2019, also featured Hyundai subsidiary Kia Motors, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Baillie Gifford. Hyundai’s investment was less than $30m according to TechCrunch, though it did not reveal whether that figure includes Kia’s share.
Sequoia Capital led the first tranche, investing with Shell Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of petroleum supplier Shell, as well as e-commerce and cloud services firm Amazon, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Geodesic Partners, Reinvent Capital, Greylock Partners, T. Rowe Price and Index Ventures.
Founded in 2016, Aurora is developing software, hardware and sensors that are designed to form the basis of a self-driving platform for driverless vehicles. It had formed a partnership with Hyundai prior to its investment to integrate the technology into Hyundai’s flagship fuel cell vehicle, and it will now work on a wider range of Hyundai and Kia Motor models.
Youngcho Chi, president and chief innovation officer of Hyundai Motor Group, said: “Aurora is the leading innovator of self-driving technology and we look forward to building a stronger collaborative partnership with them.
“Working closely with industry leaders around the world will help us develop fully self-driving vehicles that are safe and innovative for our customers.”
The initial close valued Aurora at more than $2.5bn according to Bloomberg. It came after Aurora closed a $90m series A round in February 2018 that was backed by Index Ventures and Greylock.