UK-based self-driving technology developer Wayve completed a $200m series B round yesterday featuring software provider Microsoft, online grocer Ocado and conglomerate Virgin, suggesting further growth in the autonomous vehicle (AV) space.
Venture capital firm Eclipse Ventures led the round, which included D1 Capital Partners, Baillie Gifford, Moore Strategic Ventures, Linse Capital, Compound Ventures and Balderton Capital as well as private investors Sir Richard Branson, Rosemary Leith, Linda Levinson, David Richter, Pieter Abbeel and Yann LeCun.
Founded in 2017, Wayve is developing an artificial intelligence and machine learning-equipped software tool that facilitates self-driving functions for vans and other commercial vehicles. The round took its overall funding to more than $258m.
The company received $13.6m from Ocado in October 2021 through a partnership centred on an autonomous delivery trial in the city of London this year, seven months after raising an undisclosed amount from Virgin.
Ocado had also invested $13.8m in another UK-based AV technology developer, Oxbotica, in April 2021, though that company however focuses on self-driving applied in a warehouse setting rather than in urban environments.
The money will be used to increase headcount and further improve and expand Wayve’s logistics-focused AV technology globally. It is using the compute and storage infrastructure of Microsoft’s cloud computing service, Azure, to increase its machine learning capabilities.
Alex Kendall, co-founder and chief executive of Wayve, said: “We were the first team to develop the scientific breakthroughs in deep learning to build autonomous driving technology that can easily scale to new markets using a data-learned approach.
“Today, we have all of the pieces in place to take what we have pioneered and drive AV2.0 forward. We have brought together world-class strategic partners in transportation, grocery delivery and compute, along with the best capital resources to scale our core autonomy platform, trial products with our commercial fleet partners and build the infrastructure to scale AV2.0 globally.”
Eclipse Ventures, Balderton Capital and Compound Ventures had all joined Fly Ventures, First Minute Capital and multiple angel investors to provide $20m in series A financing for Wayve in 2019, reportedly boosting its total funding to $23.1m.
Supermarket chain Asda had formed a trial agreement with Wayve in September 2021 to test the latter’s autonomous delivery offering in London.
Image courtesy of Wayve Technologies Ltd.
