US-based autonomous transport service provider May Mobility completed a $50m series B round yesterday that was led by carmaker Toyota Motor, which invested alongside its corporate venturing unit, Toyota AI Ventures.
Another automotive manufacturer BMW also took part, through subsidiary BMW I Ventures, and the round included Sparx Group, Millennium Technology Value Partners and Cyrus Capital Partners.
Founded in 2017, May Mobility runs autonomous, electric-powered shuttle buses with the aim of making short urban passenger routes more accessible on behalf of transit providers and corporate clients.
The company currently runs three pilot services in Michigan and Rhode Island that have collectively made more than 170,000 revenue-generating rides for public and private-sector partners.
May Mobility will invest the series B funding in recruiting more specialists in engineering and operations and beefing up its fleet in anticipation of future contracts. It said it has now received a total of $84m in funding.
BMW iVentures and Toyota AI Ventures co-led the company’s seed round, which closed at $11.5m in March 2018 with backing from Maven Ventures, Tandem Ventures, Trucks Ventures, SV Angel and Y Combinator.
The corporates joined LG Technology Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of electronics group LG, in a $22m series A round for May Mobility in February this year. It was co-led by Cyrus Capital and Millennium New Horizons and included Y Combinator, Maven Ventures and Thayer Ventures.