Waymo, the autonomous driving technology developer spun off by US-headquartered internet and technology group Alphabet, raised $2.5bn in funding yesterday from investors including its former parent company.
Automotive retailer AutoNation and automotive component manufacturer Magna International also took part in the round, as did investment and financial services group Fidelity Management & Research.
Sovereign wealth funds Mubadala and Temasek filled out the round together with Andreessen Horowitz, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Perry Creek Capital, Silver Lake, Tiger Global Management and funds and accounts advised by T Rowe Price.
Waymo is developing an autonomous driving system called Waymo Driver for use in driverless vehicles in the taxi, package delivery and freight industries. It has launched an autonomous taxi service in the US city of Phoenix and has a logistics offshoot dubbed Waymo Via.
The funding will be channelled into enhancing Waymo Driver, which has powered test drives in some 25 US cities, in addition to upping headcount.
The company reportedly closed its first external funding round at $3.2bn in July 2020, at a $30bn valuation, having pulled in $750m from investors including Fidelity, Perry Creek Capital and funds and accounts advised by T Rowe Price two months earlier.
Alphabet, Magna, AutoNation, Silver Lake, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Mubadala Investment Company and Andreessen Horowitz had supplied $2.25bn for Waymo in March the same year.
