Autonomous driving start-up secures Uber partnership and future investment to deploy robotaxis
Waabi has raised $750 million in an oversubscribed Series C round and secured additional milestone-based investment from Uber to launch robotaxis powered by the Waabi Driver on the Uber platform.
The autonomous driving start-up said the round was co-led by US venture capital firms Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners. Strategic backers include Uber, NVIDIA’s NVentures, Volvo Group Venture Capital and Porsche Automobil Holding SE.
Financial investors include funds managed by BlackRock, Radical Ventures, HarbourVest Partners, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Linse Capital and Incharge Capital.
Canadian investors in the round include BDC Capital’s Thrive Venture Fund, Export Development Canada, TELUS Global Ventures and BMO Global Asset Management.
“Waabi’s Physical AI Platform has enabled us to hit an industry-leading pace in the development and commercialisation of autonomous trucks over the past few years,” said Raquel Urtasun, founder and chief executive of Waabi.
Waabi said it would partner exclusively with Uber to deploy autonomous vehicles and that Uber would provide further capital as certain commercial milestones are met. The agreement targets the deployment of at least 25,000 Waabi Driver-powered robotaxis on the Uber platform.
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Proceeds from the round will be used to advance Waabi’s core technology, scale its autonomous trucking operations and expand into passenger transport.
The company described the Series C as the largest private funding round in Canadian history.
The Recap
- Waabi closed a $750 million Series C round.
- Uber to invest for 25,000 or more robotaxis.
- Milestone-based investment will support development and deployment plans.
