Wayve raises more than $1B in Series C

Wayve has raised $1.05 billion in its Series C funding round, the company announced Tuesday.

The artificial intelligence-powered autonomous driving company plans to use the new funding to bolster its goal of reimagining autonomous mobility through embodied intelligence - which is meant to extend past generative AI and large language models.

The company out of London received the funding from a group of investors led by SoftBank Group, with input from Nvidia, a new investor, and Microsoft, an existing investor.

Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO of Wayve, called the funding a “significant milestone” for the team.

“At Wayve, our vision is to develop autonomous technology that not only becomes a reality in millions of vehicles but also earns people’s trust by seamlessly integrating into their everyday lives to unlock extraordinary value,” said Kendall.

Embodied AI, when integrated into vehicles, could lead to a change in how machines are interacting and learning from humans, according to Wayve. The technology could lead to enhanced safety levels and the usability of autonomous driving, the company said, pointing to how embodied AI could allow vehicles to navigate unanticipated environmental conditions that don’t follow strict patterns such as actions made by other drivers, pedestrians and more.

Wayve, which was founded in 2017, has made forays into this reality already. The company has developed and tested an end-to-end AI autonomous driving system on public roads and has developed a model for autonomy that can allow any vehicle to drive safely with an understanding of its surroundings in a range of environments.

“AI is revolutionizing mobility,” said Kentaro Matsui, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers and head of the New Business Office at SoftBank Group as well as a board member at Wayve. “Vehicles can now interpret their surroundings like humans, enabling enhanced decision-making that promises higher safety standards.”

Matsui continued: “The potential of this type of technology is transformative; it could eliminate 99% of traffic accidents.”

Wayve raised an additional $200 million during its Series B round in 2022. And it’s not the only autonomous driving company to warrant financial interest in the past few years. In 2022, May Mobility raised $83 million, and in 2021 Vay raised $95 million and 42dot raised $88.5 million. Also in 2022, consumer goods brand Bosch acquired autonomous vehicle technology company Five.