By ANGHARAD CARRICK, BUSINESS NEWS EDITOR
A British driverless car firm has raised $1.2billion, bringing its valuation to over $8billion, ahead of its robotaxi rollout in London later this year.
Wayve, which was founded in 2017, has secured the backing of tech giants and carmakers as it eyes the launch of driverless taxi trials with Uber this year.
The latest funding round, which includes investment from Microsoft, Nvidia and Uber, brings its post-money valuation to $8.6billion (£6.37bn), making it among the most valuable AI startups in the UK.
It is also the first time that Wayve has secured funding from the automotive industry, including Nissan and Stellantis, after signing a partnership with Nissan last year.
It is a significant milestone for the British firm, which has partnered with Uber to take the fight to Google-owned Waymo, with both companies expected to launch robotaxi trials in London this year.
Wayve founder Alex Kendall believes 'every vehicle in the future is going to be autonomous'
Wayve's AI offering equips vehicles with a 'robot brain' capable of learning and interacting with real-world environments.
Last year, the Government, which has previously awarded grants to Wayve, said it would fast track small-scale, driverless vehicles from spring 2026 to keep the UK among the 'world leaders in new technology.'
Today, Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the investment is 'a big vote of confidence in the UK and in the future of our auto industry'.
The British firm said the latest equity round would 'accelerate the shift from AI research leadership to scaled commercial deployment of Wayve's end-to-end AI platform.'
Uber has invested an additional $300million into the firm to scale Wayve-powered robotaxis across 10 countries, bringing the total raised to $1.5billion.
Alex Kendall, Co-Founder and chief executive of Wayve, said: 'Autonomy will not scale through city-by-city robotaxi deployments alone. It will scale through a trusted platform that automakers and fleets can deploy globally and improve continuously.
'This investment accelerates our path to widespread commercial deployment and positions us to build the autonomy layer that will power any vehicle everywhere.'
Wayve licenses its AI technology directly to automakers and mobility platforms, and the technology can be adapted to existing hardware and software systems.
In an interview with the BBC, Kendall said he believes 'every vehicle in the future is going to be autonomous,' whether fully driverless, or people using AI while driving to 'catch mistakes'.
'We're going to see rapid growth from early deployments and from 2030s if youre buying a car that isn't capable of driving autonomously I think youre going to really be missing an opportunity. That's where the future's going to be.'
When asked about a potential stock market listing, Kendall said it was 'the dream' but Wayve had 'a lot of delivery ahead of us to make this a reality'.
Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.
