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WaymoThe acceleration of the last 18 months is undeniable. The Alphabet-owned self-driving company now operates commercial robotaxi services in six markets, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta and Miami. It has plans to grow its fleet of driverless taxis this year in more than a dozen new cities internationally, including London and Tokyo.
And now it has $16 billion to fuel that expansion. Is it enough?
Speaking to a few industry watchers, the answer kept landing in the tight-knit area of ”something” and “it depends.”
First the bullpen. Alphabet is clearly committed to ensuring Waymo’s success. the parent company is and continues to be the main investor. Which means Waymo isn’t exposed like other AV startups that suddenly lost their funding after their backers (often legacy automakers) were killed or turned.
Driver and autonomous miles driven stats are exploding and will likely continue on that trajectory unless derailed by regulators. (Waymo provides 400,000 rides each week in six major U.S. metropolitan areas, and in 2025 alone, it will more than triple its annual volume to 15 million rides.)
This does not guarantee success, however, especially if the instrument is set to profit. Waymo still has several issues to work out, including costs and growing attention from regulators (the company’s chief security officer just testified in Senate Commerce Hearing). If Waymo wants to be just the licensor of its AV technology, it will have to move away from being the operator, which means giving up control. This is difficult with a nascent technology under scrutiny.
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And while some of you will fight me on this, the internal construction is also lacking Tesla has. Yes, Waymo has car partners. But it doesn’t come with the same financial leverage or ability to cut costs with scale.
Disagree; Send your argument to my email at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com.
A little bird
The investors behind the now-defunct EV startup Canoo they were always mysterious — in fact, they were only revealed as part of a lawsuit. Six years ago, I received a tip to look into one of these in particular: David Stern. She had affairs with Prince Andrew but was otherwise a ghost.
It was on my mind, though, as the Justice Department began releasing its files Jeffrey Epstein. My curiosity as to whether he would appear in the documents was quickly overruled by the fact that he was, in fact, a close business associate of the convicted sex offender. He brought Epstein investment opportunities from around the world and in particular, pushed him to invest Faraday Future, Lucid Motorsand Canoo during the mobility funding days. Read my story about Stern and Epstein’s relationship and how mobility startups were once in the mix.
— Sean O’Kane
Do you have a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07 or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Offers!
Self-driving vehicle technology is more than just robotics — it’s a difficult and expensive business that only a few big-cap companies like Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox they pursue. Many startup founders are applying the AV systems they have developed to other use cases, including off-road defense, trucks, forklifts, mining and construction. Investors, anxious to miss out on the AV party, are jumping into these sectors.
Bedrock Robotics is the latest example of investment interest. The Silicon Valley self-driving technology startup, founded by Waymo and Segment veterans, is developing a self-driving system that can be retrofitted to construction equipment. And it just raised $270 million in Series B funding, led by CapitalG and the Valor Atreides AI Fund. Other investors include Xora, 8VC, Eclipse, Emergence Capital, Perry Creek Capital, NVentures (Nvidia’s venture capital arm), Tishman Speyer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgian, Incharge Capital, C4 Ventures and others.
Bedrock has raised more than $350 million in a short period of time (the company was founded in 2024). And while that may not seem like much compared to the size of some circles in the AI lab space, it does show that money is flowing into natural AI startups. I expect more trading flow. Importantly, I expect startups focused on practical applications of automated driving systems to attract talent — if they can afford it. Bedrock, for example, hired Vincent Gonguet, who was previously head of security and AI alignment at Meta for all Llama models, to lead the evaluation. He also hired John Chu away from Waymo.
Watch my interview with the co-founder and CEO of Bedrock Robotics Boris Shoffman.
Other deals that caught my eye this week…
German electric motor manufacturer Additional drives raised 25 million euros ($29.5 million) from Nordic Alpha Partners.
Launch of autonomous underwater vehicles Apeiron Labs closed a $9.5 million Series A round led by Dyne Ventures, RA Capital Management Planetary Health and S2G Investments. Assembly Ventures, Bay Bridge Ventures and TFX Capital participated.
GoCabthe African mobility fintech startup, raised $45 million funding round that includes $15 million in equity and $30 million in debt. The equity round was led by E3 Capital and Janngo Capital, with participation from KawiSafi Ventures and Cur8 Capital.
Mitra EVa commercial EV fleet company in Los Angeles, raised $27 million in financing, including equity financing from lead investor Ultra Capital and a credit facility from S2G Investments.
Overland AIa Seattle-based developer of autonomous driving systems designed for military operations; raised $100 million in a round led by 8VC. Other investors included Point72 Ventures, Ascend Venture Capital, Shasta Ventures, Overmatch Ventures, Valor Equity Partners and StepStone Group.
Plugthe used EV market, raised $20 million in a Series A led by Lightspeed with participation from Galvanize and existing investors Autotech Ventures, Leap Forward Ventures and Renn Global.
R3 Roboticsa European startup that wants to automate the disassembly of EV systems at scale, raised 20 million euros ($23.6 million) in a combination of grants and venture funding. The €14 million ($16.5 million) Series A funding was jointly led by HG Ventures and Suma Capital. The Oetker Collection, the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund) and existing shareholders including BONVENTURE, FlixFounders and EIT Urban Mobility also participated.
Skyrysean aviation automation startup based in El Segundo, California, has raised more than $300 million in a Series C investment. The round, led by Autopilot Ventures, pushes its valuation to $1.15 billion. Other investors include Fidelity Management & Research Company, ArrowMark Partners, Atreides Management LP, BAM Elevate, Baron Capital Group, Durable Capital Partners, Positive Sum, Qatar Investment Authority, RCM Private Markets Fund managed by Rokos Capital Management and Woodline Partners.
Notable reads and other items
China has banned the hidden electronically actuated door handles popularized by Tesla. The ruling, published by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, says all new cars sold in the country must have mechanical releases on their door handles by January 1, 2027. There is chatter that Europe could soon follow suit.
Uber continues to make moves designed to make it competitive in the autonomous vehicle space. The company has promoted Balaji KrishnamurthyVice President of Strategic Finance and Investor Relations, to be its CFO. This may not seem AV related, but it is. Krishnamurthy actively promotes the company’s stand-alone partnerships and holds a board position at AV Waabi. During the company’s Q4 call, he talked about AVs, saying the company will invest capital in AV software partners, work with AV manufacturers through equity investments or offtake deals, and “support AV infrastructure partners.”
Meanwhile, a high-profile lawsuit against Uber issued a mixed verdict for the ride-hailing company, which sued after a woman claimed she was raped by an Uber driver in November 2023. A jury found Uber liable as an apparent agent of the driver and awarded the plaintiff $8.5 million. The jury rejected claims that Uber was liable for negligence or design defects and declined to award punitive damages. An Uber spokesperson, who sent a statement to TechCrunch, said that “the verdict confirms that Uber has acted responsibly and has made a substantial investment in rider safety. We will continue to put safety at the heart of everything we do.” Uber plans to appeal the decision.
One more thing…
Last week in our newsletter, we ran a poll asking what the name or clue Elon Muskof the combined parent company should be. Thanks to those who emailed in their suggestions, many of which were space-themed, such as Galactic X (awesome). As for the poll, the majority chose the simple X.
This makes sense, given that Musk has often talked and posted about X, the everything app. About 50% voted for X, while 20.7% chose ELON, 17.2% chose SpaceAI and 12.1% chose K2, a reference to one of the corporate entities created in January.
My choice? I think eventually it will be X and the company will include more than just SpaceX and xAI.
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