Waabi’s Post

Today we are thrilled to announce that we have raised $200M (USD) in an oversubscribed Series B round, led by Uber and Khosla Ventures, to launch fully driverless, generative AI-powered autonomous trucks in 2025.  🚚🎉 In just three years since our inception, we are on the cusp of achieving Level 4 autonomy, a testament to our industry-leading pace and capital efficiency. This achievement is a result of our groundbreaking approach to deploying #generativeai in the physical world. The incredible list of investors who have joined us on this round represent pioneers and trailblazers across deep tech, AI, automotive, as well as shipping and logistics ecosystems including NVIDIA, Volvo Group Venture Capital, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Scania Group Invest, Ingka Investments, HarbourVest Partners, G2 Venture Partners, BDC Capital (Canada), Export Development Canada | Exportation et développement Canada, Radical Ventures, Incharge Capital Partners, and others A huge thank you to all our investors, partners, customers, and our incredible team for helping us achieve this milestone! Exciting times lie ahead as we continue on our journey to build an industry-defining company. A heartfelt thank you to Raquel Urtasun for bringing me on this journey. Find out more about this exciting news here: https://lnkd.in/g3HRvK3d #waabi #ai #generativeai

NEWS: Dexory, a UK-based startup building autonomous robots for warehouses, has raised an $80m Series B round as it looks to expand in the US. The round was made up of 70% equity and 30% debt, and takes the startup’s total equity funding to $120m. DTCP, which spun out from Deutsche Telekom, led the round, with participation from Latitude Ventures, WaVe-X and Bootstrap Europe, alongside existing investors Atomico, Lakestar and Capnamic. DTCP partner Michael Rager joined Dexory’s board of directors. Earlier this year, the cofounder of autonomous vehicle startup Oxa told Sifted that recent developments in AI are ushering in a “revolution” for autonomous machines — and the same has happened on warehouse floors, says Dexory founder and CEO Andrei Danescu. “Gen AI was really what allowed us to go over vast amounts of data very quickly,” he tells Sifted, pointing to how the startup’s tech can now make sense of tens of thousands of items that are typically housed in the average-sized warehouse. Dexory launched its hardware and software as a commercial product in March 2023 — it was developing its technology for eight years before that — and now, it’s looking to scale operations in Europe and North America. Full story: https://lnkd.in/ehjVfMrV

WeRide's IPO: A Beacon of Hope in a Sluggish Market? WeRide, the Chinese autonomous driving startup, is set to make waves in the tech IPO market with its upcoming Nasdaq debut. In a landscape where tech IPOs have been notably scarce, WeRide's offering is drawing significant attention from investors and industry watchers alike. The Guangzhou-based company aims to raise $120 million, potentially valuing it at up to $5 billion. While WeRide's financials show a familiar startup story of high growth coupled with losses, its real appeal lies in its innovative technology and market position. As the "first autonomous driving company in the world with products operating and testing in 30 cities across seven countries," WeRide is betting on investor enthusiasm for its growth prospects in the burgeoning autonomous vehicle sector. This IPO comes amid renewed interest in autonomous driving technologies, with the sector raising over $3.5 billion in the first half of 2024. However, the mixed performance of previously public autonomous driving companies serves as a cautionary tale. WeRide's IPO could be a crucial litmus test for the tech IPO market. A successful debut might reignite investor interest in tech offerings, potentially paving the way for more companies to go public. However, the company's performance post-IPO will be closely watched as an indicator of public market appetite for innovative yet unprofitable tech ventures.

Botsync, an autonomous robotics startup, has secured $5.2 million in a Series A funding round led by Capital 2B and Betatron Venture Group. Several other investors, including IvyCap Ventures Advisors Private Limited, AppWorks, Iterative, Wong Fong, ZB Capital, Nalin Advani, and Ascend Angels, also participated in this round. Founded in 2019 by Rahul Nambiar, Nikhil Venkatesh, Prashant Trivedi, and Singaram Venkatachalam, Botsync enables companies to leverage automated solutions for their manufacturing operations. The startup offers two key products: 🔹 syncOS: A no-code integration solution that allows businesses to integrate cross-platform operations from different automation systems into a single platform. 🔹 MAG Mobile Robots: Autonomous mobile robots designed to streamline manufacturing processes. The fresh capital raised in this Series A round will be utilized to fuel product development, simplify platform onboarding, and enhance customer service capabilities, as stated by Botsync. Botsync's clientele includes several prominent companies across various industries, such as automotive OEMs, FMCG, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals. Some of their notable clients include Ford Motors, Caterpillar, Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Kimberly Clark.

Are you aware of the Indian Startup Ecosystem? 🤔 Can you answer this question about the Autonomous Vehicles Maker Funding? 🌟 #raisemoney #startup #startupecosystem #funding #businessnews

Exciting times for autonomous driving startups! 🚗💨 After a slow start in 2024, funding has surged with nearly $2.7 billion raised since May! Big deals from Wayve, Cruise, and Waabi signal a bright future ahead. #AutonomousDriving #TechInnovation #StartupFunding #AI #MOVE2025 Read more: https://lnkd.in/ejbCkn26

🔥 AI startup raises $1 billion for self-driving car software Wayve, a UK-based self-driving car technology startup, has received over $1 billionn of investment led by Softbank to develop embodied AI for autonomous vehicles. This marks the biggest investment in a European AI startup and signals the strength of the UK's AI ecosystem. Softbank, NVIDIA, and Microsoft are among the major investors in Wayve's latest funding round. Some experts have noted that Wayve's technology is still in its early stages and may face challenges in real-world situations. https://lnkd.in/eWrTdvn3

Autonomous driving startup Swaayatt Robots (स्वायत्त रोबोट्स) has bagged $4 Mn as part of its second funding round. The startup’s founder Sanjeev Sharma took to LinkedIn to announce that unnamed US-based investors infused the fresh capital in a round that valued the startup at around $151 Mn👇 He said that the fundraise was a part of a larger round which would see the Bhopal-based startup raise the remainder of the funds at a valuation of about $175 Mn. Sharma expects to raise $50 Mn more in a pre-Series A round within a time span of 6-7 months. According to a report by Analytics Drift, Swaayatt is looking to expand operations in North America, the UK, and the Middle East. Founded by Sharma in 2015, Bhopal-based Swaayatt has built proprietary algorithms and claims to have unparalleled capabilities in autonomous navigation, including on the typically chaotic Indian roads. #startup #fundraising #growth

“The history of innovation is littered with startups who were too early or too late.” As we celebrate the success of achieving a significant milestone – 2.5 million pallets unloaded, we want to thank Menlo Ventures for being among the first investors to recognize the potential of our technology converging with a growing need in the market. Read the blog below to learn how Menlo Ventures assessed our business using the “Goldilocks” challenge. #robotics #foxrobotics #autonomousforklift https://lnkd.in/gp9EBjzj

£2m secured by PHINXT Robotics for warehouse robot automation London based PHINXT, develop of a decentralised software AI technology for warehouse robots, has secured £2m in funding from Sure Valley Ventures, Ada Ventures, HEARTFELT_ and Atlas Ventures. The funds will be used to expand its engineering and sales teams, as well as expand into European markets. The global market of mobile robots, is expected to reach $16bn with 2.4 million mobile robots in operation by 2027. In a statement, Yanwen Chen, co-founder and CEO, PHINXT Robotics, said: “At PHINXT, our mission is to revolutionise the logistics industry with our cloud-based platform that seamlessly integrates any type of robot, enabling them to collaborate and coordinate in a shared space without the need for a centralised server.” The software solution, named edge AI, is said to be able to manage robotics automation on any scale. As it is cloud based, it has been designed to streamline deployments and enable a monthly subscription model. To date, PHINXT has secured several contracts. One particular contract has been with a nationwide UK Grocery retailer having completed a successful pilot programmer. It is expected that the programme will scale into a multi year contract. PHINXT aims to expand into delivery drones and autonomous vehicles. “As a specialist AI investor, we believe this is one of the strongest AI propositions to come out of the UK this year,” said Brian K., founding partner at Sure Valley Ventures. “PHIXNT has a clear advantage in terms of cost, simplicity and flexibility, and with their…proprietary technology, are extremely well-positioned to disrupt this market globally.” Yanwen, who has two PhDs specialising in computer science and synchronisation communications for robotics, developed the algorithm that allows robots to self-orchestrate safely, even when they lose connections to central networks. She co-founded the company with Quirino Zagarese, PhD, an expert in distributed systems, to collaborate on building a scalable architecture and product. PHIXNT, a graduate of the Female Foundry Visionaries AI Incubator, previously raised £600k from Fuel Ventures 🚀, @Amar Shah (co-founder of Wayve and founder of Dhyan Ventures), Atlas, APX, Prequel Ventures, Ventures Together syndicate and Alma Angels.