London-based Wayve, a developer of Embodied AI technology for automated driving, announced on Monday, May 6, that it has secured over $1.05B in a Series C investment round led by SoftBank Group, with participation from new investor NVIDIA and existing investor Microsoft.
As part of the final transaction, SoftBank has joined Wayve’s Board of Directors.
Fund utilisation
Wayve has received an investment to develop and launch its first Embodied AI products for production vehicles.
The aim is to allow OEMs to upgrade cars efficiently from L2+ assisted driving to L4 automated driving. As Wayve’s core AI model advances, these products will enable vehicles to reach higher levels of driving automation.
Additionally, funds will enable Wayve to expand operations and partnerships in new markets, building geographically diverse data assets and attracting global talent.
Prime Minister, Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP says, “I’m incredibly proud that the UK is the home for pioneers like Wayve who are breaking ground as they develop the next generation of AI models for self-driving cars. The fact that a homegrown British business has secured the biggest investment yet in a UK AI company is a testament to our leadership in this industry and that our plan for the economy is working.”
“We are leaving no stone unturned to create the economic conditions for businesses to grow and thrive in the UK. We already have the third highest number of AI companies and private investment in AI in the world, and this announcement anchors the UK’s position as an AI superpower,” he adds.
Wayve: Enabling vehicles to perceive and navigate any environment
Founded in 2017, Wayve is a developer of Embodied AI technology for automated driving.
The Embodied AI technology developed by the company will allow autonomous vehicles and other applications to coexist safely with humans, enabling individuals to concentrate on what truly matters in their daily lives.
The UK company was the first to develop and test an end-to-end (e2e) AI autonomous driving system on public roads.
Wayve has developed foundation models for driving autonomy, similar to GPT, that empower vehicles to drive safely through diverse environments.
Wayve is developing mapless and hardware-agnostic Embodied AI products for automakers and fleet owners, accelerating the path from assisted to automated driving.
The company also developed a suite of innovative technologies, such as fleet learning, data infrastructure, evaluation, and simulation platforms designed to rapidly enhance their AI models using real-world and simulated data.
The company will also focus on scaling its foundation models, advancing Embodied AI research, and building AV2.0 Platform with reliable simulation, measurement, and active learning tools for automotive applications.
The company has conducted trials on UK public roads since 2018 and partnered with UK delivery fleets from Asda and Ocado Group.
This company’s research on LINGO and GAIA models is driving the automotive industry towards AI-powered vehicles with advanced features, including personalised driving styles, co-piloting, intuition, and language-responsive interfaces.
Alex Kendall, Co-founder and CEO of Wayve, says, “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. This significant funding milestone highlights our team’s unwavering conviction that Embodied AI will address the long-standing challenges the industry has faced in scaling this technology to everyone, everywhere.”
“Our collaboration with SoftBank, NVIDIA, and Microsoft will help advance our mission to redefine driving with AI at the core. This investment will enable us to develop and launch our first Embodied AI products for the automotive industry, empowering OEMs to provide consumers with trustworthy and beneficial automated driving experiences,” he adds.
What do the investors have to say?
Kentaro Matsui, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, Head of the New Business Office at SoftBank Group, and Board Member at Wayve says, “AI is revolutionising mobility. Vehicles can now interpret their surroundings like humans, enabling enhanced decision-making that promises higher safety standards. The potential of this type of technology is transformative; it could eliminate 99% of traffic accidents. SoftBank Group is delighted to be at the forefront of this effort with Wayve, as advanced intelligence redefines mobility and connectivity, contributing to a more convenient and safer society.”
Rishi Dhall, Vice President of Automotive Business at NVIDIA, says, “Wayve is pioneering new AI applications for their next-generation AV2.0 approach, built on NVIDIA DRIVE Orin and DRIVE Thor, which uses the new NVIDIA Blackwell architecture designed for transformer, LLM, and Generative AI workloads. Together, we can help enable self-driving vehicles that deliver the intelligence, dependability, and skill of the best human drivers.”
Dominik Wee, Corporate Vice President of Manufacturing and Mobility at Microsoft says, “Microsoft is pleased to be working with Wayve to develop and deploy Wayve’s end-to-end AI autonomous driving products for automotive enterprise customers. By utilising Microsoft’s supercomputing capabilities and cloud computing technology, copilot-enabled developer platform, enterprise data management applications, and leading AI model commercialisation expertise, Wayve can deliver and scale innovative Embodied AI solutions that enable safer and more accessible autonomous driving experiences.”
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