Uber and Khosla double down as Nvidia, Porsche, IKEA be part of Toronto AV startup’s cap desk.
Canadian synthetic intelligence (AI) chief Raquel Urtasun’s Toronto-based autonomous car (AV) startup Waabi has secured $275 million CAD ($200 million USD) in Series B financing and introduced plans to ship fully driverless, generative AI-powered trucks in 2025.
The all-equity, all-primary spherical, which closed this week, was co-led by a pair of current San Francisco-based Waabi traders: ride-hailing large Uber and enterprise capital (VC) agency Khosla Ventures. Supporting traders included a slew of latest strategic backers, together with chip large Nvidia, automaker Porsche, and retailer IKEA’s funding arm, Ingka Investments.
“I’m just really excited about where we are today.”
Raquel Urtasun, Waabi founder and CEO
Waabi’s newest funding comes three years after Urtasun—previously Uber’s chief scientist and head of its self-driving unit—launched Waabi out of stealth with $100 million CAD in Series A capital. To begin, Waabi has set its sights on long-haul trucking, the place it sees room to assist handle the business’s labour shortages, security issues, and provide chain points.
Urtasun stated Waabi now has the tech, the crew, the companions, and the money it wants to take the drivers out of its autos, obtain Level 4 autonomy, and start bringing utterly autonomous trucks to market to fulfill business deliveries beginning subsequent 12 months with Texas.
“I’m just really excited about where we are today,” Urtasun instructed BetaKit in an interview. “We continue executing. We have not been distracted by anything else.”
Waabi’s Series B spherical marks a very massive financing amid difficult market circumstances. Urtasun attributed this to Waabi’s novel strategy to self-driving and speedy progress in a short while, together with unveiling its AI mind (Waabi Driver) and simulator (Waabi World), partnering with gamers like Uber Freight and Nvidia, starting street testing, and launching business operations with people aboard on public roads in Texas.
“The next big milestone is our driverless launch … If you look at all the milestones that we have achieved in only three years, with very little capital compared to the rest of the industry, it was a very natural point to fundraise for the next round of capital that will enable us to go to driverless launch and beyond,” stated Urtasun.
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Other new traders in the spherical embody Export Development Canada, transportation-focused Scania, Boston-based, Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative-backed HarbourVest Partners, California’s G2 Venture Partners, and German mobility VC agency Incharge Capital Partners.
Existing traders BDC Capital (which beforehand backed Waabi by means of the Women in Technology (WIT) Venture Fund and has reinvested through its Thrive Venture Fund), Volvo’s enterprise arm, and Toronto AI investor Radical Ventures additionally participated.
“We have an incredible roster of investors,” Urtasun stated. With its Series B spherical, she believes that Waabi has taken an enormous step in the direction of constructing “an ecosystem of partners that actually will enable self-driving at scale,” with illustration from throughout computing, AI, automotive, and logistics, plus conventional funding companies to assist guarantee the corporate’s monetary future.
The fundraise brings Waabi’s whole funding to over $389 million CAD, from a gaggle that additionally consists of fellow AV firm Aurora, OMERS Ventures, and AI consultants like Geoffrey Hinton, Fei-Fei Li, Pieter Abbeel, and Sanja Fidler. Urtasun declined to disclose the corporate’s valuation, however claimed Waabi’s Series B financing was an up spherical relative to its Series A spherical and got here at “an exciting number.”
“We just see the company continuing to disrupt the industry, and frankly, even lead in this space,” BDC Capital WIT and Thrive Venture Fund managing accomplice Michelle Scarborough instructed BetaKit. “We doubled down for that reason. We’re super impressed with everything they have accomplished since 2021. They made all of their milestones and then some.”
Scarborough credited Urtasun’s management, the power of the crew she has assembled, and Waabi’s “generative AI-first approach” to self-driving, claiming that Waabi’s opponents are utilizing a “hardware-first” technique that includes extra street testing.
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AVs have traditionally been cost-intensive to develop, tough to scale, and created security issues. Years of restricted progress on self-driving tech growth, harmful incidents, and difficult financial circumstances have fuelled what Urtasun beforehand described to BetaKit as a “winter of AV” that has seen massive gamers and billions in worth worn out.
Waabi is betting on “AV 2.0,” a method that includes prioritizing generative AI and comes with its personal challenges. “It’s very clear that the evolution of generative AI in the physical world is really going to change the entire game of robotics, and self-driving in particular,” Urtasun stated.
Waabi World and generative AI have enabled the startup to just about prepare Waabi Driver earlier than it hits the street. Urtasun has argued that this strategy is way cheaper, safer, and extra scalable than conventional street testing-first growth methods.
“They made all of their milestones and then some.”
It permits Waabi’s AI mind to be skilled each in real-time and thru its simulator, Waabi World, Scarborough stated, including, “that train-the-trainer capability, if you will, is very unique to this company and is, frankly, their competitive advantage.”
Urtasun, a University of Toronto pc science professor who additionally co-founded the Toronto AI analysis hub Vector Institute, has spent most of her profession creating new AI applied sciences and determining how to apply them to the bodily world. For Urtasun, this spherical marks “exciting times” for Waabi, the AV business, and Canada extra broadly.
The Waabi CEO believes Canada wants extra corporations to make extra “big, bold bets” geared in the direction of remodeling the world. “We need more of this,” stated Urtasun, who added that she hopes Waabi’s instance will encourage extra Canadian tech entrepreneurs to do the identical.
For her half, Scarborough is bullish on Waabi’s probabilities to make a mark in the self-driving tech sector. “I really think that [Urtasun] and Waabi have a really great opportunity to compete on the global stage.”
Feature picture courtesy Waabi.