Wayve, a UK-born startup developing self-learning rather than rule-based systems for autonomous driving, has completed $1.05 billion in Series C funding led by SoftBank Group. This is the largest AI funding in UK history and ranks among the top 20 AI fundings in the world to date.
Nvidia and existing investor Microsoft also participated in the funding. Waye's early stage investors included his head of AI at Meta, Yann LeCun.
Founded in Cambridge in 2017, Wayve raised $200 million in a Series B round led by Eclipse Ventures in January 2022.
The company will use the new capital injection to develop products for “eyes on” assisted driving and “yes off” fully autonomous driving and other AI-assisted vehicle applications. The company plans to expand its business globally.
San Francisco has become known as a center for self-driving, with Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo and GM Inc.'s Cruise operating services in the city. In contrast, Wave's “end-to-end” self-driving system began its operation around the small streets of Cambridge in an electric Renault Twizy.
Since then, the company has trained its models on delivery vehicles for companies such as British grocery delivery company Ocado, which invested $13.6 million in the startup.
Wayve's approach to self-driving is similar to Tesla's, but Wayve plans to sell its self-driving models to various automotive OEMs. Of course, this means that since Tesla has to rely on someone to buy its car brand, Wave will be collecting more training data to improve its models. However, the company has not announced any such automotive partners yet.
Wayve calls its hardware-agnostic mapless product “embodied AI,” and plans to distribute its platform not only to automakers, but also to robotics companies serving manufacturers of all kinds. will be able to learn from human behavior in various fields. real world environment. The company promises to deliver “language-enabled interfaces, personalized driving styles, and co-piloting” through research into multimodal and generative models known as LINGO and GAIA.
Wayve co-founder and CEO Alex Kendall told TechCrunch: We've been working hard to build the technology…What happened last year is that everything actually started working. ”
He said the key moment is the “step change” in which the auto industry installs cameras around new cars, from which Wave pulls data for autonomous platforms. Of course, there is also a desire now to deploy AI and accelerate the transition from assisted driving to autonomous driving. This funding is therefore a validation of our technological approach and gives us the funds to turn this technology into a product and bring it to market. ”
He added that Wayve also has big plans for robotics.
“Soon you will be able to buy a new car and it will be powered by Wayve’s AI…and this will apply to all kinds of applications, not just cars but also other forms of robotics. But I think the ultimate thing we want to achieve here is go way beyond the current state of AI with language models and chatbots. If we are to truly realize a future where we can trust intelligent machines to delegate tasks and, of course, improve our lives, autonomous driving will be the first example.”
In a broader move to demonstrate the importance of this fundraiser to the UK, Chancellor Rishi Sunak issued a statement of support, saying: “From the first light bulb and the World Wide Web to AI and self-driving cars, the UK has a proud track record of being at the forefront of some of the biggest technological advances in history.”
“We are very proud that the UK is home to pioneers like Wayve who are laying the foundations in developing the next generation of AI models for self-driving cars. “The fact that we have secured the largest investment to date in the industry is testament to our leadership in this industry and that our economic plans are working.”
“We are doing everything we can to create the economic conditions for businesses to grow and prosper in the UK. The announcement cements the UK's position as an AI 'superpower', he added.
Kentaro Matsui, managing partner of SoftBank Investment Advisors and director of Wave, also said in a statement: If we do this, we will be able to eliminate 99% of traffic accidents. As advanced intelligence redefines mobility and connectivity, contributing to a more convenient and secure society, SoftBank Group is pleased to be at the forefront of this effort with his Wayve. ”