Toronto-based autonomous vehicle (AV) startup Waabi announced this morning that it has secured $750 million USD ($1.02 billion CAD) in financing in what appears to be the largest funding round in Canadian tech history.
Waabi plans to use this capital to accelerate the development of its physical AI platform, speed up its efforts to commercialize self-driving trucks, and help the company move into a new target market—robotaxis—with the help of American ride-hailing giant and longtime backer Uber.
“Self-driving is happening. The technology is ready now.”
“This is the largest fundraise in Canadian history and validates Waabi as a global leader in physical AI and self-driving,” Waabi founder and CEO Raquel Urtasun claimed to BetaKit over email. “This is a massive opportunity for Canada and demonstrates that we can lead transformational industries from Canada.”
Waabi’s all-equity Series C, which Urtasun said consisted entirely of primary capital (meaning funding that flows directly to Waabi to invest in growth), is larger than Wealthsimple’s $750-million CAD Series E, 1Password’s $620-million USD Series C, and Cohere’s latest $600-million USD financing. While Waabi’s Series C is smaller than Clio’s $900-million USD Series F, Clio said its round was “substantially secondary” (which means liquidity for existing investors, founders, and employees), indicating Waabi’s financing likely entails more primary capital.
The largely inside round was co-led by US venture capital firms Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners. Other participants included Uber, US chip giant Nvidia, European automakers Porsche and Volvo, Canadian AI investor Radical Ventures, US-based HarbourVest Partners, German mobility investor Incharge Capital, BDC Capital’s women-focused Thrive Venture Fund, and Export Development Canada. New backers like Canada’s Telus Global Ventures, funds and accounts managed by US-based BlackRock, and a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority also took part in the financing.
According to The Globe and Mail, which was first to report on Waabi’s fundraising efforts back in December, Waabi was on track for a $3-billion USD pre-money valuation at the time. Urtasun declined to confirm Waabi’s valuation or disclose when the company’s Series C ultimately closed. The fresh capital brings Waabi’s total funding to $1.28 billion USD.
Waabi also announced today that it has partnered with Uber to exclusively deploy Waabi Driver-powered robotaxis on the ride-sharing giant’s platform. Through this deal, Uber intends to invest an undisclosed amount of additional milestone-based capital to fuel the development of Waabi’s robotaxis. Waabi said the two companies hope to eventually deploy 25,000 of these vehicles on Uber.
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For Urtasun—who previously worked as Uber’s chief scientist and head of its self-driving unit until its sale to American AV firm Aurora (also a Waabi investor) in late 2020—this robotaxi partnership appears to represent a full-circle moment.
While Urtasun was not available for an interview with BetaKit in advance of the announcement, over email, she described the Uber robotaxi deal as “a massive partnership” that “will enable the next level of scale for the industry.”
“Self-driving is happening,” Urtasun said. “The technology is ready now. Over the next few years we will see deployment truly at scale, enabling safer, more efficient, and sustainable transportation. At Waabi, we’re excited to be at the forefront of this movement.”
Urtasun declined to share when or where Waabi and Uber plan to deploy these robotaxis, or further details regarding the size of Uber’s potential future investment and the nature of the milestones necessary to unlock it.
In a statement, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi described Waabi’s move into robotaxis as “an important milestone for their team and the AV industry more broadly,” adding, “We’re very excited to deepen our partnership with Waabi as they significantly scale their physical AI platform and enter a new phase of an already remarkable journey.”
Since it stopped developing its own AVs, Uber has placed a variety of bets on the future of self-driving vehicles, from Waabi to Aurora (co-founded and led by Canadian Chris Urmson). The robotaxi race has also been heating up lately in the wake of progress by Waymo and Tesla.
Last summer, Uber announced plans to deploy 20,000 robotaxis in partnership with US-based Lucid and Nuro over the next six years, and earlier this month, the three companies revealed their collaborative vehicle at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Yesterday, Uber launched a new AV Labs division geared towards gathering driving data for its 20-plus robotaxi partners, which have become increasingly hungry for real-world data as they rely more on reinforcement learning. The San Francisco-based company plans to achieve this by sending its own sensor-adorned cars out into hundreds of cities.
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Waabi had previously partnered with Uber Freight to bring its self-driving trucks to market, and late last year, the company took that relationship a step further by bringing on Uber Freight co-founder and CEO Lior Ron as COO.
Urtasun, a University of Toronto computer science professor who also co-founded the Toronto AI research hub Vector Institute, has spent most of her career developing new AI technologies and figuring out how to apply them to the physical world.
She initially launched Waabi from stealth in 2021. The now 250-person company’s Series C comes 19 months after it closed a $200-million USD Series B with plans to begin bringing its completely driverless trucks to market by 2025 to fulfill commercial deliveries in Texas.
Waabi’s strategy involves applying generative AI to the physical world.. It has enabled the startup to virtually train and test its AI brain, Waabi Driver, before it hits the road with the help of its simulator, Waabi World. Urtasun has argued this makes it cheaper, safer, and scalable than traditional road testing-first development strategies. The CEO has also said that she sees potential applications for Waabi’s tech in robotics.
At Toronto Tech Week last summer, Urtasun told BetaKit the Canadian government needs to “wake up” and realize the physical AI revolution is here as it develops its next AI strategy.
Feature image courtesy Waabi.