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WaymoThe speed of the last 18 months is undeniable. The Alphabet-owned self-driving company currently operates commercial robotaxi services in six markets, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, and Miami. It has plans to grow its fleet of driverless taxicabs this year to more than a dozen new cities around the world, including London and Tokyo.

And now there is $16 billion to fuel that expansion. Is that enough?

Speaking to some industry observers, the answer kept landing in squishy “sort of” and “it depends” territory.

First the case of the bull. Alphabet is clearly committed to ensuring Waymo’s success; the parent company was, and continues to be, the main investor. Which means Waymo isn’t exposed like other AV startups that suddenly lose funding after their backers (usually legacy automakers) get scared or pivot.

Ridership and autonomous miles driven stats are also exploding and will likely continue on that trajectory unless they are derailed by regulators. (Waymo provides 400,000 rides per week in six major US metropolitan areas, and by 2025 alone, it will more than triple its annual number to 15 million trips.)

This is no guarantee of success, however, especially when the gauge is set on profit. Waymo still has to solve a number of problems, including costs and increased attention from regulators (the company’s chief safety officer recently testified in a Senate Commerce Hearing). If Waymo wants to become a licensor of AV tech, it will have to move away from being an operator, which means giving up some control. That’s difficult with a new technology being explored.

And while some of you will fight me on this, it also lacks in-house manufacturing of that Tesla there is. Yes, Waymo has car partners. But it doesn’t come with the same financial leverage or ability to lower costs with scale.

Disagree? Send your argument to my email at [email protected].

A small bird

The investors behind the now-defunct EV startup Canoe are always mysterious – in fact, they are only revealed as part of a lawsuit. Six years ago, I received a tip to investigate one of these in particular: David Stern. He has a connection with Prince Andrew but he is a ghost.

He’s on my mind, though, as the Justice Department begins releasing its files Jeffrey Epstein. My curiosity as to whether he would appear in the documents was quickly overwhelmed by the fact that he was, in fact, a close business associate of a convicted sex offender. He brought investment opportunities to Epstein from around the world, and in particular, directed him to invest Faraday Future, Lucid Motorsand Canoo during the go-go days of crowdfunding. Read my story on Stern and Epstein’s relationship and how startups used to be in the mix.

— Sean O’Kane

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at [email protected] or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at [email protected].

Deals!

Autonomous vehicle technology is more than just robotaxis – it’s a difficult and expensive business that few companies with the capital want. Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox chasing. Many startups are applying the AV systems they develop to other use cases, including off-road defense, trucking, forklifts, mining, and construction. Investors, worried about missing the AV party, jumped into these sectors.

Bedrock Robotics is the latest example of investor interest. The Silicon Valley autonomous vehicle technology startup, founded by Waymo and Segment veterans, is developing a self-driving system that can be retrofitted to construction equipment. And it just raised $270 million in Series B funding led by CapitalG and the Valor Atreides AI Fund. Other investors include Xora, 8VC, Eclipse, Emergence Capital, Perry Creek Capital, NVentures (Nvidia’s venture capital arm), Tishman Speyer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgian, Incharge Capital, C4 Ventures, and others.

Bedrock has raised more than $350 million in a short time (the company was formed in 2024). And while that may not seem like much compared to the size of some seed rounds in the AI ​​labs sector, it does show that money is flowing into physical AI startups. I expect more deal flow; It’s important that I expect startups to focus on practical applications of automated driving systems to attract talent – if they can do it. Bedrock, for example, hired Vincent Gonguet, who previously led Meta’s AI safety and alignment for all Llama models, as head of evaluation. It also hired John Chu from Waymo.

Stay tuned for my interview with Bedrock Robotics co-founder and CEO Boris Sofman.

Some deals that caught my attention this week…

German electric motor maker Additive Drives raised €25 million ($29.5 million) from Nordic Alpha Partners.

Autonomous underwater vehicles take off Apeiron Labs closed for $9.5 million Series A round led by Dyne Ventures, RA Capital Management Planetary Health, and S2G Investments. Assembly Ventures, Bay Bridge Ventures, and TFX Capital participated.

The GoCabthe African mobility fintech startup, raised $45 million financing round consisting of $15 million in equity and $30 million in debt. The equity round was led by E3 Capital and Janngo Capital, with participation from KawiSafi Ventures and Cur8 Capital.

Mitra EVa commercial EV fleet company in Los Angeles, raised $27 million of financing, including equity funding from lead investor Ultra Capital and a credit facility from S2G Investments.

Above ground AIa Seattle-based developer of self-driving systems designed for military operations, raised $100 million in a phase led by 8VC. Other investors include Point72 Ventures, Ascend Venture Capital, Shasta Ventures, Overmatch Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and StepStone Group.

Plugthe used EV market, raised $20 million in a Series A led by Lightspeed with participation from Galvanize and existing investors Autotech Ventures, Leap Forward Ventures, and Renn Global.

R3 Roboticsa European startup that wants to automate the disassembly of EV systems at scale, raised €20 million ($23.6 million) in a combination of grants and venture funding. The €14 million ($16.5 million) Series A funding was co-led by HG Ventures and Suma Capital. The Oetker Collection, the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund), and existing shareholders, including BONVENTURE, FlixFounders, and EIT Urban Mobility also participated.

In sectionsEl seigno, is based $300 million in a Series C investment. The round, led by Autopilot Ventures, pushed its valuation to $1.15 billion. Other investors include Fidelity Management & Research Company, ArrowMark Partners, Atreides Management LP, BAM Elevate, Baron Capital Group, Durable Capital Partners, Positive Sum, Qatar Investment Authority, RCM Private Markets Fund managed by Rokos Capital Management, and Woodline Partners.

Great reads and other tidbits

China THERE BANNED hidden electronically actuated door handles made famous by Tesla. The ruling, published by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, states that all new cars sold in the country must have mechanical releases on their door handles by January 1, 2027. There is chatter that Europe may soon follow suit.

Uber continues to make moves designed to make it competitive in the autonomous vehicle sector. The company Promoted Balaji Krishnamurthyits VP of strategic finance and investor relations, to become its CFO. It might not be connected to AVs, but it is. Krishnamurthy actively promotes the company’s autonomous ride-hailing partnerships and has a board seat at AV company Waabi. During the company’s Q4 call, he talked about AVs, saying the company will invest capital in AV software partners, work with AV manufacturers through equity investment or through offtake agreements, and “support our AV infrastructure partners.”

Meanwhile, a high-profile case against Uber issued a mixed verdict for the ride-hailing company, which was sued after a woman alleged she was raped by her Uber driver in November 2023. The jury found Uber liable as an apparent agent of the driver and awarded $8.5 million to the plaintiff. The jury rejected claims that Uber was liable for negligence or design defects and declined to award punitive damages. An Uber spokesperson, who emailed TechCrunch a statement, said the ruling confirms that Uber acts responsibly and meaningfully invests in the safety of riders. Uber plans to appeal the decision.

One more thing…

Last week in our newsletter, we did a poll asking what the name or ticker was Elon Musk‘s combined supercompany should be. Thanks to those who emailed in their suggestions, most of them space-themed, like Galactic X (very good). As for the poll, the majority chose plain ol’ X.

That makes sense, considering Musk often talks, and posts, about X, all of the app. About 50% voted for X, while 20.7% chose ELON, 17.2% chose SpaceAI, and 12.1% chose K2, a reference to one of the corporate entities was held in January.

I choose? I think it will eventually become X, and the company will include more than just SpaceX and xAI.

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