NEWSROOM
Wayve raises $200m in investment towards next-generation autonomous vehicles
1 February 2022
Wayve are an autonomous mobility start-up who have pioneered a new machine learning approach to AV. Their innovative approach has won the confidence of investors such as Microsoft and Virgin, with their latest Series B round generating over $200 million in investment.
This latest round of funding brings Wayve’s total equity raised to $258 million since inception. Wayve was founded by University of Auckland alumnus Alex Kendall in 2017. He brought on two other University of Auckland alumni, Carolin Fleissner as VP of People and Culture, and Jeff Hawke as VP of Technology, in the early days. They lead a team of industry experts and AV veterans of machine learning scientists and roboticists to develop technology that is contrary to how others have tackled the challenge of autonomous vehicles. While the majority of the AV industry solve autonomous mobility using a traditional robotics approach that relies on hand-coded rules and HD maps, Wayve’s machine learning approach learns much like a human does and is able to adapt to never before seen driving environments.
Alex says “This new investment will enable us to enhance Wayve’s ability to scale and deploy next-generation autonomous technology globally. We’re thrilled to have the support of partners such as Eclipse Ventures, D1 Capital Partners, Baillie Gifford, Moore Strategic Ventures and Linse Capital. We are now aiming to be the first company to deploy autonomy in 100 cities.”
Wayve have already conducted numerous successful trials with a pilot fleet of autonomous cars navigating the streets of central London. The team is now headquartered in London with their fleet of vehicles testing in cities across the UK. They also have an office in the Bay Area of California.
Alex says “Our AV2.0 technology gives the potential to scale commercial deployments to other cities more quickly than the conventional AV approach, which typically relies on an expensive and complex array of sensors and is operationally limited by HD maps and rules-based control strategies.” Wayve is focussing on licensing their autonomous technology to commercial fleets in last-mile grocery delivery.
Alex is a former participant of the Velocity entrepreneurship development programme delivered through the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) and was named one of the University of Auckland’s 40 under 40. Alex says “I really do believe that the culture at the University of Auckland and my experience in the Velocity programme were formative for me to become an entrepreneur. I loved the things I learned through being involved with Velocity”.
CIE Director Darsel Keane says “Media are speculating that the valuation for Wayve is now over a billion dollars. I think this would make it the first Unicorn generated by one of our CIE alumni. It’s an incredible achievement in and of itself however the technology that Wayve are developing also has the potential to be truly world-changing, affecting how people live their very lives. As Wayve enters this next high-growth phase, it’s wonderful that they are reconnecting with the University of Auckland community to see who else they can bring along on this ride.”
Alex says, “We’re always looking to hire exceptional talent here at Wayve, and we know first-hand the quality of engineers that the University of Auckland produces. Whether you’re interested in communications, people, machine learning, software engineering or hardware, we have roles across all of our divisions. While our headquarters are in London, we recognise that there is talent everywhere and Wayve is able to sponsor visas and support relocation to the UK.”
For more information about roles visit: wayve.ai/join-us
1 February 2022
Wayve are an autonomous mobility start-up who have pioneered a new machine learning approach to AV. Their innovative approach has won the confidence of investors such as Microsoft and Virgin, with their latest Series B round generating over $200 million in investment.
This latest round of funding brings Wayve’s total equity raised to $258 million since inception. Wayve was founded by University of Auckland alumnus Alex Kendall in 2017. He brought on two other University of Auckland alumni, Carolin Fleissner as VP of People and Culture, and Jeff Hawke as VP of Technology, in the early days. They lead a team of industry experts and AV veterans of machine learning scientists and roboticists to develop technology that is contrary to how others have tackled the challenge of autonomous vehicles. While the majority of the AV industry solve autonomous mobility using a traditional robotics approach that relies on hand-coded rules and HD maps, Wayve’s machine learning approach learns much like a human does and is able to adapt to never before seen driving environments.
Alex says “This new investment will enable us to enhance Wayve’s ability to scale and deploy next-generation autonomous technology globally. We’re thrilled to have the support of partners such as Eclipse Ventures, D1 Capital Partners, Baillie Gifford, Moore Strategic Ventures and Linse Capital. We are now aiming to be the first company to deploy autonomy in 100 cities.”
Wayve have already conducted numerous successful trials with a pilot fleet of autonomous cars navigating the streets of central London. The team is now headquartered in London with their fleet of vehicles testing in cities across the UK. They also have an office in the Bay Area of California.
Alex says “Our AV2.0 technology gives the potential to scale commercial deployments to other cities more quickly than the conventional AV approach, which typically relies on an expensive and complex array of sensors and is operationally limited by HD maps and rules-based control strategies.” Wayve is focussing on licensing their autonomous technology to commercial fleets in last-mile grocery delivery.
Alex is a former participant of the Velocity entrepreneurship development programme delivered through the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) and was named one of the University of Auckland’s 40 under 40. Alex says “I really do believe that the culture at the University of Auckland and my experience in the Velocity programme were formative for me to become an entrepreneur. I loved the things I learned through being involved with Velocity”.
CIE Director Darsel Keane says “Media are speculating that the valuation for Wayve is now over a billion dollars. I think this would make it the first Unicorn generated by one of our CIE alumni. It’s an incredible achievement in and of itself however the technology that Wayve are developing also has the potential to be truly world-changing, affecting how people live their very lives. As Wayve enters this next high-growth phase, it’s wonderful that they are reconnecting with the University of Auckland community to see who else they can bring along on this ride.”
Alex says, “We’re always looking to hire exceptional talent here at Wayve, and we know first-hand the quality of engineers that the University of Auckland produces. Whether you’re interested in communications, people, machine learning, software engineering or hardware, we have roles across all of our divisions. While our headquarters are in London, we recognise that there is talent everywhere and Wayve is able to sponsor visas and support relocation to the UK.”
For more information about roles visit: wayve.ai/join-us
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