Waabi Raises $1B to Expand From Self-Driving Trucks to Robotaxis

Self-driving startup Waabi has spent the past five years becoming a major force in the world of autonomous trucks. Now, armed with $1 billion in new funding, it is preparing to take on a new challenge: the robotics market. The Toronto-based venture has raised $750 million in an oversubscribed Series C round led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners, Waabi announced yesterday (Jan. 28). It also received an additional $250 million in “future milestone-based investments” from Uber to deploy a fleet of robots in the ride-hailing app.

“We are excited to partner with the world’s leading ride-sharing platform to deliver a safe, efficient and sustainable future,” said Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi, in a statement. “Our current self-driving capabilities on highways and off-road have opened up a new direct-to-customer model that, for the first time, is solving pain points in the industry.”

Waabi’s new funding round, among the largest in Canadian history, includes backers such as Nvidia venture capital, Volvo Group Venture Capital and Porsche Automobil Holding SE. The startup, which does not disclose its valuation, recently raised $200 million by June 2024 during its Series B round.

Founded by Urtasun in 2021, Waabi has self-driving technology—called “Physical AI Platform”—that can adapt to different locations, locations and types of vehicles. The company has long specialized in private trucking to transform the $1 billion freight industry in North America.

Since 2023, Waabi has worked with Uber Freight to make commercial deliveries across Texas by security drivers, and last year launched a partnership with Volvo to develop long-haul trucks. It originally planned to start operating fully driverless trucks by the end of 2025, but the deadlines have been pushed back to 2026.

Its new partnership with Uber, however, will see the startup enter the bustling world of robots. Waabi, which declined to provide details on where the robotaxis will be used or which automakers it will work with, plans to roll out 25,000 or more self-driving passenger cars over time. It noted that its self-driving technology will be reused in all robotic applications.

Urtasun, 49, is also a professor at the University of Toronto. The Spanish-Canadian computer scientist launched Waabi after working in Uber’s autonomous technologies group, the self-driving part of which was sold in 2020 to AI trucking business Aurora Innovation.

While Uber no longer develops its own in-house self-driving unit, it has since turned to a strategy of integrating third-party players into its entire network. This ride-hailing company works with nearly 20 car partners around the world. For example, Waymo operates cars on the Uber app in cities such as Austin, Atlanta and Phoenix, while China’s WeRide partners with Uber across Middle Eastern cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi. To bolster its self-driving ambitions, Uber is also launching the Uber AV Lab this week (Jan. 27), a new team focused on collecting driving data to support its autonomous driving partners.

“Waabi’s expanded focus on robotaxis marks an important milestone for their team and the team [autonomous driving] industry at large,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, in a statement. “We are thrilled to deepen our relationship with Waabi as they expand their Physical AI Platform and enter a new phase of an already amazing journey.”