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Waymo’s acceleration over the past 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. The company plans to expand its fleet of driverless taxis in more than a dozen new cities overseas this year, including London and Tokyo.
And it currently has $16 billion to fuel its expansion. Is it enough?
When I spoke to several industry watchers, the answer remained in the gray area of ”well, it depends”.
First, let’s talk about bulls. Alphabet is clearly committed to ensuring Waymo’s success. The parent company is and will continue to be a major investor. That means Waymo hasn’t been exposed like other AV startups that suddenly lost money when their backers (often legacy automakers) became disgruntled or reversed course.
Passenger numbers and autonomous mileage statistics are also exploding, and unless regulators derail plans, that trajectory is likely to continue. (Waymo offers 400,000 rides each week in six major U.S. metropolitan areas, and annual rides more than tripled to 15 million in 2025 alone.)
However, this does not guarantee success, especially if the gauge is set to profitability. Waymo still needs to iron out some issues, including costs and increased attention from regulators (the company’s chief safety officer just testified at a Senate Commerce hearing). If Waymo wants to simply become a licensor of its AV technology, it needs to break away from being an operator, and that means giving up some control. That’s difficult with early technology under surveillance.
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Some may disagree with me on this, but they also lack in-house manufacturing like Tesla does. Yes, Waymo has automotive partners. But they don’t have that much financial leverage or the ability to scale up and reduce costs.
Don’t agree? Send your arguments to my email at kirsten.karasec@techcrunch.com.
small bird
The investors behind defunct EV startup Canoo have always been shrouded in mystery. In fact, they were only revealed as part of the lawsuit. Six years ago, I received a tip to specifically investigate one of them, David Stern. He had a connection to Prince Andrew, but was otherwise a ghost.
But when the Justice Department began releasing files on Jeffrey Epstein, he was on my mind. My curiosity about whether he would show up on the paperwork was quickly quashed by the fact that he was actually a close business partner of a convicted sex offender. He introduced Epstein to investment opportunities from around the world, particularly during the go-go era of mobility financing, encouraging him to invest in Faraday Future, Lucid Motors, and Canoe. Read my story about Stern and Epstein’s relationship and how mobility startups were once involved.
— Sean O’Kane
Any tips? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.Korosec@techcrunch.com, email my Signal at korosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Great deal!
Self-driving car technology is more than just robotaxis. This is a difficult and expensive business pursued only by a few well-capitalized companies, including Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox. Many startup founders are applying the AV systems they develop to other use cases such as off-road defense, trucking, forklifts, mining, and construction. Investors worried about missing out on the AV party are jumping into these areas.
Bedrock Robotics is the latest example to garner investor interest. A Silicon Valley self-driving tech startup founded by Waymo and Segment veterans is developing self-driving systems that can be retrofitted to construction equipment. And it just raised $270 million in Series B funding co-led by CapitalG and Valor Atreides AI Fund. Other investors include Xora, 8VC, Eclipse, Emergence Capital, Perry Creek Capital, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), Tishman Speyer, MIT Georgian, Incharge Capital, and C4 Ventures.
Bedrock has raised over $350 million in a short period of time (the company was founded in 2024). While this may not seem like a big deal compared to the size of some seed rounds in the AI lab space, it shows that money is flowing into physical AI startups. I look forward to further deal flow. Importantly, startups focused on commercializing self-driving systems hope to attract talent, provided they have the cash to spare. For example, Bedrock hired Vincent Gonguet, who previously led AI safety and tuning for all Llama models at Meta, as head of evaluation. It also poached John Chu from Waymo.
Stay tuned for an interview with Boris Sofman, co-founder and CEO of Bedrock Robotics.
Other sales that caught our attention this week…
German electric motor maker Additive Drives has raised €25 million ($29.5 million) from Nordic Alpha Partners.
Apeiron Labs, an autonomous underwater vehicle startup, has closed a $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.
African mobility fintech startup GoCab has raised a $45 million funding round consisting of $15 million in equity and $30 million in debt. The equity round was co-led by E3 Capital and Janngo Capital, with participation from KawiSafi Ventures and Cur8 Capital.
Mitra EV, a Los Angeles commercial EV fleet company, has raised $27 million in funding, including equity funding from lead investor Ultra Capital and a line of credit from S2G Investments.
Overland AI, a Seattle-based developer of self-driving systems designed for military operations, has raised $100 million in a round led by 8VC. Other investors include Point72 Ventures, Ascend Venture Capital, Shasta Ventures, Overmatch Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and StepStone Group.
Used EV marketplace Plug has raised $20 million in Series A led by Lightspeed with participation from Galvanize and existing investors Autotech Ventures, Leap Forward Ventures, and Renn Global.
R3 Robotics, a European startup that wants to automate the disassembly of EV systems at scale, has raised a combined €20 million ($23.6 million) in grants and venture funding. The €14 million ($16.5 million) Series A funding was co-led by HG Ventures and Suma Capital. Existing shareholders also participated, including Oetker Collection, European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund), BONVENTURE, FlixFounders and EIT Urban Mobility.
El Segundo, California-based aviation automation startup Skyryse has raised more than $300 million in Series C investment. The round, led by Autopilot Ventures, increases the 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.
Notable reads and other trivia
China has banned hidden electronically activated door handles popularized by Tesla. The ruling, announced by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, states that all new cars sold in the country must be equipped with mechanical door handle releases by January 1, 2027. There are rumors that Europe may soon follow suit.
Uber continues to work to become more competitive in the self-driving car space. The company has promoted Balaji Krishnamurthy, vice president of strategic finance and investor relations, to chief financial officer (CFO). This may seem unrelated to AV, but it actually is. Mr. Krishnamurthy has been actively promoting the company’s self-driving ride-hailing partnerships and has a seat on the board of directors of AV company Wabi. Speaking on AV during the company’s fourth quarter conference call, he said the company will invest capital in AV software partners, work with AV manufacturers through equity investments and offtake agreements, and “support our AV infrastructure partners.”
Meanwhile, in a high-profile case against Uber, a mixed verdict was handed down against the ride-hailing company after a woman sued in November 2023 alleging she was raped by an Uber driver. The jury found Uber liable as the driver’s express agent and awarded the plaintiff $8.5 million in damages. The jury rejected Uber’s claims that it was liable for negligence or design defects, and also declined to award punitive damages. In an emailed statement to TechCrunch, an Uber spokesperson said: “This ruling confirms that Uber has acted responsibly and meaningfully invested in the safety of our passengers. We will continue to put safety at the center of everything we do.” Uber plans to appeal the decision.
One more thing…
In last week’s newsletter, we ran a poll asking what the name or ticker should be for Elon Musk’s combined supercompany. Thanks to those who emailed suggestions. A lot of them were space themed, like Galactic X (which is great). When it comes to opinion polls, the majority chose the average X.
That’s no surprise, considering Musk frequently talks and posts about the app of all things, X. Approximately 50% voted for X, 20.7% chose ELON, 17.2% chose SpaceAI, and 12.1% chose K2 (referring to one of the legal entities established in January).
What is my choice? I think it’s going to end up being X, but this company will include more than just SpaceX and xAI.
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