Waabi, a Toronto-based company specialising in generative AI for autonomous vehicles, has announced a successful $200 million Series B funding round. This significant investment, led by Uber and Khosla Ventures, will propel Waabi towards its ambitious goal of deploying fully driverless trucks on the road by 2025.
The new capital will fuel Waabi’s expansion plans. This includes the launch of driverless trucking operations in Texas, expansion into new geographic regions, and the transformation of the overall supply chain. The funding will also support the growth of Waabi’s commercial operations and its team across Canada and the United States.
Earlier this month, we also reported about ARX Robotics which secured €9M seed funding to fill Europe’s gap in autonomous military vehicles.
What problem is the startup trying to solve
Founded in 2021 by founder and CEO Raquel Urtasun, Waabi has achieved rapid progress in the autonomous trucking industry. This recent funding round brings their total investment to over $280 million. The company credits its revolutionary generative AI technology, a talented team, and a network of prominent partners and investors for this success.
Waabi differentiates itself through its unique approach to self-driving technology. Leveraging generative AI, Waabi’s system is designed to mimic human-like reasoning on the road. This capability allows the system to adapt to unforeseen situations and generalise its knowledge beyond pre-programmed scenarios. A key advantage of this approach is a reduction in the amount of training data and computing resources required compared to traditional autonomous vehicle systems. Furthermore, Waabi’s system boasts a high level of interpretability, allowing for safety validation and verification.
The Series B round attracted a diverse group of investors, including industry leaders in deep tech, AI, automotive, shipping, and logistics. This broad support reflects confidence in Waabi’s innovative approach and ambitious vision.
Investors like Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang specifically highlighted the scalability and capital efficiency of Waabi’s technology, while AI luminary Geoff Hinton emphasised the potential for safer and more efficient autonomous solutions.
What we think about the startup
Waabi’s significant funding and partnerships position them as a major player in the race to achieve Level 4 self-driving truck technology. Whether Waabi’s generative AI approach will usher in a new era of driverless trucking remains to be seen. However, their progress thus far suggests they are a company to watch in the autonomous vehicle space.
