Oxbotica, a developer of autonomous vehicle (AV) software, has raised an additional US$140m (£115m) as part of a Series C funding round to deploy its driverless operating system across new international markets.
The Series C funding has been contributed to by both new and current shareholders, with Oxbotica expecting additional investors to sign on before the funding round closes in a few months.
Following this announcement, Oxbotica reports that it has raised approximately US$225m (£184.9m) to date.
The funding is intended to support Oxbotica’s geographical expansion in North America, EMEA and APAC and accelerate the deployment of its operating system for AVs in contexts where the technology can be scaled, such as agriculture, airports, energy, goods delivery, mining and shared passenger transportation.
In May 2022, Oxbotica performed Europe’s first zero-occupancy trial on a publicly accessible road.
Paul Newman, CTO and a founder of Oxbotica, said: “Oxbotica was founded eight years ago on the vision of Universal Autonomy—providing safe and sustainable autonomy that is independent of workplace and vehicle type.
“With the greatest engineering talent and experience, using the best of AI, robotics and the metaverse, we are delivering on that promise to create value for our customers, our communities and our planet.
“We welcome our new investors who share our bold vision to redefine the role of the human in the operation of vehicles.”
Erin Hallock, managing partner at bp ventures, said: “We are excited to grow our investment in Oxbotica, which has become a global leader in autonomous vehicle software.
“Our sustained support is a great example of bp ventures’ continued investment in game-changing technology companies.
“By leveraging automation and digital technology we believe the team can improve safety and increase efficiency across a wide range of vehicles and support bp’s ambition to accelerate the global revolution in mobility.”
The company also plans to launch autonomous passenger shuttles and industry-specific vehicles in partnership with automotive firms Applied EV, Bp, NEVS and ZF in 2024.
