Self-driving technology company Waymo has raised US$2.25bn (£1.73bn) in its first external investment round following a series of operational and technical milestones.
The investment round was led by Silver Lake, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Mubadala Investment Company.
Additional investors include Magna International, Andreessen Horowitz and AutoNation, as well as Alphabet.
John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo, said, “Today, we’re expanding that team, adding financial investors and important strategic partners who bring decades of experience investing in and supporting successful technology companies building transformative products.
“With this injection of capital and business acumen, alongside Alphabet, we’ll deepen our investment in our people, our technology, and our operations, all in support of the deployment of the Waymo Driver around the world.”
The investment follows significant milestones, with Waymo Driver driving more than 20 million miles on public roads across 25 cities and over 10 billion miles in simulation.
Engineers and technicians at Waymo’s Detroit factory have shipped the first vehicles – electric cars and Class 8 trucks, integrated with fifth-generation hardware – with all-new, more powerful computers and more capable sensing.
Ride-hailing service Waymo One is serving customers in Arizona and has provided thousands of driverless rides in a high-speed mixed usage market area larger than San Francisco.
Waymo Driver is being deployed across a variety of platforms and business applications, including Waymo Via, which is focused on all forms of goods delivery.
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