"Autonomous vehicle startup Waabi has raised $1 billion and struck a partnership with Uber to deploy self-driving cars on the ride-hailing platform - the company's first expansion beyond autonomous trucking. The funding consists of an oversubscribed $750 million Series C round co-led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners and roughly $250 million in milestone-based capital from Uber to support the deployment of 25,000 or more Waabi Driver-powered robotaxis exclusively on its platform."
"The partnership represents a bet that the startup's AI technology can succeed where others have struggled - scaling across multiple self-driving verticals with a single technology stack. While competitors like Waymo previously attempted both robotaxis and trucking before shutting down its freight program, Waabi founder and CEO Raquel Urtasun says her company's capital-efficient approach and generalizable AI architecture give it a unique advantage to tackle both markets simultaneously."
Waabi raised $1 billion through a $750 million Series C co-led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners plus roughly $250 million in milestone-based capital from Uber to support deployment of 25,000 or more Waabi Driver robotaxis exclusively on Uber's platform. No timeline was provided for large-scale deployment. The partnership bets on Waabi's generalizable AI architecture to scale across robotaxi and trucking verticals with one technology stack. Waabi positions its approach as capital-efficient and less data-dependent, building on prior ties to Uber ATG and an existing Uber Freight partnership.
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