"Autonomous vehicles are having a moment, and it's making it a lot easier for smaller companies to raise money. Vay, a German startup offering remote-controlled rental cars, will get $60 million in cash from Singaporean tech heavyweight Grab, the company announced on Monday. The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close by the end of the year, may be followed by "an additional $350M as joint milestones are achieved within the first year," Vay CEO Thomas von der Ohe wrote on LinkedIn."
"Vay will need to hit certain milestones in the US to unlock additional investment from Grab, including number of U.S. cities covered, regulatory approvals obtained, and overall consumer revenue. The U.S. is seeing increased competition and fast-expanding offerings of various forms of remote driving. For instance, Alphabet-owned Waymo recently announced it would deploy its robotaxi service in Detroit, Las Vegas, and San Diego."
"Although publicly traded on the Nasdaq, Grab does not operate in the U.S., where it will limit itself to supporting Vay's growth. However, Vay describes driverless car rental as complementary to robotaxis. As for Grab, it sees Vay as serving "a growing segment of consumers who prefer not to be car owners," Grab cofounder and CEO Anthony Tan said in a press release."
Grab plans an initial $60 million investment with up to $350 million more tied to milestones to back Vay's remote-controlled rental car business. Vay uses technology and human operators to remotely deliver rental cars that customers then drive; users must hold a valid driver's license and avoid parking obligations. Vay is operational in Las Vegas but not yet deployed in Germany due to earlier regulatory uncertainty. The investment aims to fund U.S. scaling, with milestone metrics including covered U.S. cities, regulatory approvals, and consumer revenue amid growing competition from robotaxi services such as Waymo.
Read at TechCrunch
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