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Alphabet-owned autonomous driving company Waymo has ambitious plans to raise $16 billion in a financing round that would see the group’s valuation rise to nearly $110 billion.
The company, which plans to make its entry into Europe this year, starting with the UK capital, has a fleet of more than 2,500 vehicles already in operation. Waymo already offers commercial robotaxi services in a number of U.S. cities, with fleets in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and a recent launch in Miami.
While parent company Alphabet plans to invest around $13 billion, the remainder will be supplied by external investors including DST Global, Dragoneer Investment Group and Sequoia Capital.
In a statement to the press, a Waymo spokesperson said:
“While we don’t comment on private financial matters, we are focused on the safety-led operational excellence and technological leadership required to meet the vast demand for autonomous mobility.”
Waymo currently stands as the only self-driving company in the U.S. that operates a commercial robotaxi service with no safety driver behind the wheel.
Competitor Zoox, owned by Amazon, has started pilot programmes in the Bay Area but still requires a safety driver at all times. Tesla’s own autonomous service, its Full Self-Driving (FSD) platform, relies on cameras alone and is currently classified as a Level 2+ autonomous system.
Waymo claims that its vehicles have clocked over 173 million miles of autonomous driving since the company was founded in 2009.
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