Insider Brief
- Wayve has raised $1.2 billion in a Series D round at an $8.6 billion post-money valuation to accelerate commercial deployment of its end-to-end autonomous driving AI platform.
- The round was led by Eclipse, Balderton and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Microsoft, NVIDIA, Uber, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and automakers including Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Stellantis.
- Wayve plans to launch robotaxi trials with Uber beginning in 2026 and expand licensing of its AI Driver system to global automakers across L2+ through L4 autonomy.
London-based autonomous driving startup Wayve has secured $1.2 billion in Series D funding, bringing its valuation to $8.6 billion as it speeds up commercial deployment of its embodied AI platform.
According to Wayve, the round was led by Eclipse, Balderton and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with new participation from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Baillie Gifford, British Business Bank, Icehouse Ventures and Schroders Capital. Existing strategic investors Microsoft, NVIDIA and Uber also participated, alongside automotive manufacturers Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Stellantis.
“Autonomy will not scale through city-by-city robotaxi deployments alone,” Co-Founder and CEO Alex Kendall said in the announcement. “It will scale through a trusted platform that automakers and fleets can deploy globally and improve continuously. This investment accelerates our path to widespread commercial deployment and positions us to build the autonomy layer that will power any vehicle everywhere.”
What Does Wayve Build?
Wayve develops an end-to-end AI driving system — often described as a “foundation model for driving” — that learns directly from sensor data rather than relying on rule-based autonomy stacks or high-definition maps.
Unlike many competitors, Wayve does not build its own vehicles. Instead, it licenses its AI Driver software directly to automakers. The system runs entirely on onboard vehicle compute and embedded sensors, without requiring city-specific engineering or HD map infrastructure.
This model is designed to enable:
- L2+ “hands-off” driver assistance
- L3/L4 “eyes-off” autonomy
- Deployment across multiple vehicle platforms and brands
- Global scaling without location-specific retraining
Wayve reports that its system has demonstrated “zero-shot” driving across more than 500 cities in Europe, North America and Japan — meaning deployment without city-by-city fine-tuning. The company attributes this to training on data collected across more than 70 countries.
What’s Next for Wayve?
Uber participated in the Series D and has committed additional capital to support multi-year robotaxi deployments using Wayve’s AI Driver.
“We are very proud to continue to deepen our partnership with Wayve, with plans to deploy together in more than 10 markets around the world,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi noted. “Wayve’s powerful end-to-end approach is purpose-built for scale, safety, and effectiveness, and we’re excited to work with them across multiple OEMs and geographies, which we’ll share more about soon.”
According to Wayve, commercial robotaxi trials are expected to begin in London in 2026, with expansion to more than 10 global markets. Under the structure described by the company:
- Wayve provides the AI Driver software
- Automakers supply L4-capable vehicles
- Uber owns and operates the fleet
Consumer passenger vehicles equipped with Wayve’s L2+ “hands-off” system are expected to reach buyers beginning in 2027. Last year, Nissan announced last year that it will incorporate Wayve’s AI Driver software into its next-generation ProPILOT system, slated for launch in fiscal 2027, positioning the technology as a core component of its advanced collision-avoidance and autonomous driving offering.
“This investment deepens our partnership with Wayve and supports Nissan’s plans to advance autonomous driving through scalable end‑to‑end AI,” said Ivan Espinosa, President and CEO, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. “By strengthening this collaboration, we are reinforcing our competitiveness in intelligent mobility and our focus on long‑term value creation.”
UK officials said Wayve’s latest funding round reflects international confidence in Britain’s AI and automotive sectors and reinforces the country’s position as a leading scale-up hub in Europe.
“This fund raise demonstrates the international confidence in our brilliant AI sector and reaffirms Britain’s position as the leading scale-up ecosystem in Europe,” UK Technology Secretary of State Liz Kendall said in a statement. “We will continue to create the conditions for world-leading firms like Wayve to start, grow and scale, creating great jobs and opportunities for people in every corner of our country.”
Image credit: Wayve
