Wayve secures $1.5bn investment

New funding will enable UK firm deploy its global autonomy platform

Wayve, a developer of Artificial Intelligence systems for autonomous driving, has raised $1.2 billion in new funding to enable a shift from research to scaled a commercial deployment of its AI platform. 

The Series D  funding round was led by Eclipse, Balderton and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and brings in new investment from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Baillie Gifford, British Business Bank, Icehouse Ventures, Schroders Capital and other global institutional investors. 

Microsoft, NVIDIA and Uber also participated in the round, reflecting tech sector support for Wayve's embodied AI as a foundational software layer for deploying autonomy at a global scale. 

The investments will bring the UK company’s post-money valuation to $8.6 billion.

Global automotive manufacturers Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Stellantis are also invested in support of advancing Wayve's unified AI platform spanning Level 2-pkls (L2+) “hands off” through to L3/L4 “eyes off” driving across vehicles, brands and markets. 

Alex Kendall, co-founder and chief executive of Wayve, said: “With $1.5 billion secured, we are building for a total addressable market that spans every vehicle that moves. Autonomy will not scale through city-by-city robotaxi deployments alone. 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.”  

Embodied AI for AVs

Embodied AI integrates intelligent agents into robots, autonomous vehicles or drones, enabling them to perceive, reason and interact directly with the real world rather than just processing digital data.

Wayve has been pioneering the application of end-to-end AI to autonomous driving in 2017 and has industrialised its architecture into a production-ready autonomy platform. 

From 2026, consumers will experience Wayve-powered robotaxis through commercial trials with Uber. Then, from 2027, they will be able to buy passenger vehicles equipped with Wayve’s AI Driver, starting with L2+ “hands-off” capability that allows the vehicle to steer, navigate and respond to traffic under driver supervision. 

Wayve licenses its AI Driver directly to automakers, providing tools to customize driving models for specific vehicles and brands. The system runs entirely on onboard vehicle compute and embedded sensors, and does not rely on high-definition maps or location-specific engineering. 

By partnering with automakers and mobility platforms rather than vertically integrating, Wayve enables autonomy to scale globally with lower capital intensity. 

In 2025, Wayve signed a definitive production partnership with Nissan Motor Co. to integrate its AI Driver into Nissan’s next-generation ProPILOT driver-assistance systems, with the first mass-produced vehicles expected to launch in Japan and other global markets from fiscal year 2027.   

Zero-shots on target

In the past year, Wayve became the first and only AV developer to drive zero-shot in more than 500 cities across Europe, North America and Japan, meaning without city-specific fine-tuning before deployment. 

“Zero-shot” in the context of driving refers to  the ability of an autonomous vehicle (AV) system to navigate, interpret, or operate in new environments, cities, or scenarios without having been specifically trained on data from those locations.

Wayve says this performance was enabled by its foundation model, which has been trained on globally diverse data spanning over 70 countries and a wide range of vehicle platforms.  

Robotaxi deployment with Uber 

Uber participated in the Series D and has committed additional capital to support multi-year deployments of Wayve-powered robotaxis on the Uber network, with plans to scale to more than 10 markets globally. 

The companies plan to launch their first service in London in 2026, with broader international roll-out to follow. 

Under the partnership, Wayve will deploy its AI Driver in L4-capable vehicles from participating automakers, while Uber will own and operate the fleet, creating a scalable model for autonomous ride-hailing using mass-produced vehicles. 

Investor support

Investors and their advisors see great potential in Wayve's embodied AI expertise.

Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft: “Wayve is pushing the frontier of embodied AI for autonomous driving, and Azure supports the scale, reliability, and safety needed to bring that innovation into the real world. Through our partnership and investment, we’re helping accelerate the path from breakthrough research to scaled commercial deployment with automakers worldwide.”

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber: “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.” 

Ivan Espinosa, president and CEO, Nissan Motor Company: “This investment deepens our partnership with Wayve and supports Nissan’s plans to advance autonomous driving through scalable endtoend AI. By strengthening this collaboration, we are reinforcing our competitiveness in intelligent mobility and our focus on long-term value creation.” 

Antonio Filosa, CEO of Stellantis: “Wayve’s embodied AI approach and end-to-end learning architecture represent an important innovation in autonomous driving technology. Their work aligns well with Stellantis’ platform driven strategy and our focus on scalable, safety first vehicle intelligence. We see strong potential for collaboration as we advance our autonomy roadmap, including our driverless AV Ready Platforms, with the clear objective of delivering safer and more intuitive driving experiences for customers worldwide”. 

Seth Winterroth, partner at Eclipse: “Wayve’s end-to-end embodied AI approach appeared contrarian when Eclipse first backed the company in 2019. Today, it’s clear this vision is the scalable path to deploying autonomy globally as we stand on the edge of a transportation shift that will transform how the world moves, works, and lives.” 

Kentaro Matsui, managing partner at SoftBank Global Advisers and head of the new business office at SoftBank Group: “Wayve is building a scalable, end-to-end embodied AI platform that we believe will help define the future of mobility.”

Suranga Chandratillake, general partner at Balderton: "We've been proud to support Wayve since the early days, backing Alex and his team as they pursued an ambitious – and at the time rather contrarian – vision for embodied AI. The technical achievements are extraordinary, but what's more impressive is how this team has taken cutting-edge research out of the lab and deployed it in complex, real-world driving environments - turning breakthrough science into commercial reality. Born out of a tiny lab in Cambridge and now a global leader in its field, Wayve represents the very best of European innovation: world-class technology, global ambition and real-world deployment at scale."

Avid Larizadeh-Duggan, head of EMEA for Teachers’ Venture Growth, the late-stage venture investment platform of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan: “Wayve’s approach to embodied AI marks a true step forward in how driving intelligence is trained, scaled and deployed. In a space with only a handful of serious contenders, their technical edge, pace of execution and trusted relationships with leading ecosystem partners set them apart.” 

Ministers are upbeat

The news of new investment in Wayve was welcomed by the UK government, which is keen to encourage the development and roll-out of autonomous vehicle technology. 

UK technology secretary Liz Kendall said: “Wayve is a powerful example of the strength, ambition and potential of Britain’s innovative firms. This fund raise demonstrates  he international confidence in our brilliant AI sector and reaffirms Britain's position as the leading scale-up ecosystem in Europe. 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.”

UK business secretary e Peter Kyle said: “The growth of great British AI businesses like Wayve is a big vote of confidence in the UK and in the future of our auto industry that will help to boost jobs and growth across the sector. We’re proud to be backing this investment round, giving Wayve the firepower to scale up and thrive.” 

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said: “Wayve is pushing the boundaries of innovation right here in the UK, and this £1.5bn investment will cement the UK as a powerhouse for the next generation of transport. We're backing innovators with smarter regulation that unlocks growth, and giving firms like Wayve the opportunity to trial their driverless technology on our roads later this year.”