SoftBank fund invests big in self-driving deliveries

A Silicon Valley startup working on self-driving delivery vehicles on Monday announced nearly a billion dollars in fresh funding from the SoftBank Vision Fund.

The $940 million in financing from SoftBank brought the total amount of funding raised by Nuro to more than $1 billion, with investors including Greylock Partners and Gaorong Capital, according to the company.

The move comes amid surging interest in robotic delivery from a range of companies from small startups to retail giant Amazon.

"We've spent the last two and a half years building an amazing team, launching our first unmanned service, working with incredible partners and creating technology to fundamentally improve our daily lives," Nuro co-founder Dave Ferguson said in a release.

"This partnership gives us the opportunity to take the next step in realizing our vision for local commerce and the broad application of our technology."

Last year, Nuro -- which includes team members who came from Google, Waymo, Apple, Uber, Tesla, and General Motors -- began testing its boxy, driverless delivery vehicles in Arizona in a partnership with the large grocery store chain Kroger.

The service lets people place online orders and have them delivered by the robotic vehicles, which operate independently by are followed to make sure all goes to plan.

"Nuro's world-class team has successfully scaled their self-driving technology out of the lab and into the streets," SoftBank Investment Advisers managing partner Michael Ronen said in the release.

Nuro planned to use the funding to expand its delivery service to new locations, increase its fleet of vehicles, and make new alliances.

The SoftBank fund, led by Japanese entrepreneur Masayoshi Son, has set a goal of investing at least $100 billion promising new technologies.

gc/rl

SOFTBANK GROUP

Related Links
Car Technology at SpaceMart.com

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Amazon invests in self-driving car startup Aurora
San Francisco (AFP) Feb 7, 2019
A self-driving car technology startup founded by former Google, Tesla and Uber executives said Thursday it secured $530 billion in new funding that included a "significant" investment from Amazon. The funding round for Aurora Innovation led by Silicon Valley venture capital powerhouse Sequoia reportedly valued the startup launched just two years ago at more than $2.5 billion. "We are always looking to invest in innovative, customer-obsessed companies, and Aurora is just that," Amazon said in res ... read more