Wayve plans to sell its technology to other car manufacturers and robotics companies. Despite the rarity of billion-dollar funding deals like Wayve's, venture funding to AI-related startups increased slightly in Q1 2024 compared to Q4 2023, with around $12.2 billion invested in venture-backed AI startups in 1,166 deals. This represents a 4% increase in dollar terms from the previous quarter, which saw $11.7 billion invested in similar startups in 1,072 deals.
Key takeaways:
- London-based self-driving car startup Wayve has raised $1.05 billion in a SoftBank-led round, marking one of the largest funding deals for a British startup.
- Nvidia and Microsoft, both active investors in the AI space, also joined in the Series C funding, bringing Wayve's total raised to $1.3 billion.
- Wayve's self-driving car technology works through embodied AI, a system in which a real-world object powered by AI software interacts with and continuously learns about the world as it travels through that environment.
- Despite few billion-dollar funding deals on the scale of the Wayve raise, venture funding to AI-related startups increased slightly in Q1 2024 compared to Q4 2023, with around $12.2 billion invested in venture-backed AI startups in 1,166 deals.