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Waymo has closed a $5.6 billion Series C funding round led by parent company Alphabet and joined by a who’s who of Silicon Valley venture firms.
Alphabet had previously announced in July that it was pledging another $5 billion to Waymo, but was mum on the specifics, saying only that it was a “multi-year” commitment. Andreesen Horowitz, Silver Lake, Fidelity, Tiger Global, Perry Creek, and T. Rowe Price all joined the round. Waymo declined to say how much each invested.
It’s Waymo’s second external fundraising round, and its first since a $2.25 billion Series B in 2020 that eventually grew to $3.2 billion. The autonomous vehicle company says it will use the funds to expand into new cities and further develop its autonomous capabilities for “business applications.”
Waymo is in some ways a much different company now than it was when it raised that last round. At that time, the company was still plowing headlong into an autonomous trucking effort that it has since pulled back from.
The company has instead put nearly its entire focus on its robotaxi ride-hailing service. The bet has paid off. Waymo now operates commercial robotaxi services in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and is expanding to Austin and Atlanta. It’s giving paid rides to more than 100,000 customers per week across those first three markets and offering trips to and from the airport in Phoenix. And it’s operating on highways in the Phoenix and San Francisco areas.
Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.
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