Nvidia is newest investor to again AV startup Nuro in $203M funding spherical

Nvidia is amongst a bunch of recent buyers to again Nuro — which develops self-driving software program for supply and ride-hailing companies — in a funding spherical that has reached $203 million.

The Silicon Valley startup introduced Thursday that a number of buyers, together with present backer Baillie Gifford, added one other $97 million to its Collection E spherical. New buyers embody Icehouse Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Nvidia, and Pledge Ventures. Uber, which final month mentioned it might make a “multi-hundred-million greenback” funding in Nuro as a part of a broader deal with the electrical automotive maker Lucid, additionally participated. 

Nvidia’s funding follows years of technical collaboration with Nuro. The startup makes use of Nvidia GPUs for its large-scale knowledge processing and mannequin coaching, and its newest compute mannequin is constructed on the Nvidia Drive AGX Thor platform.

The primary $106 million tranche of Collection E funding was introduced in April. Funding accounts suggested by T. Rowe Value Associates, Constancy Administration & Analysis Firm, Tiger World Administration, Greylock Companions, and XN participated in that first block. 

Nuro has raised $2.3 billion up to now. Its Collection E post-money valuation is $6 billion. That’s a 30% drop from its $8.6 billion valuation in 2021 when Nuro raised $600 million in a Collection D spherical. 

A lot has modified previously 4 years for Nuro and the broader autonomous autos business. Like most startups within the nascent autonomous car expertise sector, Nuro was pressured to look at its enterprise mannequin after financial situations shut off the once-free flowing faucet of capital and ushered in a interval of consolidation.

Nuro went via a number of rounds of layoffs in 2022 and 2023 earlier than overhauling its enterprise technique. In 2024, Nuro scrapped plans to personal and function a fleet of low-speed, on-road supply bots, and as an alternative targeted its efforts on licensing its expertise to automakers and mobility suppliers, like ride-hail and supply firms. 

The pivot has appeared to realize some traction — notably in July when Uber introduced plans to launch a robotaxi service utilizing all-electric Lucid Gravity SUVs geared up with Nuro’s self-driving tech. Underneath the deal, Uber invested $300 million in Lucid and agreed to purchase “at the least” 20,000 of the EV maker’s Gravity SUVs over the following six years. 

Uber additionally mentioned it might make investments an undisclosed “multi-hundred-million greenback” quantity into Nuro. One supply acquainted with the settlement informed TechCrunch the quantity is greater than Uber’s funding in Lucid. 

A portion of Uber’s funding has gone towards the Collection E spherical. The remaining funding will likely be parceled out to Nuro as the corporate hits sure milestones. 

Nuro co-founder and president Dave Ferguson mentioned in a press release that the corporate is well-positioned to proceed its subsequent section of development with the brand new capital. He added that the corporate, which employs about 700 folks, will deal with delivering new industrial partnerships to appreciate autonomy at world scale.