London-based autonomous driving startup Wayve has just closed a major funding round, pulling in roughly $1.5 billion and lifting its valuation to about $8.6 billion. The investment positions the company as one of the United Kingdom’s most highly valued AI ventures and marks a shift from research toward real-world deployment.
The core of the round is a $1.2 billion Series D led by financial investors including Eclipse, Balderton and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from global institutions such as Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Baillie Gifford.
Big technology names Microsoft and NVIDIA joined the list of backers, alongside ride-hailing platform Uber and major automakers Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Stellantis. Uber has also committed additional milestone-based funding tied to deployment targets.
Wayve was founded in 2017 by Cambridge researchers Alex Kendall and Amar Shah. Unlike many autonomous vehicle efforts that rely on detailed maps and hand-coded rules, Wayve has built what it calls an “embodied AI” driving system.
The software learns from driving data and aims to generalize across different cities and vehicle types without extensive local tuning. In 2025 Wayve’s AI system was tested in more than 500 cities worldwide, often without prior training in those locations, illustrating its ability to adapt to new environments.
The new capital is earmarked to help move outside the lab. This year Wayve plans commercial robotaxi trials with Uber in London, with an international expansion to more than ten markets expected in 2026. Starting in 2027, the company says it will bring supervised autonomy software, capable of hands-off driving under certain conditions, to consumer vehicles through partnerships such as the one with Nissan.
The funding round and strategic backing highlight growing investor interest in autonomous driving after years of costly development and technology setbacks in the industry. Wayve’s approach, licensing adaptable AI software rather than building its own fleet of vehicles, gives it a different path to commercialization than some competitors.
With this latest round secured, Wayve’s leadership says the company will focus on scaling its AI system globally and supporting partners through deployment, while keeping an eye on long-term milestones such as further technology development and, potentially, a public listing in the future.
