Aurora Innovation, a developer of autonomous vehicles, has successfully completed a funding round, raising $820 million. This substantial amount of capital will provide Aurora with the necessary resources to continue its mission of bringing self-driving trucks to the road.
With this funding, Aurora aims to launch its autonomous trucking business by the end of 2024, starting with a route connecting Dallas and Houston.
In a blog post, Aurora CEO Chris Urmson expressed his gratitude for the funding and stated that it would support their anticipated commercial launch through next year and well into 2025. Urmson acknowledged the cautious approach of investors in the current financial markets and highlighted the significance of this substantial investment to further their mission.
Prior to this funding round, Aurora announced its plan to raise $600 million through private placement of common stock, and an additional $200 million through a public stock offering. The company exceeded its target by raising an additional $20 million due to high demand.
According to regulatory filings, Aurora plans to allocate $175 million to $185 million per quarter towards achieving their commercial launch.
The co-founders of Aurora, Urmson, Sterling Anderson, and Drew Bagnell, bring their industry expertise to the company. With this funding, Aurora now possesses approximately $1.5 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments.
While the company declined to disclose the investors in this funding round, they confirmed the participation of existing institutional and strategic investors.
Some of Aurora’s significant institutional investors include Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc., Vanguard Group, Inc., and others.
In September 2022, Aurora announced that it had sufficient funds to support its self-driving trucking business until mid-2024, but acknowledged the need for additional capital in the future.
As capital market conditions worsened due to factors like the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes, Urmson mentioned the possibility of Aurora being acquired by companies like Microsoft or Apple in an internal memo. However, Urmson now affirms Aurora’s commitment to advancing its self-driving commercial trucks independently.
Remaining an independent company allows Aurora to prioritize its mission without being distracted or redirected by competing business priorities. This freedom positions them to make rapid progress towards product deployment.
Aurora plans to provide more information about its future plans during its second-quarter 2023 earnings call on August 2.
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Omprakash Tiwary is a business writer who delves into the intricacies of the corporate world. With a focus on finance and economic landscape. He offers readers valuable insights into market trends, entrepreneurship, and economic developments.
