Wayve Raises $1.5B To Deploy Its Global Autonomy Platform

The investment will accelerate the company’s transition from AI research leadership to large-scale commercial deployment of its end-to-end autonomous driving platform.

The round was led by Eclipse, Balderton, and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with new investments from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Baillie Gifford, British Business Bank, Icehouse Ventures, Schroders Capital, and other global institutional investors.

Existing technology partners Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Uber also participated, underscoring confidence in Wayve’s embodied AI as a core software layer for deploying autonomy at a global scale. Leading automotive manufacturers Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Stellantis joined the round, supporting the advancement of Wayve’s unified AI platform, which enables L2+ “hands-off” to L3/L4 “eyes-off” driving capabilities across multiple vehicles, brands, and markets.

Wayve has been at the forefront of applying end-to-end AI to autonomous driving since 2017, and has since industrialized its safety-by-design architecture into a production-ready autonomy platform.

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Starting in 2026, consumers will experience Wayve-powered robotaxis through commercial trials with Uber. By 2027, passenger vehicles equipped with Wayve’s AI Driver will be available for purchase, beginning with L2+ “hands-off” capabilities that enable vehicles to steer, navigate, and respond to traffic under driver supervision.

Wayve licenses its AI Driver directly to automakers, offering tools to tailor driving models for specific vehicles and brands. The system runs entirely on onboard compute and native sensors without requiring high-definition maps or location specific engineering.

By collaborating with automakers and mobility platforms instead of vertically integrating Wayve enables global autonomous scaling with lower capital intensity.

Over the past year, Wayve became the first and only AV developer to drive zero-shot in more than 500 cities across Europe, North America, and Japan operating without city-specific fine-tuning before deployment.

This capability is powered by Wayve’s foundation model, trained on globally diverse data from over 70 countries and a wide range of vehicle platforms, creating unmatched data diversity that allows its autonomy to generalize seamlessly to new markets.

Alex Kendall, Co-Founder and CEO of Wayve, said: “With $1.5 billion secured, we are building for a total addressable market that spans every vehicle that moves. Autonomy will not scale through city-by-city robotaxi deployments alone. It will scale through a trusted platform that automakers and fleets can deploy globally and improve continuously. This investment accelerates our path to widespread commercial deployment and positions us to build the autonomy layer that will power any vehicle everywhere.”

About Wayve

Wayve, founded in 2017 pioneers end-to-end AI for autonomous driving. Its vehicle-agnostic Wayve AI Driver scales globally, running entirely on onboard compute and native sensors. Delivering hands-off, eyes-off, and robotaxi capabilities, Wayve enables fast, flexible deployment across vehicles and geographies, bringing a unified, production-ready autonomy platform to market.