Waymo, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of Google’s parent Alphabet Inc., is welcoming its first external investment in its 11-year existence.
Silver Lake, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Mubadala Investment Company are leading a $2.25 billion funding round.
Magna International, Andreessen Horowitz and AutoNation joined in the capital raise.
Alphabet, which never previously disclosed its initial investment, is also participating.
Originally known as the Google self-driving car project, Waymo operates the world’s first factory dedicated to the mass production of Level 4 autonomous vehicles.
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The Waymo Driver, its driverless technology, has completed more than 20 million miles on public roads in 25 cities.
The transportation company launched the world’s first public self-driving ride-hailing service in Arizona, called Waymo One, in 2018.
It also tested a transfer service between La Defense in Paris and Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Silver Lake CEO Egon Durban, who is joining Waymo’s operating board, credits the company for “successfully scaling its fully driverless experience” for the ride-hailing service.
“We’re deeply aligned with Waymo’s commitment to making our roads safer and look forward to working together to help advance and scale the Waymo Driver in the U.S. and beyond,” says Durban.
Says John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo: “With this injection of capital and business acumen, alongside Alphabet, we’ll deepen our investment in our people, our technology, and our operations, all in support of the deployment of the Waymo Driver around the world.”
According to Bloomberg, Krafick suggests that Alphabet could eventually split off Waymo into an independent entity.