US self-driving startup Aurora secures $90mn in VC funding

US-based autonomous vehicle startup Aurora has secured a further $90mn in series A round investments from venture capital (VC) firms Greylock Partners and Index Ventures.

“At Greylock, we invest in companies in the earliest stages when we believe they can quickly scale and have a true potential to fundamentally change an industry,” said Reid Hoffman, Partner Greylock and former Founder of LinkedIn. “The firm has invested in today’s most innovative companies in transportation and autonomy, and we are excited to add Aurora to the portfolio.”

See also:

• Reuters: Only 27% of Americans would feel comfortable riding in autonomous vehicles

• General Motors to launch autonomous ride hailing service by 2019

• Intel subsidiary to supply autonomous driving technology to 2mn vehicles

As part of the investment, Hoffman will join Aurora’s Board, alongside Mike Volpi, a Partner of Index Ventures and the former Chief Strategy Officer at Cisco.

The funding will further power the development of Aurora’s self-driving technology, with the company already having signed a number of partnerships and collaborative agreements with global leading industry brands.

In January, Aurora partnered with Nvidia to create a next generation autonomous vehicle computing platform using Nvidia’s dedicated DRIVE Xaxier processor, whilst also having signed similar agreements at the beginning of the year with Volkswagen AG and Hyundai Motor Co in the aim of developing the self-driving systems that will be used to power their own autonomous and connected vehicles.

Further, just last month Aurora signed a new partnership with China’s Byton, with the electric vehicle company looking to incorporate level 4 autonomous driving capabilities into its own models, with the view of later expanding this to level 5.

“We are pleased to partner with Aurora, as Aurora is supremely focused on a mission to deliver the benefits of self-driving vehicles safely, quickly and globally," said Dr Carsten Breitfeld, CEO and Co-Founder of Byton in announcement of the partnership.