Aurora Nets $530M Series B For Self-Driving Tech

Self-driving car startup Aurora has raised $530 million in a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital.

The round, which also included participation from Amazon and T. Rowe Price, is said to have lifted the three-year-old company’s valuation to over $2.5 billion, according to TechCrunch.

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The Palo Alto-based company has been a standout in the autonomous vehicle space largely due to the caliber of its founding team, which includes pioneers in the field from Uber, Google, and Tesla. This round brings its total raised to date to $620 million. It raised a $90 million Series A in February 2018 from Greylock Partners and Index Ventures.

Although it was founded in 2016, Aurora didn’t emerge out of stealth mode until January 2018. The company is working on technology to develop Level 4 and Level 5 (fully autonomous in all circumstances) vehicles and has struck partnerships with large automakers such as Volkswagen and Hyundai.

As mentioned above, all three of Aurora’s founders—Sterling Anderson, Drew Bagnell, and Chris Urmson—are self-driving veterans. Crunchbase News’s Savannah Dowling reported last August, “Interestingly, in a tech world where brains and ego often go hand-in-hand, Aurora emphasizes character and lack of ego in its hiring process.” According to this CNN piece, “its values include ‘no jerks’ and ‘operate with integrity.’ “

To read about other venture-backed startups in the space, check out Savannah’s article here.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias