Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous driving unit, has been valued at more than $45 billion, including its latest round of financing, according to people familiar with the matter.
The company said at the end of last week that it had raised US$5.6 billion (R$32.37 billion) for an undisclosed consideration. The funding was led by Alphabet, which also owns Google, but included outside investors. Waymo representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company has come to symbolize the progress of autonomous vehicles — technology that is now spreading rapidly after years of setbacks. Waymo is expanding the number of trips it offers in cities like San Francisco (California) and Phoenix (Arizona), offering more than 150,000 paid trips per week.
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Waymo is part of a large group of companies seeking robo-taxi services in the US. It already competes with Uber and Lyft in the human-driven ride-hailing market in San Francisco, Los Angeles and the Phoenix area.
Uber and Waymo also have a partnership. They are planning to offer Waymo robotaxi rides in the new markets of Atlanta, Georgia, and Austin, Texas, next year through the Uber app. Like Waymo cars in San Francisco and other cities, they will not have a safety driver in the front seat.
The startup is part of Alphabet’s “Other Bets” business portfolio, which includes life sciences unit Verily. This unit recorded US$388 million in revenue in the third quarter, up from US$297 million recorded in the same period last year.
Waymo, led by co-chief executives Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov, said existing investors who participated in the recent financing include Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price.
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By receiving outside capital, Alphabet is shielding itself from the headwinds of autonomous driving, a sector that will likely face regulatory hurdles as it grows. Waymo also faces competition from Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc., which is planning a self-driving ride-hailing service with the company’s own self-driving cars.
