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Nuro surpasses USD 1 billion with Series B round
Silicon Valley-based Nuro has raised USD 940 million in Series B financing from the SoftBank Vision Fund, bringing the total amount raised to approximately USD 1.3 billion. Previous Series A investors include Greylock Partners and China’s Gaorong Capital.
In 2018, Nuro secured a national partnership with Kroger for grocery delivery and launched its fleet of custom unmanned road vehicles to the general public in Arizona. The same year, the company licensed its self-driving technology to autonomous trucking company Ike.
Nuro co-founders Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhuwere, formerly principal engineers at Google’s self-driving car project (now Waymo), founded Nuro in 2016. As stated on the Nuro website, the company was founded “to harness the power of robotics and artificial intelligence to solve new challenges at a global scale.”
Softbank Investment Advisers Managing Partner Michael Ronen said in a recent statement, “In just two years Dave, Jiajun and team have developed Nuro from a concept into a real business using robotics to connect retailers to customers.”
With new financing in hand, Nuro plans to expand its delivery service to new regions, add partners, scale its fleet, extend and mature its general self-driving technology, and significantly grow its team. According to a recently published report, Nuro’s pilot program with Kroger is being designed to access 2,800 Kruger outlets to move groceries from stores to homes in 35 states.
The most recent investment is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of applicable regulatory approvals.