(Bloomberg) -- Waymo, Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous driving unit, was valued at more than $45 billion, including its latest round of financing, according to people familiar with the matter.
The business said late last week that it had raised $5.6 billion in new capital at an undisclosed value. The financing was led by Alphabet, which also owns Google, but included outside investors. Representatives for Waymo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company has come to symbolize progress in self-driving vehicles — technology that’s now spreading rapidly after years of setbacks. Waymo is expanding the number of rides it offers in cities such as San Francisco and Phoenix, delivering upwards of 150,000 paid trips each week.
Waymo is part of a large pack of companies pursuing robotaxi services in the US. It already competes for riders in the human-driven ride-hailing market in San Francisco, Los Angeles and the Phoenix area with Uber Technologies Inc. and
Uber and Waymo also have a partnership. They’re planning to offer Waymo robotaxi rides in the new markets of Atlanta and Austin next year through Uber’s app. Like Waymo cars in San Francisco and other cities, they won’t have a safety driver in the front seat.
The startup is part of Alphabet’s “Other Bets” portfolio of businesses, which includes the life sciences unit Verily. That unit reported $388 million in third-quarter revenue, up from $297 million in the year-ago quarter.
Waymo, led by co-Chief Executive Officers Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov, said existing investors who participated in the recent funding include Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price.
By taking outside capital, Alphabet is insulating itself from headwinds against autonomous driving, an industry that will likely face regulatory hurdles as it grows. Waymo also faces competition from Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc., which is planning a proprietary ride-hailing service powered by the company’s own self-driving cars.
(Updates with more details on the financing starting in the second paragraph.)
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