The investment round includes financial and strategic partners from around the world, including new investors such as Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance and ENEOS Innovation Partners. Current Oxbotica shareholders who are re-investing include bp ventures, BGF, Halma, Hostplus, Kiko Ventures (IP Group), Ocado Group, Tencent, Venture Science and ZF, amongst other global companies.
To date, Oxbotica has raised approximately $225m.
According to the company this funding will be sued to drive its geographical expansion in North America, EMEA and APAC, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomy operating system in domains where there is both a need and the potential to scale, such as agriculture, airports, energy, goods delivery, mining and shared passenger transportation.
Oxbotica’s operating system Universal Autonomy enables any vehicle, of any size, in any place to operate autonomously, safely and sustainably.
The company has a proven record of breakthrough innovations delivering advances in commercialising AV technology. These include Europe’s first zero-occupancy trial on a publicly accessible road in May 2022, metaverse-based testing and collaborative alliances with the insurance sector, amongst others.
Gavin Jackson, CEO of Oxbotica, said: “This landmark investment is a tremendous validation of our strategy to apply self-driving technology where there is persistent and urgent demand—in supply chains, industrial sectors and in decongesting our cities.”
Oxbotica has also attracted a growing number of critical customers and partners, including Ocado Group, with which the company is collaborating on autonomous goods delivery to fulfil customer orders. The software-defined vehicle from partner Applied EV, driven by Oxbotica, has already operated with no on-board driver on a publicly accessible road in Oxford, marking a key milestone in commercialising its AV technology.
In partnership with Applied EV, bp, NEVS and ZF, autonomous passenger shuttles and industry-specific vehicles driven by Oxbotica will be launched in 2024. Meanwhile, together with Wenco International Mining Systems, Oxbotica is bringing the benefits of open autonomy to mining to improve safety and sustainability combined with lower operational costs.
