Remote driving startup Vay could raise up to $410 million from Singapore’s Grab | TechCrunch

Self-driving vehicles have arrived at a moment and it makes it a lot easier for smaller companies to raise money. Get a loana German startup offering remote-controlled rental cars gets $60 million in cash from Singaporean tech heavyweight Grabthe company announced on Monday.

The deal, which still needs regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of the year, could be followed by “an additional $350 million as joint milestones are achieved within the first year,” Vay CEO Thomas von der Ohe said. wrote is LinkedIn.

The Berlin-based startup uses its technology and human operators to drive rental cars to and from customers remotely. Vay is not yet used commercially in real traffic in Germanywhere it lacked regulations until recentlybut the company is currently operational in Las Vegas, where it will be operating in January 2024. Vay now plans to use Grab’s investments to scale and expand its operations in the US.

Vay will need to reach certain milestones in the US to unlock additional investment from Grab, including the number of US cities covered, regulatory approvals obtained and total consumer revenue.

The US is seeing increasing competition and a rapidly growing offering of different forms of remote driving. For example, Alphabet-owned Waymo recently announced that it will deploy its robotaxi service in Detroit, Las Vegas and San Diego.

Although listed on the Nasdaq, Grab does not operate in the US, where it will limit itself to supporting Vay’s growth.

However, Vay describes driverless car rentals as a complement to robotaxis. As for Grab, it sees Vay as a service for “a growing segment of consumers who prefer not to be car owners,” Grab co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan said in a press release.

Although Vay’s customers are not car owners, they still need a driver’s license: once the car is delivered, the user takes over and drives it like a normal car. But unlike their own car, they don’t have to look for where to park it. Vay says the service costs about half of a trip, thanks to this hybrid approach and the hardware light system.

At the same time, the two companies plan to explore synergies between Vay and Grab’s operations in Southeast Asia. Grab’s ubiquitous super app calls itself “the everyday everything app” and offers all-in-one options for taxis, ride-hailing, transportation, express groceries and food delivery, as well as digital payments and financial services.

With a growing interest in mobility, Grab has recently invested in autonomous driving startups including May Mobility from the US and WeRide from China. The synergies the company finds with Vay may lie in the technological field. For example, the company says that driving data collected by Vay could accelerate the training of AI models to improve autonomous driving.

This is also in line with Vay’s vision to become more than an electric rental car fleet. The company has already expanded into commercial and business-to-business services and has formed a partnership with self-driving truck manufacturer Kodiak Robotics. Ultimately, it aims to build a “global remote driving platform,” Von der Ohe told TechCrunch earlier this year.

According to Crunch baseVay had raised $131.8 million from Kinnevik, Coatue, Eurazeo, Atomico, General Catalyst, Creandum and the European Investment Bank, among others. If fully unlocked, Grab’s investment would be a significant boost. But with Nvidia announcing plans to invest $500 million in British self-driving technology startup Wayve, the race is just beginning.