MOUNTAIN VIEW — Nuro, a maker of autonomous delivery vehicles, has scored a massive $600 million round of financing led by Tiger Global Management with participation from Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company, LLC, Gaorong Capital, Google, Kroger, SoftBank Vision Fund 1, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Woven Capital, and other existing investors as part of the company’s Series D funding round. The new money will support the development and deployment of Nuro’s autonomous delivery service in communities across the country.
Nuro has been testing its self-driving robotic vehicles with major companies including FedEx, Domino’s, Walmart and Kroger.
“We’re thrilled to have the backing of these prominent investors and world class companies, and honored that they support our vision of improving communities and revitalizing local commerce,” said Dave Ferguson, Nuro co-founder and president. “We believe this investment will allow us to accelerate our commercialization strategy and better everyday life with Nuro’s technology.”
“The arrival of ubiquitous on-demand ecommerce is changing the way we access goods. Demand for local deliveries is exploding. Nuro is the bridge to an era of sustainable, low cost, autonomous local delivery,” said Griffin Schroeder, Partner at Tiger Global.
The recently closed series D round will enable Nuro to continue its commercialization of zero-occupant autonomous delivery vehicles. Nuro’s fundamental rethinking of autonomous vehicles and the opportunity to transform local commerce has garnered attention from prominent commercial partners in a variety of industries. This latest funding round, which includes leading financial and strategic investors, will assist Nuro in addressing long-standing pain points and shifting consumer trends accelerated by COVID-19.
“Kroger launched its partnership with Nuro in 2018 to explore grocery delivery through autonomous vehicles,” said Yael Cosset, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer for Kroger. “Since then, Kroger and Nuro completed thousands of deliveries to our customers — driving innovation that supports our expanding seamless ecosystem by creating consistent and rewarding customer experiences with scalable, sustainable, and profitable solutions.”
Nuro has also signed a five year strategic partnership with Google Cloud to support the massive scale and capacity required to run self-driving simulation workloads, machine learning to improve model accuracy, and storage to manage important data from the vehicles. Through their new partnership, Nuro and Google will also explore opportunities together to strengthen and transform local commerce.
Earlier this year, Nuro announced a $40 million investment to develop two new facilities in southern Nevada—an end-of-line manufacturing facility and world-class, closed-course test track—to commercialize and scale production of the company’s third-generation autonomous vehicle. Nuro has also recently announced a multi-year partnership with FedEx and has piloted pizza delivery with Domino’s in Houston. The latest funding round will further equip the company to expand its team, deploy its solution at scale, and advance its industry-leading technology.
