Significant scale-up investment for Oxford spinout

Oxbotica, a global leader in autonomous vehicle software, announced today that it has raised US$140 million in Series C investment to deploy its operating system for Universal Autonomy™ in multiple commercial and industrial domains around the world. The Series C funding accommodates growing demand from new and current shareholders, with additional investors expected to sign on before the funding round closes in a few months.

Oxbotica was founded eight years ago by Professor Paul Newman and Professor Ingmar Posner of Oxford’s Robotics Institute. Since then it has enjoyed continued success and attracts category-defining customers and partners, including Ocado Group, with which the company is collaborating on autonomous goods delivery to fulfil customer orders. Oxbotica has partnered with Applied EV to equip prototype vehicles with its software; these have already operated with no on-board driver on a publicly accessible road in Oxford, marking a key milestone in commercialising its AV technology.

The investment round includes financial and strategic partners from North America, EMEA and APAC, including new investors such as Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Co., Ltd 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. 

The funding will drive Oxbotica’s geographical expansion in North America, EMEA and APAC, and accelerate the deployment of its ground-breaking autonomy operating system in domains where there is both urgent need and potential to scale, such as agriculture, airports, energy, goods delivery, mining and shared passenger transportation. The latest commitments signal continuing investor confidence in Oxbotica’s vision for Universal Autonomy™ — the ability of any vehicle, of any size, in any place to operate autonomously, safely and sustainably — and its proven record of breakthrough innovations which represent vital 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, says: “This landmark investment from world-class investors 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. We share a common purpose with our investors as well as our growing number of customers and partners to make the Earth move more safely, more sustainably and more efficiently. We’re invigorated by their confidence and are moving quickly to accelerate the benefits of autonomy for everyone.”

Paul Newman, CTO and a Founder of Oxbotica, says: “Oxbotica was founded eight years ago on the vision of Universal Autonomy™ — providing safe and sustainable autonomy that is independent of workplace and vehicle type. With the greatest engineering talent and experience, using the best of AI, robotics and the metaverse, we are delivering on that promise to create value for our customers, our communities and our planet. We welcome our new investors who share our bold vision to redefine the role of the human in the operation of vehicles.”