Nuro Raises $600 Million, Valuation Reaches $8.6 Billion

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

While the concept of mobility has often turned out to be a buzz phrase used by executives unsure of where to place hypothetical revenue streams and burgeoning technologies, it has simultaneously yielded a handful of enterprising business premises with the potential to stand on their own. Nuro, the American robotics company fielding pint-sized delivery drones, is among them and has made a case for itself by eliminating humans from the equation entirely and providing unique scenarios for its services.

The startup has been getting a smattering of positive attention since its formation in 2015 and recently raised $600 million during its latest funding round, bringing its valuation to an impressive $8.6 billion.

According to the robotics firm, financing was led by Tiger Global Management with help from Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company, LLC, Gaorong Capital, Google, Kroger, SoftBank Vision Fund 1, various accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Woven Capital, and other investors participating in the company’s Series D funding round.

“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,” stated 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.”

Said commercialization pertains to the expansion of the company’s R2 “zero-occupant autonomous delivery vehicles” currently being tested in several American cities. We’ve even seen them serving as delivery bots for Domino’s Pizza without incident. Kroger has similarly opted to see how the company handles grocery drop-offs in select areas, with leadership reportedly being pleased with the arrangement.

“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’s greatest attributes haven’t been perfected yet, however. While the company has previously said one of its largest strengths will be sending autonomous drones into disaster areas (e.g. nuclear emergencies, viral outbreaks, wildfire zones, war-torn cities) to bring in the necessary goods, we’ve continued seeing drones accompanied by human supervisors riding around on electric scooters for mundane delivery tasks. Though this is hardly a phenomenon limited to Nuro. True vehicular autonomy has likewise remained elusive for legacy automakers boasting far more capital to fling at R&D.

It would be a lie to suggest Nuro had fallen behind the pack — and not just because it’s pursuing for different use case for AVs than businesses who also happen to sell passenger cars.

Nuro’s co-founders, Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, each worked on the Google self-driving car project that later became Waymo and the company has showcased its delivery robots are capable of operating independently during specialized testing in California, Texas, and Arizona. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also gave Nuro approval to deploy up to 5,000 R2 vehicles on public roads in 2020, dividing the quota between two years. In August, the company announced it was setting aside $40 million to construct a factory and closed-course test track for its robotic delivery vehicles in Nevada. Nuro said the facilities will encompass 125,000 square feet of space across at least 80 acres of property, some of which would be shared with the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

During the funding announcement, the company reiterated its commitments in Nevada and recent negotiations that led to a five-year partnership with FedEx. Nuro has since signed onto another strategic alliance 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.”

[Images: Nuro]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

Consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulations. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, he has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed about the automotive sector by national broadcasts, participated in a few amateur rallying events, and driven more rental cars than anyone ever should. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and learned to drive by twelve. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer and motorcycles.

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  • Crosley Crosley on Nov 04, 2021

    It's a good idea, but will it increase congestion when a bunch of slow moving vehicles clog our roads?

    • CoastieLenn CoastieLenn on Nov 04, 2021

      Yeah that's something else they should iron out. If these bots max out at 25mph, but their delivery makes them have to run down 45-55mph main thoroughfares, how does that play out?

  • Super555 Super555 on Nov 11, 2021

    Test markets should be Flint, MI and Baltimore, MD. Please post videos of said tests. Popcorn ready.

    • Mcs Mcs on Nov 11, 2021

      I can't wait for the youtube videos!! Flint and Baltimore! Could they add Chicago too? Maybe the Bronx?

  • Jan Smith Now investors should be really concerned. Unless he wanted to show a glimpse of the Model 2, he has existing cars to build upon for autonomous technologies. He even admitted all Tesla vehicles are capable of the next gen tech. Don’t spend money if you don’t have to. Now, the Robovan’s design is a page out of “I, Robot” except with seats. I wished Elon would have provided better explanation of its applications (airport and big venue shuttles). How about UberXL or XXL? Maybe a 7-8 seater with storage for suitcases. This would complement the robotaxi and can be rolled out simultaneously. Those robots are straight out of the movie “I, Robot”. I don’t think everyday people can afford those. And for people who can afford them, they can hire humans to do the same jobs. And, those humans go home at night. Can you imagine trying to sleep knowing there is a Robot in the house that Elon can shut on and off?? What if Robots become sentient…….
  • Jan Smith Now investors should be really concerned. Unless he wanted to show a glimpse of the Model 2, he has existing cars to build upon for autonomous technologies. He even admitted all Tesla vehicles are capable of the next gen tech. Don’t spend money if you don’t have to. Now, the Robovan’s design is a page out of “I, Robot” except with seats. I wished Elon would have provided better explanation of its applications (airport and big venue shuttles). How about UberXL or XXL? Maybe a 7-8 seater with storage for suitcases. This would complement the robotaxi and can be rolled out simultaneously. Those robots are straight out of the movie “I, Robot”. I don’t think everyday people can afford those. And for people who can afford them, they can hire humans to do the same jobs. And, those humans go home at night. Can you imagine trying to sleep knowing there is a Robot in the house that Elon can shut on and off?? What if Robots become sentient…….
  • SCE to AUX Of course not. They might field some Level 3 test mule with a human "observer", but there will not be a fleet of Level 5 robotaxis running around unmonitored.
  • Kjhkjlhkjhkljh kljhjkhjklhkjh Nope. After a few accidents states will do the same thing they have done to Cruze ETC and ban them long enough that that losses and bad PR will offset any possible meager gains and they will be ''converted'' to fleet vehicles that no-one wants.
  • Noe65816932 Too bad he is leaving , he did a “bang up job “ . He will be missed .
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