Self-Drive Startup Gets Hyundai, Baillie Gifford Funding

(Bloomberg) -- Aurora Innovation Inc., the self-driving technology startup known for its dream-team founders, said Wednesday that Hyundai Motor Group is part of a more than $600 million fundraising round, along with Baillie Gifford & Co., the top outside investor in Tesla Inc.

The startup did not disclose the size of the investments by Hyundai and Baillie Gifford, but they are in addition to the $530 million in financing for its Series B round announced in February. Aurora raised $90 million in its Series A round last year, bringing the total financing to more than $700 million.

Aurora already counted Hyundai Group units Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. among its development partners, but the investment represents a deepening of those ties, which Hyundai said in a statement will “expand research to a wide range of vehicles.”

James Anderson, a Baillie Gifford partner, said the U.K.-based asset manager knows and likes Aurora Chief Executive Officer Chris Urmson “and we think this is such an important but difficult area that we want fairly broad exposure.”

This is the latest in a series of developments in recent days between Aurora and major automakers. Aurora and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said on June 10 they will join forces on driverless commercial vehicles in the U.S. market. A day later, Volkswagen AG said it had ended a partnership with Aurora in favor of collaborating on self-driving with Ford Motor Co.

Other Series B investors include Sequoia Capital Operations, Amazon.com Inc. and T. Rowe Price Group Inc. Aurora has put some of that money to use recently by acquiring Blackmore Sensors & Analytics, a lidar startup based in Bozeman, Montana.

Youngcho Chi, the Hyundai Group’s chief innovation officer, said the initiative with Aurora is part of the company’s efforts to commercialize autonomous models. “Working closely with industry leaders around the world will help us develop fully self-driving vehicles that are safe and innovative for our customers,” he said in a statement.

--With assistance from Ed Hammond.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dana Hull in San Francisco at dhull12@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chester Dawson at cdawson54@bloomberg.net, Melinda Grenier

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.