Nuro scores $940M from SoftBank for self-driving deliveries

Autonomous vehicle startup Nuro has raised $940 million from SoftBank's Vision Fund, reportedly valuing the business at $2.7 billion. The Bay Area-based developer of robotic delivery vehicles was founded in 2016 by former Waymo engineers Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu; the company partnered with Kroger last June to test a driverless grocery delivery service in Arizona.

The round marks a tenfold increase for Nuro in terms of both money raised and valuation: It was last valued at $250 million in 2017 with a $92 million Series A, led by Banyan Capital and Greylock Partners.

The investment is the Vision Fund's latest foray into the mobility sector, where it has also backed Uber and committed $2.25 billion to GM's Cruise Automation in May 2018. Nuro's fundraise also marks the second unicorn round in less than a week for a company in the autonomous vehicle space, following Aurora's $530 million fundraise from Sequoia and Amazon.

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