A Toronto-based firm’s vision for success in physical AI is moving along well.
Autonomous vehicle company Waabi has secured a landmark $1 billion in new financing, underscoring growing investor confidence in physical AI and intensifying competition in the race to commercialize self-driving vehicles at scale.
The company announced it has closed an oversubscribed $750 million Series C round, co-led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners, alongside an additional future investment commitment from Uber. The Uber investment is tied to a new partnership to deploy robotaxis powered by the Waabi Driver exclusively on Uber’s platform.
Waabi said in the announcement that the combined funding represents the largest single fundraise in Canadian history.
From trucking startup to physical AI
Founded in 2021 by computer vision researcher Raquel Urtasun, Waabi is a term in the Ojibwe language related to seeing or having vision.
It works in the autonomous vehicle sector by emphasizing simulation-driven development and end-to-end AI systems. Rather than building separate stacks for different vehicle types, Waabi is betting on a single “shared brain” that can generalize across trucks and passenger vehicles.
Its platform combines a verifiable end-to-end AI model with a high-fidelity neural simulator. This allows Waabi to train, test, and validate its self-driving system across diverse geographies and driving conditions without relying solely on costly real-world miles.
The company says this approach enables the same AI model to power both autonomous trucks and robotaxis, creating a feedback loop in which progress in one application improves performance in the other.
A diverse base
The Series C round drew participation from a wide range of investors spanning AI, automotive manufacturing, and global finance. Other investors include NVentures (Nvidia’s venture arm), Volvo Group Venture Capital, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE.
Financial institutions also took part, including funds managed by BlackRock, HarbourVest Partners, Radical Ventures, Linse Capital, and a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Canadian backers such as BDC Capital’s Thrive Venture Fund, Export Development Canada, TELUS Global Ventures, and BMO Global Asset Management also joined the round.
Exclusive robotaxi partnership with Uber
A key implication of the funding is Waabi’s formal entry into the robotaxi market, a space that has seen uneven progress and significant capital burn across the industry.
Under the agreement, Uber will host Waabi Driver-powered robotaxis on its platform and provide additional milestone-based funding to support development and deployment. Over time, the companies aim to roll out 25,000 or more robotaxis, a scale that would place the partnership among the largest planned autonomous ride-hailing efforts globally.
Implications for the autonomous vehicle industry
Waabi’s raise comes at a time when investors are increasingly selective about autonomous vehicle bets, favoring companies that can demonstrate clear paths to commercialization and capital efficiency. By using a single AI system across trucks and robotaxis and relying heavily on simulation, Waabi is positioning itself as a counterpoint to more hardware-intensive and siloed approaches.
If successful, the company’s strategy could shorten deployment timelines, reduce costs, and accelerate regulatory confidence, particularly as autonomous trucking and ride-hailing begin to intersect. The Uber partnership also signals growing interest from platform companies in owning differentiated autonomy technology rather than relying on multiple vendors.
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