Waabi Innovation Inc., the autonomous trucking company founded by Raquel Urtasun, raised $750 million in January to expand beyond commercial trucking into the robotaxis market. The Toronto-based startup has been operating Level-4 autonomous cargo routes between Dallas and Houston since fall 2023, using retrofitted Peterbilt semis weighing up to 80,000 pounds with no human drivers aboard. Backers of the latest funding round include Khosla Ventures, Nvidia, and Swedish automaker Volvo.
Urtasun, a Spanish-Canadian professor at the University of Toronto and former chief scientist at Uber's Advanced Technologies Group, has 16 years of experience in the self-driving space. In October, Waabi achieved a key milestone by integrating its "Waabi Driver" system into Volvo's new VNL Autonomous truck, which uses Nvidia's Drive AGX Thor AI platform. The company's technology is powered by what Urtasun calls the industry's most advanced neural simulator, creating a "shared brain" that can be deployed across different vehicle types.
McKinsey estimates the global autonomous trucking market could exceed $600 billion annually by 2035, with autonomous vehicles handling 15 percent of total U.S. trucking miles by 2030. Waabi's system can operate in various environments and geographies, though snowstorms currently create no-go conditions. The company positions its technology as scalable across cars, trucks, and other wheeled vehicles.
The funding will help Waabi compete in the robotaxi space against established players like Waymo and Cruise. The autonomous vehicle industry is experiencing renewed optimism and investment after years of setbacks and overpromising. Urtasun's approach emphasizes simulation-based training and AI-first development to achieve safer, more reliable autonomous systems across multiple vehicle categories.