Toronto-based Waabi announced Wednesday that it closed an oversubscribed $750 million Series C funding round. The autonomous vehicle technology company secured an additional milestone-based investment from Uber, bringing total available capital to $1 billion.

The funding, the largest fundraise in Canadian history, will fuel continued advancement of Waabi’s Physical AI Platform. The platform will accelerate the Canadian trucking technology maker’s commercial progress and support the company’s expansion into robotaxis.

Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners co-led the Series C round, with participation from strategic investors including Uber, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), Volvo Group Venture Capital and Porsche Automobil Holding SE.

Financial and institutional investors include funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Radical Ventures, HarbourVest Partners, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and Incharge Capital.

Canadian investors participating include BDC Capital’s Thrive Venture Fund, Export Development Canada, and TELUS Global Ventures.

“The moment is here and fully upon us. Everything is coming together for physical AI to have its moment, with self-driving as the first manifestation at scale,” Lior Ron, Waabi chief commercial officer and former Uber Freight CEO, said in an interview with FreightWaves. “Hardware, technology and customers are all ready.”

Waabi’s dual-focus strategy: Trucking and robotaxis

At the core of Waabi’s approach is what it describes as the industry’s only verifiable end-to-end AI model, combined with what the company calls the most comprehensive neural simulator ever created.

This approach enables a “shared brain” across both autonomous trucks and robotaxis. Progress in autonomous trucking simultaneously improves robotaxi capabilities, and vice versa.

Ron told FreightWaves that Waabi’s single-system approach sets it apart from other autonomous trucking technology competitors, who have built purpose-built technology stacks for each vehicle type.

“For us, it’s the same brain, same AI driver, same simulator,” Ron said. “We take the brain — which already handles surface streets — and incrementally expand its capabilities. It’s not a leap; it’s complementary.”

Waabi initially selected autonomous trucking because of the immense opportunity to transform logistics. With its platform now mature and trucking solution approaching deployment, the company holds what it describes as “pole position” in the commercial trucking market.

The deployment goal extends beyond the highway-only approach that characterized earlier autonomous trucking efforts. Waabi aims to enable trucks to handle complex scenarios, including surface streets, urban cores, distribution centers and stores.

The robotaxi expansion leverages the existing shared AI driver, allowing Waabi to enter the vertical more quickly than building from scratch. Urban capabilities developed for robotaxis directly enable trucks to handle more complex scenarios, while highway expertise from trucking transfers to robotaxi operations.

Strategic partnerships to drive scale

Waabi’s commercial strategy relies on partnerships with Volvo on the trucking side and Uber for robotaxi deployment. The Uber collaboration represents a deeply strategic partnership to deploy robotaxis powered by the Waabi Driver on the Uber network, the largest ride-hailing platform globally.

The partnership includes a commitment from Uber to deploy a minimum of 25,000 robotaxis, which Waabi describes as likely the largest self-driving deal in industry history. Under the arrangement, Uber handles operations, including cleaning, charging and scaling customers, while Waabi focuses purely on building the AI driver.

The dual-focus strategy creates synergies between the trucking and robotaxi markets. High robotaxi volume allows Waabi to drive scale and cost efficiency with Tier 1 suppliers and sensor manufacturers, which benefits trucking maturity.

Ron noted that the significant capital raise builds confidence among logistics customers that Waabi will be a long-term partner capable of transforming supply chains for decades.

“Customers want this,” Ron said. “They want trucks to go everywhere: highways, surface streets, distribution centers, stores. With robotaxi development, they’ll see us evolve to meet those needs while remaining purely a technology partner.”

“Waabi’s expanded focus on robotaxis marks an important milestone for their team and the AV industry more broadly,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in the announcement. “We’re very excited to deepen our partnership with Waabi as they significantly scale their Physical AI Platform and enter a new phase of an already remarkable journey.”

For Waabi, the 2027 timeframe remains the commercialization capstone for trucking, while specific robotaxi timelines and additional original equipment manufacturer partnerships are expected to be announced in the coming months.