/* ---- Google Analytics Code Below */

Thursday, July 15, 2021

Amazon Backed Aurora to go Public

Been some time since I had seen this updated

Amazon-backed autonomous vehicle startup Aurora to go public via SPAC merger    BY MARIA DEUTSCHER

Autonomous vehicle startup Aurora Innovation Inc. today announced plans to go public through a merger with Reinvent Technology Partners Y, a blank-check company backed by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Zynga Inc. founder Mark Pincus.

The merger is expected to net Aurora about $977.5 million. That’s in addition to $1 billion the startup is raising ahead of the planned stock market listing from a consortium comprising Morgan Stanley, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital and other prominent investors.

The deal puts Aurora on track to list its shares at an initial market capitalization of $13 billion. That represents a significant increase over the startup’s last private valuation of $10 billion, which it received after merging with Uber Technology Inc.’s autonomous vehicle business last year. The transaction gave the ride-hailing giant a 26% stake in the startup.

Pittsburgh-based Aurora is developing a suite of technologies that can be installed on a vehicle to let it navigate the roads without human input. It calls the suite the Aurora Driver. The startup is offering not only autonomous driving software but also maps of roads that help the software navigate with greater reliability, computing modules and sensors. Aurora has also built its own simulation tools for carrying out reliability tests.   ... " 

No comments: