Scania Invest makes minority investment in leading autonomous technology company
18 JUNE 2024
Investment in Canadian company Waabi provides key strategic value for Scania in its progress towards offering full-scale autonomous transport solutions.
Scania Invest, the newly established investment arm of Scania’s Ventures and New Business department, has announced its investment in Waabi, a leading Canadian company pioneering generative AI for the physical world.
This marks the first major investment by Scania Invest since its establishment in December 2023. Scania Invest was created to focus on key technological areas with potential significant impact on the future transport ecosystem, including energy and infrastructure, circularity and materials, and autonomous and supply chain.
Scania Invest identified Waabi as a strategic addition to Scania’s existing investments and partnerships with technology actors in the heavy transport sectors. Waabi has developed a revolutionary approach that unleashes generative AI in the physical world. Through the company’s end-to-end AI system as well as its simulation platform, Waabi has developed an autonomous trucking solution that is provably safe, cost-efficient, and reduces the need for extensive on-road testing. Waabi is already operating commercially in the United States with plans to expand its commercial operations and launch fully driverless autonomous trucks in 2025.
The investment in Waabi fits in with Scania’s overall strategic ambitions for autonomous transport solutions, which it sees as making an important contribution to the transition towards safer, more efficient and sustainable transportation.
Scania Invest joins the funding round alongside major industry players including NVIDIA, Uber, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Ingka Investments, as well as top-tier financial investors including Khosla Ventures and HarbourVest. Through this partnership, Scania Invest aims to leverage Scania’s deep vertical expertise, world-class R&D capabilities and ability to scale solutions globally to support Waabi’s continued growth.
“Our investment in the company exemplifies our strategy of pushing boundaries in areas that will have a significant impact in the future transport ecosystem. This is a strategic and significant investment for us, marking the beginning of our newly established investment arm,” says Jessica Persson, Head of Venture Capital and Strategic M&A at Scania.
“Waabi and Scania share a common vision of building sustainable transportation systems. This investment in Waabi highlights Scania's confidence in our technology and our world-class team to realise this future. We appreciate their support as we bring autonomous transport solution to the market,” says Raquel Urtasun, the Founder and CEO of Waabi.
