A Self-Driving Dream Team Gets $530 Million From Sequoia, Amazon

The self-driving startup Aurora Innovation Inc. has raised $530 million from a group of investors led by Sequoia Capital, Silicon Valley’s storied venture capital firm, that includes financial backing from Amazon.com Inc. and T. Rowe Price Group Inc. This second round of funding for Aurora values the company at more than $2.5 billion.

Aurora’s three co-founders are legendary within the tight community of roboticists and engineers who are leading the charge to make self-driving cars a reality. Chris Urmson, the chief executive officer, was an early leader of the driverless car project launched within Google that later became Waymo, now widely seen as the first robotaxi business to emerge. Sterling Anderson, Aurora’s chief product officer, previously led Tesla Inc.’s Autopilot team that developed driver-assistance technology for the electric-car maker. Drew Bagnell, the chief technology officer, was a founding member of Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group.
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