Self-Driving Truck Startup Aurora Innovation Raises $420M Ahead of Commercial Launch of Autonomous Trucking Services
Aurora Innovation, a leading autonomous driving technology company, is seeking to raise hundreds of millions more in capital as it works towards launching commercial operations with driverless trucks by the end of 2024.
The company filed documents this week stating it has arranged to sell up to $420 million worth of stock shares to prominent investment banks Goldman Sachs, Allen & Company and Morgan Stanley. Aurora went public back in 2021 through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company and its shares reached as high as $13 briefly after the deal.
Under the proposed agreement, the investment banks would purchase the shares from Aurora at a slight discount to account for fees, and then resell them on the public market. This deal, if completed on August 2nd as outlined, could significantly boost Aurora’s cash reserves ahead of a key commercial rollout targeted before year’s end.
Aurora is taking a different commercialization approach than some other autonomous trucking startups by adopting a driver-as-a-service model. This involves carriers purchasing trucks equipped with Aurora’s self-driving technology and then offering freight hauling services to shippers using an autonomous fleet. However, to start Aurora also plans to directly operate its own small fleet of 20 driverless trucks from manufacturers Paccar and Volvo that will provide shipping capacity to select customers later in 2024.
As of its second quarter financial report, Aurora held around $400 million in cash and over $600 million in short term investments. The company estimates existing funds would support operations into the fourth quarter of 2025 without this capital raise. However, the additional funding could help accelerate product development and deploying trucks onto open roads and highways in coming months in advance of generating revenue from customer shipments.
If approved, this infusion of new capital would bolster Aurora’s balance sheet as it approaches an important juncture – aiming to be among the first companies to launch commercial autonomous freight delivery at scale and generate real autonomous trucking revenue.