UK self-driving startup Oxa raises $103mln to scale up at ports, airports

By Nick Carey

LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - British self-driving startup Oxa has raised $103 million from investors to scale up autonomous vehicle operations focused on ports, airports, warehouses and other industrial applications, it said on Wednesday.

Oxa, based in Oxford, central England, said that $50 million of its Series D funding round came from the UK's National Wealth Fund and included investments from chipmaker Nvidia's NVDA.O venture capital arm NVentures and BP's BP.L bp Ventures.

Unlike robotaxi developers intent on passenger cars, Oxa is focused on what founder Paul Newman calls "industrial mobile autonomy" where there is less complexity because there is less traffic and fewer encounters with pedestrians.

"We think trying to do that in the passenger car space is super, super hard," Newman said. "In the industrial space, it's extremely clear what you need to do to make a product."

Oxa designs the software and hardware to go on vehicles and can "autonomise" a heavy-duty port truck in under a day.

The latest round brings the company's total funding to over $250 million and will enable it to expand operations with customers including DHL DHLn.DE, BP and Vantec.

Newman also said the financing would go towards deploying Oxa's technology in projects that the company will announce in the near future.

Late last month, British self-driving startup Wayve, which is working with Uber on robotaxis and with several automakers on driver-assistance technology, announced a $1.2 billion Series D funding round.