British self-driving technology pioneer Oxa has received a significant funding boost from BP after spending ‘millions of pounds’ to develop autonomous vehicles.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the Oxford-based firm received nearly $20m (£14.8m) from BP Ventures, the oil group’s venture capital arm, and tech backer IP Group earlier this month, filings show.

The financial backing comes after Oxa, formerly Oxbotica, admitted it needed “significant” new funds by the end of December to repay debts and keep the business afloat. It lost nearly £70m in 2024 and had just under £30m in cash, despite the business raising nearly £180m in new funds.

Investors in Oxa have also written down the value of the business in recent months amid delays to a long-expected funding round.

BP Ventures is a small division of the FTSE 100 oil and gas giant BP, investing modest sums in fledgling technologies in the hope that one of the bets pays off.

The Oxa investment came before BP’s leadership shake-up earlier this month. Chief executive Murray Auchincloss announced his surprise exit after less than two years to be replaced by Meg O’Neill, the boss of Woodside Energy.

Alongside BP and IP, Oxa’s investors include Ocado and Google.

In September, IP Group disclosed that it had cut Oxa’s value by two-thirds to £120m, down from more than £350m previously.

The $20m in BP and IP Group funding was provided as a convertible note, a debt instrument that can be converted into equity.

An Oxa spokesman said the new funding was “a confident investment by our existing investors” ahead of a further “landmark frontier AI investment into Oxa and the UK”.

(Picture: Oxa)