The Oxford and Toronto-based autonomous vehicle software firm Oxbotica has raised US$140 million (£115 million) in a Series C funding round from financial and strategic partners from North America, EMEA, and APAC.

Oxbotica says it will also use the funds to deploy its autonomous operating system in domains with urgent need and potential to scale, like agriculture, airports, energy, goods delivery, mining, and shared passenger transportation. 

New investors include Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Co, Ltd and ENEOS Innovation Partners. Current shareholders bp ventures (also backed Flylogix and Freebee), BGF, Halma, Hostplus, Kiko Ventures (IP Group), Ocado Group, Tencent, Venture Science, and ZF, also participated in the round.

Founded in 2014 by Oxford professors, Paul Newman and Ingmar Posner, Oxbotica developed autonomous vehicle software for businesses, giving any vehicle, of any size, in any location the ability to operate autonomously.

In partnership with Applied EV, bp, NEVS, and ZF, autonomous passenger shuttles and industry-specific vehicles driven by Oxbotica will be launched next year. 

Gavin Jackson, CEO of Oxbotica, said, “This landmark investment from world-class investors is a tremendous validation of our strategy to apply self-driving technology where there is persistent and urgent demand—in supply chains, industrial sectors, and in decongesting our cities.”

He added, “We share a common purpose with our investors and our growing number of customers and partners to make the Earth move more safely, sustainably, and efficiently. We’re invigorated by their confidence and are moving quickly to accelerate the benefits of autonomy for everyone.”

(Picture – Oxbotica)