Alphabet's Self Driving Unit Waymo Raises $2.5B Despite Key Departures: Bloomberg

Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL autonomous car unit, Waymo, has raised $2.5 billion in the latest funding round to advance its technology, Bloomberg reports.

What Happened: The fund will help advance the company's autonomous driving technology, Waymo Driver, and grow Waymo's team, Reuters reports. It will help replace the management team that saw a slew of departures.

Investors in the latest round included Alphabet, Andreessen Horowitz, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Fidelity Management & Research Co., and Tiger Global.

Earlier in May, Waymo reportedly sought $4 billion funding to further its IPO plans.

However, the company lost six critical executives in rapid succession since Feb., including CEO, CFO, and several lieutenants, doubting its strategy and competitive strength.

Outgoing CEO John Krafcik had telegraphed his departure. Waymo appointed two Co-CEOs, Dmitri Dolgov and Tekedra Mawakana.

CFO Gerard Dwyer departed in April, and Waymo is recruiting a new CFO.

Investor relations head Sherry House and automotive partnership head Adam Frost also departed in April. The company named an interim head of treasury and appointed Mark Burton as the new head of automotive.

Waymo's chief manufacturing and supply chain officer Tim Willis, resigned in Feb. Operations strategy head Gavin Nachbar also resigned.

Vijaysai Patnaik, an executive who ran Waymo's trucking product, also resigned.

Why It Matters: Alphabet is presently tightening spending for costlier projects outside of Google.

In 2020, Waymo launched a ride-sharing service with driverless cars in Phoenix. Yet Waymo faced flak for failing to expand the service to more cities and the company's settling for a commercial model.

Waymo raised $2.25 billion in its first external investment round led by Silver Lake, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Mubadala Investment Company in Mar. 2020 which later expanded to $3.25 billion.

The Co-CEOs admitted to raising funds from outside Alphabet and were open to additional external investment.

Price action: GOOG shares traded higher by 0.10% at $2,523.17 on the last check Wednesday.

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