Self-driving technology company Cruise has raised $1.15 billion in fresh equity from a group comprising institutional investors, including funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, and existing partners General Motors, SoftBank Vision Fund and Honda.
Why it matters: Deploying self-driving vehicles requires massive amounts of capital, and investors are beginning to line up around a handful of AV companies they think have the best shot. In the past year, Cruise has secured capital commitments totaling $7.25 billion.
The latest investment puts Cruise's post-money valuation to $19.0 billion.
"Developing and deploying self-driving vehicles at massive scale is the engineering challenge of our generation," said Cruise CEO Dan Ammann. "Having deep resources to draw on as we pursue our mission is a critical competitive advantage."
What to watch: AV companies are in a war for talent. The fresh capital could help Cruise attract top engineers looking for the winning hand.
