Aurora Innovation, a self-driving technology company, was looking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in additional capital to launch a driverless commercial vehicle by the end of 2024. The company, which had planned to sell up to $420 million worth of stock, exceeded its goal and raised $483 million.
The new funding comes just over a year after Aurora raised $820 million in equity through a public offering and private placement of stock.
“This funding is a testament to investor confidence in Aurora’s ability to grow into a long-term, sustainable company, driven by our recent analyst day where investors experienced autonomous trucking and recent milestones that highlight the power of our partner ecosystem to build at scale,” company spokesperson Rachel Tsividakis said in an email to TechCrunch.
Aurora made its public debut in 2021 through a special purpose merger and acquisition, and the stock traded as high as $13.12 on the opening day. Aurora stock closed at $3.84 on Friday. The stock rose more than 2% in after-hours trading.
Aurora is pursuing a driver-as-a-service model, where carriers buy trucks equipped with Aurora Driver technology and then provide services to carriers using those trucks. But the company is also entering the carrier market, with plans to offer up to 20 autonomous Paccar and Volvo trucks to carriers later this year.
Aurora said Thursday it plans to sell up to $420 million worth of Class A common stock to underwriters Goldman Sachs, Allen & Company and Morgan Stanley, according to an SEC filing. Thursday’s agreement came a day after Aurora filed a prospectus to sell $350 million worth of stock. A person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that strong investor demand has led to the offering being expanded to $420 million.
Aurora said in an updated filing that it expects net proceeds from the sale to be approximately $405 million, or $466 million “if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full,” after deducting the usual discounts, commissions and offering expenses. The deal closed Friday afternoon, bringing the total raised to $483 million.
Aurora did not respond to questions Thursday about how it would use the proceeds. Thursday’s filing offered few hints, vaguely stating that the company would invest the money for “working capital and other general corporate purposes.” The company also wrote in the filing that it would initially invest the proceeds from the offering in “short-term and long-term investment grade financial instruments, certificates of deposit or guaranteed bonds.”
Aurora provided further details after the deal closed on Friday.
“This opportunistic fundraising gives us enough runway to deploy our driverless trucks at scale by 2026 and put us on a path to be cash flow positive by 2028,” Chividakis said, adding that enthusiasm is growing as the company approaches its planned commercial launch. “With our continued momentum and more favorable market conditions, the time is right to raise additional capital.”
The bid for more funds comes as Aurora reports its second-quarter results. As of June 30, 2024, Aurora had $402 million in cash and cash equivalents and $618 million in short-term investments. The company expects this to be sufficient to fund operations through the fourth quarter of 2025, excluding the proceeds of the offering.
In Q2 2024, Aurora spent $198 million, a direct loss as the startup is not yet profitable.
The company plans to launch commercial service on the Uber Freight network later this year. In June, the two companies announced a multi-year collaboration to make Aurora’s autonomous technology available on the Uber Freight network through 2030.
UPDATE: This article has been updated to reflect that Aurora’s $618 million short-term investment is liquid in nature.
This article was originally published on August 1, 2024 at 9:34 a.m. PT. It has been updated to include estimated revenues based on additional SEC filings. This article was updated on Friday at 4:31 p.m. PT after Aurora announced its final fundraising amount.
