Autonomous vehicles are having a moment, making it much easier for small businesses to raise money. Vay, a German startup offering remote-controlled rental cars, will receive $60 million in cash from Singaporean tech heavyweight Grab, the company announced on Monday.
The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of the year, could be followed by “an additional $350 million as joint milestones are reached in the first year,” Vay CEO Thomas von der Ohe wrote on LinkedIn.
The Berlin-based startup uses its technology and human operators to remotely drive rental cars to and from customers. Vay is not yet commercially deployed in real-world traffic in Germany, where regulations lacked clarity until recently, but the company is currently operational in Las Vegas, where it launched in January 2024. Vay now plans to use Grab’s investments to scale and expand its operations in the United States.
Vay will need to complete certain milestones in the US to unlock additional investment from Grab, including the number of US cities covered, regulatory approvals obtained and overall consumer revenue.
The United States is experiencing increased competition and a rapidly expanding offering of various forms of remote driving. For example, Alphabet-owned Waymo recently announced that it would roll out its robotaxi service to Detroit, Las Vegas and San Diego.
Although listed on Nasdaq, Grab does not operate in the United States, where it will be limited to supporting Vay’s growth.
However, Vay describes driverless car rental as complementary to robotaxis. As for Grab, it sees Vay as serving “a growing segment of consumers who prefer not to be car owners,” Anthony Tan, co-founder and CEO of Grab, said in a press release.
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Vay customers may not own cars, but they still need a driver’s license: once the car is delivered, the user takes over and drives it like a regular car. But unlike their own car, they don’t need to find where to park it. Vay says its service costs about half the price of ridesharing, thanks to this hybrid approach and hardware-light system.
At the same time, the two companies plan to explore synergies between Vay and Grab’s businesses in Southeast Asia. Calling itself “the app for everything,” Grab’s ubiquitous super-app offers all-in-one taxi, ride-hailing, transportation, express grocery and food delivery options, as well as digital payments and financial services.
With growing interest in mobility, Grab has recently invested in autonomous driving technology startups, including May Mobility in the United States and WeRide in China. The synergies found with Vay could well be on the technology side – for example, he said that driving data collected by Vay could accelerate the training of AI models to improve autonomous driving.
It also aligns with Vay’s vision to become more than a fleet of electric rental cars. The company has already expanded into commercial and business-to-business services and has partnered with autonomous truck company Kodiak Robotics. Ultimately, it aims to build a “global remote driving platform,” von der Ohe told TechCrunch earlier this year.
According to Crunchbase, Vay had raised $131.8 million from backers including Kinnevik, Coatue, Eurazeo, Atomico, General Catalyst, Creandum and the European Investment Bank. If fully unlocked, Grab’s investment would represent a significant boost. But with Nvidia announcing plans to invest $500 million in British autonomous technology startup Wayve, the race has only just begun.
