Aurora Innovation Inc., an autonomous driving startup that exited stealth just over a year ago, today revealed that it has secured a mammoth $530 million funding round from a who’s who of technology investors.

Famed venture capital firm Sequoia Capital led the consortium. It was joined by Amazon.com Inc., Wall Street heavyweight T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and a half-dozen other institutional backers. The round reportedly gives Aurora a valuation north of $2.5 billion, making it one of the most valuable independent players in the autonomous driving market.

The funding puts the industry spotlight on a startup that has mostly kept its work under wraps. There’s hardly any publicly available information on Aurora’s self-driving platform other than the fact it’s designed for passenger cars and uses Nvidia Corp. silicon. Nevertheless, the credentials of Aurora’s management team have helped it stand out from the pack.   

Aurora is led by Chief Executive Officer Chris Urmson, a former assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University who led development on Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving car project. This project would later evolve into an independent business unit, Waymo LLC, that today is seen as the front runner in the autonomous driving market.

Urmson’s two co-founders are also prominent industry figures. Chief Technology Officer Drew Bagnell was previously a lead engineer with Uber Technologies Inc.’s self-driving car group, while Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson worked at Tesla Inc. as the head of its Autopilot unit.

The founders’ impressive credentials have helped Aurora not just with fundraising but also on the business front. The startup maintains partnerships with several major automakers, including Hyundai Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG, which reportedly tried to acquire it at one point.

The fact that Aurora has managed to catch Amazon’s attention is even more notable. The new $530 million round marks marks the first time the online retail giant has publicly invested in the self-driving car market, which amounts to a significant endorsement.

It also suggests Amazon may be interested in Aurora’s technology. The company recently debuted a homegrown delivery robot and has been experimenting with using drones to ship items to customers. Both initiatives will require Amazon to build autonomous navigation software, an area where it might potentially partner with Aurora to speed up development. Such a collaboration might help the company gain an edge over the other players in the nascent autonomous delivery market segment. 

Photo: Aurora